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48 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Civil Rights Policy
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What is it: Violation of the 14th Constitutional Amendment- equal protection under the law. Discrimination- -ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender.
Areas: employment housing, education, and service delivery. Examples: Affirmative Action, Gay Marriage |
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Criminal Justice Policy
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How Government responds to criminal activity
CJ Policy developed by legislative bodies: at every level of govt. Implemented by: fed & state courts, FBI, State Hwy Patrols, federal and state prisons, county dist. attorneys & city police dept. |
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Economic Development Policy
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Goal: to enlarge the number of private sector jobs
How: strengthening business, increasing tax receipts, enhancing business productivity, improve the quality of life in communities |
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Education Policy
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3 Principles:
>Free & universal -educ to 12th grade > control over public schools centered on local level of govt. > publicly provided higher edu. should primarily be a state level responsibility |
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Foreign Policy
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What is it: how Americans relate to other regions and other countries
Goal: preserve national security, maintain world peace, promote US economic interests Who is responsible: Defense & State Depts. |
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Foreign Policy 3 Competing Views
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Isolationism: US should not get involved in foreign conflict. Should only concern ourselves with US problems
Unilateralism: US should act alone to to protect its interest in the world Multilateralism: enrich interests by working cooperatively with other nations and even compromise democratic principles to resolve world problems |
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Social Welfare Policy
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Began : 1930 to help the less fortunate
What is it: a broad category: disability policy, healthcare policy, employment policy, Programs: are the Safety Net: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF |
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Social Welfare Policy 2 Issues
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Too large- people think that safety net is too large allowing for able bodied to suck resources from govt.
Too small- people think safety net is too small and civil society should provide an expansive range of services and programs for the disadvantaged |
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Policymaking
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What is it: citizens depending on elected and appointed officials to develop public policy on their behalf
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3 reasons it's hard for Public Officials to influence the policy process
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1) Federalism and the constitutional system of checks and balances constrain official influences ( for example feds can not order states to adopt the death penalty)
2) Not enough time: elected officials spend almost 1/2 of their time campaigning for reelection 3) Constitutional gaurantees and statutes/rules affect the action of public officials (Bill of Rights, term limits Freedom of Information act prevents govts from destroying public records) |
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Policy Development- 2 ways Public Officials approach it
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Trustee Approach- do whatever they think is in the best interest of the public even if majority of public disagrees
Delegate Approach: acts as substitute for the voters who elected him |
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2 Paces of Policymaking
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SLOW- the decisionmaking process is slow because of analysis, attention to detail
FAST-officials must make immediate decisions when natural disasters occur such as floods, earthquakes or when terrorists attacks, riots, airplane crashes. Careers are determined by how well or poorly perform/respond to crisis situation. |
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Methods of Influence
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What is is it: it's the extent to which public officials can exert influence over public policy that distinguishes them from average citizens.
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Policy Design
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What is it: a method of influence. Refers to conceptualizing and structuring, pub policy to define a problem, formulate a solution and develop support for its approval, determines administrative implementation and specifies the focus of implementation and evaluation
Why: the most meaningful because it is the creation of public policy. every branch and level of govt is involved. Chief Execs design pub policy and run for office on the basis of proposed designs. Once in office it is their job to achieve their policy objectives. Example: Bush and Secretary of state used federal money to buy troubled assets of banks in 2008 to prevent collapse of major financial institutions |
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Legislators and Public Policy
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- their obligation to make laws
- when they submit a bill policy design is reflected in teh provision of the legislation Example: Through legislative bill NY police dept given authority to ticket car alarms that go off for three minutes. City council designed the public policy. |
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Judges and Public Policy
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-Develop policies when the interpret law and resolve disputes
-define meaning of statutes Example: through the ruling of Edward v. Aquillard where they struck down a Louisina law that required teachers to teach equal time devote time to creation science as to evolution science, this ruling establish educational policy in public schools |
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Administrators & Public Policy
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- Comm. of Federal Reserve design economic policy by increasing and lowering interest rate
-Govt Corps for example design turnpike initiatives for new roadways and proposing most efficient routes |
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Characteristics of Policy Design
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-public officials make it difficult to agree and come together on common interests
- difficult- most bills introduced by legislators do not become law -long history of contractual commitments, making it hard to develop new formulations |
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Budgets
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What is it: a method of influence- the taxing and spending functions of government give public officials with another tool to shape policy.
Example: raising taxes on one segment of the public or giving financial assistance to another is a way to gain support for reelection |
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Issues with Budget
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- Budgetary policy making is challenging because
-lots of people involved in process -complex process hard to come to concensus -individual influence is limited because it is a product of negotian and compromise |
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Organizational Design
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What is it: a method of influence, to effect the implementation process of policy , Public Officials can create reorganize or abolish departments
Example: govt. can reorganize responsibility of Aids education programs from health dept to education department |
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Personnel Approval
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What is it: a method of influence, public officials appointing people to adminis. positions to carry out their policies
Example: NY Mayor has teh power to appoint 1000 people to city agencies. |
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Issues with Personnel Approval
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- limit on executive appts. because leg. branch must must approve nominees
-extent to which the chief exec can depend on an appoint dept head to control his/her dept. -political appointees over time may begin to shift their loyalty from chief exec to dept. itself |
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Investigations
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What is it: method of influence, public officials order investigations of any aspect of govt, findings of investigations are used to propose new policies, recommendations for structural changes etc.
