Public Policymaking and Budgeting

1. Public Policymaking and Budgeting Chapter 17 CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

2. In this chapter you will: • Trace the five stages of public policymaking • Review the history of U.S. social policy, with attention to “entitlement” programs • Assess what counts as good policy including claims of fairness and economic efficiency • Learn how the federal budget process drives much of our domestic policymaking • Consider how U.S. policymaking could be reformed CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

3. Public Policy Making inFive (not-so-easy) Stages • U.S. policymaking involves five stages. Policies do not proceed neatly from one to the next, but the “stages” idea is a useful way of distinguishing among different actions carried out by policy officials. • The first of these stages is agenda setting, whereby concerns receiving widespread attention become policy issues. • A second stage is problem definition and framing, featuring debates about how to describe an issue and which solutions are most viable. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

4. Public Policy Making inFive (not-so-easy) Stages • A third stage is policy formation, a process of legislative and executive activity to develop the policy idea in concrete terms. • A fourth stage is policy implementation, marked by rulemaking and service delivery. • A fifth stage includes evaluation and policy feedback, steps that help determine whether a policy works—and that often start the debate all over again. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

5. U.S. Social Policy • Social policymaking in the United States is typically more controversial, and features less expansive coverage, than social policymaking in other advanced industrial nations. • Wars, along with severe economic downturns, have been major sources of expansions in American social policies across U.S. history. • Three large social programs—old-age insurance, or Social Security; unemployment insurance; and health/disability benefits, or Medicare and Medicaid—are especially significant in U.S. politics and government. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

6. Economic Policymaking:Fiscal and Monetary Policy • The U.S. government employs both fiscal policy and monetary policy to affect the economy. • Taxes and spending are the two main levers of fiscal policy. During economic downturns, Republicans prefer to enact tax cuts; Democrats favor spending programs. • The Federal Reserve is the main architect of monetary policy. By adjusting interest rates and the national supply of money, the Fed works to affect inflation and unemployment. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

7. Economic Policymaking:The Federal Budget Process • The U.S. budget process, when on schedule, runs from early February through October 1 and encompasses a presidential proposal, a concurrent budget resolution, and appropriations bills. • In practice, the process rarely runs on time, and various “fixes” like omnibus bills and continuing resolutions have been invented to keep the budget system functioning. • Although the details can be obscure, budget battles in Washington are almost always among the most dramatic features of U.S. policymaking because of the high stakes that are involved. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

8. Making Good Policy • Although everyone wants “good” public policies passed, Americans have a hard time agreeing on what constitutes those. • Moral arguments about equality and fairness in policymaking have declined in recent years, as attention to economic efficiency as a measure of a policy’s worthiness has grown. • One article of faith among efficiency advocates is that privatizing government programs enables more cost-effective and higher-quality services. But concerns about markets sorting out public policies also are evident: Just take a look at many popular American movies. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

9. Reforming U.S. Policymaking • System-wide policy change is frequently pursued by reformers, but it is very difficult to achieve in a United States that organizes its policymaking around separated powers. • Policy entrepreneurs, drawn from all walks of life, seek innovative solutions for public policies. The most successful among them tend to develop compelling narratives about their preferred issue, are willing to risk creature comforts to pursue policy change, and develop networks to diffuse and test their ideas. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

10. Reforming U.S. Policymaking • Although novel policies are hard to push through to completion, the contest over agenda setting and problem definition is relatively open. As in the business or the nonprofit sector, a persistent entrepreneur can realize rewards. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

11. Chapter Summary • Public policymaking inevitably involves choices: Should we reduce the interest rate on student-loan repayments? Launch a manned mission to Mars? Open formerly protected lands to oil and gas drilling? Understanding those choices is the essence of politics and government in America. • Five stages mark the process of devising domestic policies. These are not a blueprint for action, but most policy achievements pass through all these. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

12. Chapter Summary • Once a topic is on the agenda, it must be defined—What is this issue about?—and framed: How lawmakers and the public talk about an agenda item often determines whether it will move forward. • A third stage, policy formation, involves the legislative and executive activities that translate talk into concrete statutory language. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

13. Chapter Summary • Once a policy has been passed into law, it must be implemented, involving rulemaking and then delivery of public services. • Finally, policies are evaluated; once implemented, they create a feedbackprocess that affects future policymaking in that area. • Finally, policies are evaluated; once implemented, they create a feedbackprocess that affects future policymaking in that area. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

14. Chapter Summary • The largest U.S. policy programs, in terms of spending and numbers of people served, are social policies such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance. Longtime American resistance to big government helps to explain the slow growth of these and other social policies. That same resistance has encouraged a turn toward privatization—shifting public services to the private sector. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

15. Chapter Summary • Heightened attention to fiscal and monetary policy, combined with harder economic times, has elevated the importance of budgeting in American politics and government. The federal budget process is a complicated, slow-moving machine, which rarely meets its key deadlines—largely because the financial stakes are so high. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

16. Chapter Summary • Every stakeholder agrees on the importance of good public policies—but controversies will never end about what these are. Some measure “good” policy in moral terms of right and wrong; others prefer clearer metrics like economic efficiency, utilizing cost-benefit and related analyses. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING

17. Chapter Summary • Reform-minded groups and individuals seek change, both in the rules of the game (systemic changes) and in specific policy areas. Entrepreneurs who succeed tend to tell memorable stories, sacrifice comfort and resources to advance their policy efforts, and work collaboratively with like-minded reformers. Engaging in the policy process, though it moves slowly and incrementally, can be immensely fulfilling. CHAPTER 17: PUBLIC POLICYMAKING AND BUDGETING