What does Public Policy mean the meaning
has changed over the years.
The creation of the policy sciences (the study of
policy as a field) is closely associated with the
work of Harold Lasswell (writing in the 1950s).
Lasswell argued that the science of policy had
three distinct characteristics that set it
apart from other disciplines:
it would/should be:
- multi-disciplinary
- problem solving
- normative
1. multi-disciplinarypolicy sciences would
break from the narrow study of political
institutions and structures and embrace the
work and findings of fields such as
sociology, economics, law and politics
2. problem solvingpolicy science would
adhere to a strict canon of relevance,
orienting itself towards the solution of real
world problems and not engaging in purely
academic and often sterile debates
3. normativepolicy science should not be
cloaked in the guise of scientific
objectivity, but should recognize the
impossibility of separating goals and
means, or values and techniques, in the
study of government actions
1. While the emphasis on a multi-disciplinary
approach remains, there is now a large body of
literature focused on PP specifically. PP is now a
discipline in and of itself with its own set of
concepts, concerns, and a vocabulary and
terminology all its own
2. Over the past 50 years the virtual exclusive
concern with concrete problem solving has
waned. Lasswell intended for the policy
sciences to generate conclusions and
recommendations to solve existing social
problems; although this was a laudable
concept government officials proved to be
intractable and resistant to advice from
professionals.
3. Finally, the call for policy sciences to remain
strictly normative or prescriptive was called
into question
- refers to the actions of government and
the intentions that determine those
actions
- is whatever governments choose to do
or not to do (Thomas Dye)
- a set of inter-related decisions taken by
a political actor or group of actors
concerning the selection of goals and the
means of achieving them within a
specified situation where those decisions
should, in principle, be within the power
of those actors to achieve (Jenkins, 1978)
Policy is a special kind of response, the central ordering
element of which is an explicit statement of intent
regarding future actions.
The policy response concept denotes what the agencies do in
responding to environmental and structural stimuli. This
concept is subdivided into policy statements, policy
actions, and policy results.
a policy statement is the intent of the government to do
something about some issue
a policy action is what an agency does to accomplish the goals
identified in the statement
a policy result is what happens in the environment (or, less
importantly, in the structure) following the agencys efforts
to achieve the goal identified in the statements.
1) Rhetorical attention (attention given to specific programs
and agencies) [i.e. paragraph/page counts of testimony
presented by agency personnel at hearings, agency
reports, administrators speeches, etc.]
2) Planning actions [number of formal plans announced by
agency]
3) Acquisitive Actions [number of authorization statutes &
amendments enacted; # of executive orders, department
delegations, amount of appropriations, new personnel
granted, acquisition of physical resources]
4) Implementing actions [ disbursal of resources: expenditures,
grants, loans, personnel assigned; directives issued,
directives enforced (cases); information collected and
disseminated by agency; contractual relations entered into,
etc.]
language under god
Administrative enforcing traffic laws-Orange
Co.
Legislative written statutes
Executive executive orders, vetoes,
appointments
Judicial deciding to hear a case, interpreting
the law, written decisions
Symbolic concurrent resolutions (HCR029
Idaho Napoleon Dynamite)
nondecisions
-some are very complex and others are quite
simple
-they all agree that public policies result from
decisions made by government
-some take into account the intentions
behind a government action
Our approach in this class, is to follow Dyes
definition, which is PP is whatever
governments choose to do or not to do.
Dyes definition makes a crucial distinction
concerning public policy.
That government action, legislated and
written into law is but one form of public
policy.
Another form of public policy, are the many
un-codified, non-legislated actions of
government that are in themselves a form
of public policy. In other words,
governments decision not to address a
particular policy area, is essentially public
policy; we may call it non public policy.
1. Public policies are constantly changing as they're
shaped and reshaped modified and changed and
sometimes rejected for new policies
2. Public policy must be inferred from the actions and
behavior of the many government agencies and
officials involved in policy making over time
3. Policy is a process, or an historical series of
intentions, actions, it is not something that can be
captured by pulling out a single event or decision
4. Policy is complex in that it takes place on multiple
levels
5. Policy is an analytic category used by researchers and
social scientists who study government activity