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Issues with Investigation
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- recommendations are often the responsibility of another part of govt. making it difficult to implement them
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Blowing-the-Whistle
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What is it: a method of influence, an employee who publicly discloses information about illegal or improper govt action. Public Officials have to respond to it making it an effective means of influence.
Example: FBI agent exposed the fact that the agency had information regarding plans to use airplanes as a form of terrorism prior to 9/11 but agency didn't do anything about this knowledge. |
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Issues with Blowing-the-Whistle
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- many are lower level admin employees can be ostracized
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Research & Analysis
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What is it: a method of influence, public officials use the info to influence what people think about problems, solutions and admin. actions,
Example: Head Start study found little difference in those kids who attended HS and those who didn't so Nixon slashed the HS budget and said program was a failure. Program was hanging on a limb until new study done in 1980s showed HS did improve student aptitude which led to increase in funding for HS |
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Policy Research
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What is it:
-use of methodologies, propositions, and arguements to examine and judge public problems, solutions, programs and agencies. -It is part of the social sciences involving formulation of hypothesis and use of well defined methodologies -influence of research is related to whether it is objectively produced, methodologically correct, skillfully used by officials in the policy process |
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2 Important Research Methodologies
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1) Public Opinion Surveys- what citizens think about public policy
2) Cost-Benefit Studies- wether monetary costs of policies outweigh social benefits. |
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Issues with Research & Analysis
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- often not read or used to make public policy
- sometimes research is difficult to understand the jargon and statistics - people think research is biased - |
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Personal Persuasion
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What is it: a method of influence, use of personal persuasion to gain influence,
How:speeches, press conf., hand shakes, strategic appearance,. Officials use speech writers, image consultants, pollsters and press agents to boost their personal persuasion factor. Example: when President exerts influence through personal persuasion it is called the "bully pulpit" and makes a speech to persuade voters to vote for democrats who agree with him on public policy |
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Issues with Personal Persuasion
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- some officials lack charisma
-inherent in ones personality to an extent - does not work equally well in every circumstance - persuasiveness is lessened by publics distrust in govt. |
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Forms of Influence by Branch
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What is it: specific methods used by different branches of govt to influence public policy
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Forms of Influence by Executive Branch
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emergency powers in crisis situation
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Forms of Influence by Legislative Branch
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Constituent Service- assisting voters with govt. related problems
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Form of Influence by Judicial Branch
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Injunctions- a legal order requiring ind, group, or organization, to stop or start doing something, a short term solution
Example; they can order strikers to stop picketing |
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Intergovernmental Relations (IGR)
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What is it: a method of influence, one level of govt. influencing another level of govt, refers to the use of grants and mandates to encourage or require an entire unit of govt. to perform some activity or provide a special service.
Example: Fed Govt. tries to influence state and States try to influence localities. |
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Grants
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What are they: monies provided by one level of govt. to another for projects related to social programs and structural development like roads, buildings, etc,
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Mandates
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What are they: rules and standards directed by one level of govt. to another requiring implementation of programming or service
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Issues with Grants
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- excessive paperwork
- highly technical reporting requirements |
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Issues with Mandates
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- expensive to implement
-do not take into account local circumstances -take power away from sate and local govts. separation of powers less consequential |
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Public Policy
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What is it: end goal/s and means used to solve one or more public problems
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Policy Process
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What is it: a set of stages where policy is initiated, formulated, approved, implemented and evaluated.
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The 5 steps in the Policy Process
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1) Policy Initiation- identification and definition of a problem
2) Policy Formulation- proposed courses of actions to address problem 3) Policy Approval- formal enactment by elected offcials 4) Policy Implementation- policy carried out by govt. agency 5) Policy Evaluation- assessment of outcomes |
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Four Criteria in Policy Evaluation
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1) Efficiency (cost-benefit analysis)
2) Effectiveness- goal Achieved or not 3) Responsiveness- are people satisfied with it 4) Equitable- did people receive the same quantity of service |
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Public Policy & Government
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Primary purpose of Givt. is to formulate and implement public policies shaped by political process.
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5 things to know about Public Policy
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1) Public Policy is a complex process
2) Policies placed in categories as a means to understand them 3) 8 important methods to influence policy- policy design, budgets, organizational design, personnel approval, investigations, blowing the whistle, personal persuasion, research & analysis, 4) Every branch of Govt. has certain methods of influence unique to it 5) Grants and Mandates are the principal means for one level of govt. to influence another |
