CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: PUBLIC POLICY

18.1 Policy as a bundle of decisions and as an intention to decide similarly in the future. Analytical (not chronological) stages of the policy process (p. 367).

18.2 Three models of policy-making: rational, incremental and the garbage-can. How the significance of goals varies between these models (pp. 368-70).

18.2 Initiation and formulation: in the USA, the role of policy entrepreneurs in exploiting policy windows. More controlled agendas in other democracies and the EU (pp. 370-72).

18.3 Implementation: top-down and bottom-up approaches. The knowledge uniquely available at street level (pp. 372-73).

18.5 Evaluation: the problems of mushy goals and of goal-shift during implementation. Policy outputs vs. outcomes. Naturalistic evaluation (pp. 373-74).

18.6 Review: continue, revise or terminate? Functions persist, even though many agencies don’t (p. 374-75).

18.7 Policy instruments: tools for translating policy into practice. Many available: can be grouped into command and control; financial; and advocacy. Criteria for policy selection: effectiveness (will it work?), efficiency (at what cost?), equity (is it fair?), appropriateness (does the instrument fit the problem?) and simplicity (is it manageable?) (pp. 375-76).

18.8 Regulation as a key policy instrument in contemporary liberal democracies. Co-regulation, self-regulation and regulatory capture. The influence of American independent regulatory agencies. Informal, cooperative regulation vs US-style rules-based regulation. (pp. 376-81).

18.9 Public policy in authoritarian regimes: policy takes second place to politics as the regime seeks to maintain its position through patronage and rent-seeking, leading to policy inertia. The nature and limits of planning under communism. The blinkered nature of the big push. Contemporary China: an expansion of the non-state sector but even so wealth still flows from politics (pp. 381-82).

18.10 Public policy in illiberal democracies: strong political control of key economic resources, particularly commodities, with a freer market in less sensitive sectors of the economy. The populist leader both draws on, and claims he is the only means of overcoming, the glaring gap between the poverty of the many and the wealth of the few. Problems of capacity-building, both public and private, especially in the smaller illiberal democracies of Africa and Latin America (pp. 382-84).

<< back to Chapter notes list