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54 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Stone: Symbols
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- a symbol is anything that stands for something else
- narrative stories explain how the world relies on symbols a) Classic story of decline - good, becomes worse, than unbearable (jobs, climate). Variation involved progress as an illusion b) Story of helplessness and control - we control the previously uncontrollable - Ambiguity- symbols mean 2 things, can benefit 2 people for different reasons |
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Edelman: Symbols and Political Quiescence
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- policies severely denying resources to large numbers of people vs. policies that dont affect resources
- are symbols used for major issues or minor issues? - symbols can turn major issues into minor ones - symbols function as a reassurance that threats are controlled - symbols can comfort or distract groups - all are true unless incumbent cast very unpopular vote - symbols are countered: 1. when they are decoded 2. by other symbols 3. when facts denote the symbols |
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Edelman: The Political Spectacle
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- people involved in politics are symbols for other observers, they stand for ideologies, values, etc.
- symbols become the facet of experiencing the real world, that gives it a specific meaning - whoever has better symbol will win - symbols are discredited with facts - symbols help policy makers see issue in a new light and allow them to move to solutions - symbols may also be misleading and result in bad policy - can provide moral certainty or ambiguity |
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Auto Industry
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Specific Problem:
American auto cant keep up with foreign products Solution: GM and Ford pay back loans. Business partners overseas |
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Divided Government
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- Difficult to assign credit and blame
- Mayhew: no difference between legislation passed in divided or unified government - status quo bias, people like what is already intact - difficult budget decisions - not all same party members vote the same - a President's unilateral actions, bureaucrats, courts, and localities make policy when government is in gridlock |
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Institutions of Influence
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Congress
- delay - advance public interest - create budgets - pass laws - hold hearings - approve appointments - override vetos President - sets agenda - pressures Congress - Exec. orders or signing statements - veto - appointments |
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Fiorina; Congress- Keystone of the Washington Establishment
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- Congressmen are the alpha and omega
- primary goal of Congressmen is reelection (Mayhew) - Congress will therefore engage in law making, porkbarreling, and patronage - some Congressmen stimulate demand for complexities in order to fix it and look good later - Particularism: looking out for district, themselves, before the nation |
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Closing G-Bay
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Problem:
-human rights? Solution: - try criminals and hold them in ICC (Hague, Netherlands) - max security prisons in US |
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Wildavsky: The Two Presidencies
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- one president for domestic affairs, one for foreign affairs
- president has more power in foreign affairs - congress may avoid international influence to avoid blame - president may avoid domestic issues because they could be disastrous for his image - opinions are easier to gauge in domestic affairs because we have stable structure |
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Neustadt: Presidential Power
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- unspecific powers are important as well
- presidential power is the power to persuade - president's persuade congress through exchanges, incentives, and patronage - president can influence policy through executive orders, vetoes, appointments, etc. - Example: Prez Clinton persuaded Conservative Dem from PA to go against district, and that passed Clinton's budget (she cried) |
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Kernell: Going Public
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- president will go over congress' head when...
1) public agrees with the president 2) when congress refuses to act - relative positions of congress, president, voters, and the issue all matter (number line) - congress can go public as well - study shows president affects foreign issues more than domestic |
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Homeland Security
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Problem:
homegrown terror, outside terror becoming more prevalent, port security Solution: - better identify high risk storage/containers at ports - prescreen before US coast - new technologies |
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Dahl: A Preface to Economic Democracy
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- political liberty, political equality, and economic liberty are all in conflict with each other
- similar to Stone's Goals - political equality should be given precedent because it is necessary for freedom and also serves as means of protection and influence - signifies constant struggle over what America is and what it should be |
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Lindblom: Muddling Through
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In order to muddle through...
Rational Comprehensive Model - list all goals in order of importance - list all outcomes - rank outcomes according to values - adopt best policy Successive Limited Comparisons - consider most relevant goals - compare alternatives based on experiences in the past - choose policy, perhaps changing goals/objectives along the way - example: Oregon Health Care, Copenhagen Consensus Center - one way to muddle through is to rely on public opinion - policy is made and remade constantly through incremental adjustments |
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Wrongful Convictions
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Problem:
wrongfully convicted do not prosper in society after release Solution: - better technology - more funding for forensics - more compensation for jail time spent - regulation of confessions |
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Baumgartner and Jones: Agendas and Instability in American Politics
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- Lindblom is wrong!
