California State University Long Beach

Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration

Summer 2002, Third Session

PPA 590 WOMEN & PUBLIC POLICY

POLICY FORMULATION

            Public policy problems are those that center on a human need, deprivation, or dissatisfaction, either self-identified or identified by others, for which relief is sought from government. Public problems are those which have broad effects or consequences. Policy actors include executives, legislatures, judiciary, boards and commissions, citizens, groups, administrators, professionals, etc.

Policy formulation as a process is influenced by:

1) previous bills, legislation, acts, decisions, etc., so that it may be harder to change or terminate existing laws than to create new legislation where none existed before.

2) commitment by the policy actors, e.g., President Johnson’s war on poverty, President Kennedy’s space exploration drive, or whoever can mobilize necessary support quickly

3) institutional barriers, for example, in Congress most legislation must pass through two or three committees; passage requires a majority (either half or two-thirds) which makes it easier to defeat a bill than to obtain passage due to weak political party control; favors an essentially conservative strategy (don’t create anything new); two-thirds is required to override a presidential veto, etc.

4) resource scarcity in terms of time, funding, previous commitments, information, staff, public acceptance, etc.

5) tendency to be incremental, conservative, slow to act; preserves the status quo

The Bureaucracy:

            has the expertise; is willing to act; will set up new programs; can implement new programs; and is professional. However, it is also locked into established procedures, wants to keep the issue for itself, likes new programs that resemble existing ones, wants to increase the agency budget and personnel, and has a limited vision of the range of options.

Think Tanks:

            generally specialize in only one type of policy tool; have loyalty to some aspects of the bureaucracy (may only say what it thinks government officials want to hear); has a revolving door between government officials and members of the think tank;

Interest Groups:

            Can represent specific interests (gun control) which are often conservative and incremental or general interests (ACLU, Common Cause, Center for the Public Interest) which are often aimed at policy reform and breaking up established power coalitions. Interest groups can persuade by explaining an issue; can promise to deliver the vote; can contribute to campaigns; can suggest technical solutions in areas in which they have expertise.

Congress:

            Subcommittee members develop expertise; expansive professional staff; difficult to tell whether they are just furthering their political career or interested in true problem-solving.

Policy Formulation requires

1) problem definition: little is known about the problem, lack of basic facts, lack of information about the causes and/or consequences of the problem

2) selecting a strategy (policy tool): routine or incremental response versus a conscious search for new alternatives or innovation. Routine problem-solving is policy-making as usual with small adjustments at the margin; Conditional problem-solving is based on the belief that policy will produce desired effects even if we do not know a lot about the situation or why the policy works; Crafting policy solutions occurs when accepted policy solutions are applied to new problems about which not much is known; and Creative problem-solving occurs when not much is known either about the problem or how a solution might work.

            The design of policy alternatives is both technical and political, involving inertia, tradition, feel, etc. Planned and rational approaches are not popular in the US; incremental approaches are preferred which do not threaten the power elites when there is no agreement on the problem definition, causes, solutions or policies (poverty, crime, education, drugs, etc.).

            Some alternatives are infeasible because of popular opinion; because they are not favored by elites; are disapproved of by policy analysts; fail to meet the approval of individual decision-makers with veto power; leaving only a small sub-set of alternatives for consideration.