- policy created through punctuated equilibria; periods of inactivity followed by big changes - when policy is too far out of line from public, big change is needed - example: Civil war, Populist reforms, New Deal, 1981 and 2001 tax cuts, Iraq war, Massachusetts Health Care Winners: - establish policy monopolies - institutional structure limits access to process - powerful supporting ideas (narrative stories) - Iron Triangles - power elites Losers: - continually change ideas - use new symbols - reform coalitions - seek open policy windows and electoral change - Getting public involved is difficult - we resist change b/c we like status quo too much - underlying changes: great cleavages in society, diverse groups, new ideas |
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Rubin: Public Budgets
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- incremental and dramatic changes play out through the budget
- nature of budgeting affects politics more generally - budgets affects whether or not it will be incremental or dramatic change - Example: PAYGO, 1990 ($ now or savings elsewhere to offset spent $) Process of Budget: - Prez submits budget - Congress tries to form resolution - Subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee try to reconcile caps with authorized programs - Spending bills passed on annual basis - difficult decisions |
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Implementation and Structure of the Bureaucracy
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Bureaucratic Activities:
- delivers mail, protects food supply, oversees student loans, runs veterans hospitals, fights wars, educates children, rehabilitates prisoners, collects taxes, approves drugs, protects the environment Paradox: public disapproves of big government but strongly approves of individual functions of the bureaucracy Structure of Bureaucracy: - organized by Legislative branch - headed by political appointees - hierarchical organization - some under gov. contract, some not |
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Concerns with the Bureaucracy
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Parkinson's Law:
work and personnel expand to consume all available resources Peter's Principle: people are promoted until they are no longer competent so we have a bunch of incompetents at the heads of organizations Niskanen's Theory: top bureaucrats seek to maximize total budget, so all bureaucracies are too large Concerns with Bureaucracies: 1. Lack of Accountability- (not elected) 2. Fear of Privatization-(not government regulated) 3. Unfair Treatment/Arbitrary Decision Making 4. Lack of Efficiency 5. Iron Triangles of power |
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Overcoming Concerns with the Bureaucracy
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Lack of Accountability:
- elected politicians have numerous levers of control over bureaucrats - agency heads appointed by president Fear of Privatization: - Congressional control over budgets - many have already been privatized - some benefits due to competition Arbitrary Decision Making: - Congress can hold hearings - Administrative and Procedures Act requires hearings, provisional rules, written records/evidence, reasons why alternates were rejected, any time new rule comes into play. If any are broken, the rule is overturned Lack of Efficiency: - all big orgs have efficiency errors - President can organize structure - balancing issues against each other can approximate efficiency Iron Triangles: - president controls resources, goals, and agencies - issue networks, not iron triangles |
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Gun Politics
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Problem:
intent of the 2nd amendment? Solution: - let ATF regulate restrictions - renew federal ban on assault weapons - grant all eligible people the right to bear arms |
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Affirmative Action
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- introduced by JKF in 1961
Solution: - take race out out and base action on socioeconomic status |
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Mexico's War on Drugs
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Solution:
stricter gun laws increased funding benefit the Merida initiative (training, equipment, and intelligence) |
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The Runaway Bureaucracy
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- bureaucracy has grown since WWII
- 150,000 pages per year - 600 new rules every year - perhaps Congressional oversight cannot keep up? - regulation comes through district, people go to their congressmen when they have problems with bureaucracy while congress only maintains big issues |
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Majone and Wildavsky: Implementation Failures
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Implementation may fail because...
- original plan was infeasable - bureaucrats are too busy - some policies change as they go - some policies are self enforced (smoking) - faithful (written law that may fail) vs. faithless translation (improvised, opinion of incumbent) - we want faithless for situations such as 3 strike laws |
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Policy Evaluation
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- only a few cases in which, given the information about evaluation of past experiences, policy decisions have radically changed
What gets on Agenda? - experts/entrepreneur's ideas What gets adopted? - lobbyist proposals - new and politically relevant ideas |
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Nachmias: Role of Evaluation in Process
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- evaluation can occur at any stage
- so much info that sometimes, politicians are better off ignoring evaluation information - legislative practice requires evaluation info, yet, it is not always used (NCLB, tobacco youth laws) - lots of methodologies |
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Middle Class Squeeze
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- Middle Class Task Force headed by Joe Biden
Solution: - tax relief for families with children - tax breaks for paying of debt - mutual funds |
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Legislative Checks on the Judiciary
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- appointment process
- change in court size/ jurisdiction - constitutional amendments |
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Statutory Interpretation
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- vague language may be easier to pass through congress
Textualist (Scalia) - strict interpretation - plain meaning - may be incomplete - does not account for the time Legislative History (Breyer) - original intent of founders - may be assumptions, manipulated |
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Role of the Judiciary
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Judicial Activism:
- courts interpret laws in such a way that they formulate new policy - Brown v Board, Roe v Wade Judicial Review: - courts power to declare a law unconstitutional - from Marbury v Madison |
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Discipline in Schools
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Problem:
school violence Solution: - fix NCLB - Federal Laws, not State Laws - fund SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) |
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Sabatier and Mazmanian: Effective Policy Implementation
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- without a theory of where problems come from, what policies fix them, and how to implement those policies, we can not have effective polcy
- to consider a policy a success, we should rank objectives - politicians may not rank objectives in order to not look bad if they fail Implementation Problems: - lack of financial resources - difficulty controlling hierarchical bureaucracies - local variation in targets of policy - too much or too little media coverage - disconnect between those adopting and those implementing Effective Policy Implementation: 1. unambiguous objectives 2. assigns it to agency which give it priority 3. sufficient incentives 4. sufficient finances 5. bias in favor of implementers |
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Stone: Polis and the Market
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Market- individuals pursue own wealth
Polis- community works for common good |
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Domhoff: Who Rules America now?
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Power elites rule America
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Kingdon: Agenda Setting
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1. Problem Stream
2. Policy Stream 3. Political Stream Policies occur when windows Open: change in political stream,crisis, triggering mechanism Close: change in political stream, lack of a good solution or successful enactment of solution |
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Stages of the Process
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1. Problem Recognition
2. Agenda Setting 3. Policy Formulation 4. Policy Adoption 5. Policy Implementation |
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Grabber: Processing the News
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- people are rationally ignorant
- pay attention to ideas that fit into our paradigm - people know enough about the news to make a moderately educated vote |
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Stone: Goals
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- goals determine what gets on agenda
Problems with goals: 1. Equity- treating likes alike 2. Efficiency- most output for input 3. Security- satisfaction of human needs 4. Liberty- do as you wish w/o harming others - perhaps fairness in process? - different definitions of equality (cake example) |
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Dahl: With Consent of All
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- why do we desire the consent of the governed?
- fairness in process - equal access v equal opportunity - pluralism |
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Iyengar and Kinder: News that Matters
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- studied people's reaction to news
- frequent or prominent news is most important - less educated people are more malleable - societal significance vs. audience interest |
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Truman: Group Politics
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Group behavior benefits politics in two ways:
1. Internally- benefits for members 2. Externally- influence - groups pressure gov. to act - given pluralism, there are many points of access |
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Iyengar and Kinder: Agenda Setting and Priming
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Agenda Setting- ability to focus on a certain subject (most serious subject in politics)
Priming- calling attention to specific aspects of policies while ignoring others (parties emphasize winning issues) |
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Theodoulou: How Policy Is Made
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- systemic vs institutional
- incremental vs punctuated equilibria - policy does not always achieve intended objectives, and often even produces unintended consequences |
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Stone: Preface and Intro
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- numerous paradoxes exist in process
- politicians can win by keeping an issues on the agenda longer - do businesses desire regulation? - support can vary by issue frame |
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Alternative Ways to View Process
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1. As a set of tradeoffs
2. As flowing from the Constitution |
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Miliband: Imperfect Competition
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- businesses enjoy huge superiority
- does this lead gov. to be unresponsive to the public? |
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Mayhew: Electoral Connection
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- Congressmen are single-minded seekers of reelection
1. Advertising 2. Credit Claiming 3. Position Taking - reelection goals leads to internal development of Congress - results in norm of universalism |
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Limits on Achieving Good Policy
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- lack of historical perspective
- limits on info and monitoring of current policies |
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Beard: An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution
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The constitution was not a result of the whole people working for common good but rather self-interest elites who saw benefits from its adoption
- self interests drive law making |
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Economics Focus
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- Policy that assumes markets are fairly efficient and that after initial structures are set up, that less regulation will allow enterprise to flourish.
- What happens if government fails? |
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Cobb and Elder: Issues and Agenda
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Systemic Agenda- draw public interest
Institutional Agenda- serious consideration by gov. Items enter Agenda through Triggering Mechanisms: Internal- change of political stream, crises or event, ecological change, technological change, growing imbalance External- war against US, war elsewhere, weapon advancement,, coalition change |
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Sabatier: Political Scientists vs. Public Policy
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Political scientists are more concerned with how politics work rather than influencing themselves with political outcomes
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Cahn: The Players
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- congress, the executive, courts, media, interest groups, consultants
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