Chapter 20: Policy-making by Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun

1. Chapter 20:Policy-makingby Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun Caramani (ed.) Comparative Politics Section V: Public policies

2. Chapter 20: Policy-making Introduction (1/1) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making Policies: Government statements of what it intends to do, including law, regulation, ruling, decision, or order (Birkland 2001). Public policy: A more specific term, which refers to a series of actions carried out to solve societal problems (Newton and van Deth 2005). • Public policies are the main output of the political system. By analysing the policy-making process, we gain a fuller understanding of the causes and consequences of policy decisions.

3. Chapter 20: Policy-making Conceptual models of policy-making (1/3) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making There are several complementary models of policy-making that clarify the relationship between politics and public policies: • Institutional model: • Public policies are determined by institutions, especially the relationship between the executive and the legislative power • Public policies are formulated and implemented only by the executive and the legislative • Policy-making seen as smooth technical process

4. Chapter 20: Policy-making Conceptual models of policy-making (2/3) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Rational model: • How can “optimal” policy decisions be reached? • Assumption of rational actors • Bayesian learning • Starting point for public choice / game theory • Incremental model: • Response to the rational model: Concept of “bounded rationality” • Limited changes to existing policies, incremental policy-process • No ideal, but realistic description of policy-making

5. Chapter 20: Policy-making Conceptual models of policy-making (3/3) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Group model: • Public policies are the result of an equilibrium reached in interest group struggle • Policy-makers are constantly responding to group pressures • Policy-changes triggered by changes in relative strength between interest-groups • Elite model: • Policy-making is determined by preferences of governing elites • Elites shape public opinions

6. Chapter 20: Policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: The policy cycle (1/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making Considering the main features of policy-making: • Multiple constraints • Various policy processes • Infinite cycle of decisions and policies It is convenient to analyse policy-making as a policy cycle. • The policy cycle (or process model): The policy-process is modelled as a series of political activities: • Agenda setting • Policy formulation • Policy adoption • Implementation • Evaluation

7. Chapter 20: Policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: The policy cycle (2/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Agenda setting: • The identification of a public problem: • Systemic agenda: All societal problems that demand public attention • Action agenda: Problems that are up for serious consideration of decision-makers • Agenda setting is done by different actors: • Public officials • The bureaucracy • Mass media • Interest-groups • Political parties and scientific communities • Agenda-setting is an important source of power  first mover • advantage

8. Chapter 20: Policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: The policy cycle (3/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Policy formulation: • The definition, discussion, acceptance, or rejection of feasible courses of action for coping with policy problems • Deals with the elaboration of alternatives of action c) Policy adoption: • The formal adoption to take on a policy • Policy adoption is determined by a number of factors, of which two are particularly important: • The expected costs/benefits of the policy • Reduction of the set of feasible policies by the necessity to build majorities (veto players)

9. Chapter 20: Policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: The policy cycle (4/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Implementation: • The conversion of new laws/programs into practice • The “black box” between policy adoption and policy outcomes • Quality of implementation depends on: • Policy type • Available resources for implementation • Federal or unitary state • Role of top bureaucrats (bureaucratic drift) • Evaluation: • Carried out to measure policy efficiency and effectiveness • Provides a feedback loop  powerful tool of policy-making process

10. Chapter 20: Policy-making The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles (1/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making The role of institutions: The main institutions are: • Electoral system • Executives and legislatives • The relationship between executive/legislative is of crucial importance in • policy-making. Lijphard (1999) differs between two types of democratic • systems: • Majoritarian systems (fusion of power between executive and legislative power) • Consensus democracies (sharing power, balancing executive and legislative power)

11. Chapter 20: Policy-making The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles (2/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making The role of cognitive and normative frames: • Cognitive frames: Schemes through which actors view and interpret the world • Normative frames: Values and attitudes that shape actors views • Normative and cognitive frames enable and constrain policy-making. Certain actors have a privileged role in policy-making as they generate and diffuse cognitive frames (mediators or policy-brokers).

12. Chapter 20: Policy-making The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles (3/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making National policy styles: Like the policy cycle, the concept of policy styles also serves as a useful heuristic tool for identifying common policy-making patterns among countries. The main idea is that nations matter for policy-analysis. However, empirically, there is a remarkable intra-national variation of policy styles.

13. Chapter 20: Policy-making The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles (4/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making There are several typologies of policy styles. According to Knill (1998) national policy styles are defined by two dimensions: • State intervention: • Hierarchical vs. self-regulation • Substantive vs. procedural regulation • Detailed requirements vs. open regulations • Administrative interest intermediation: • Formal vs. informal / legislative vs. pragmatic • Open vs. closed relationships between administrative and social actors

14. Chapter 20: Policy-making The role of international factors for domestic policy-making (1/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making International factors also have an influence on domestic policy-making. • Theories of policy diffusion: • Analysis of the spread of policies across political systems from a general perspective • Diffusion mainly affects the stage of agenda-setting, less policy-formulation • Theories of policy transfer: • - Analysis of singular processes of bilateral policy exchange • Governments do not learn randomly about policy practices, but through common affiliations, negotiations and institutional membership.

15. Chapter 20: Policy-making The role of international factors for domestic policy-making (2/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making • Policy convergence: Any increase in the similarity between one or more characteristics of a certain policy across a given set of political jurisdictions (Knill 2005). Theories of policy diffusion and transfer describe a process that might result in policy convergence. Since national policy processes are different, convergence is not necessarily the case.

16. Chapter 20: Policy-making The role of international factors for domestic policy-making (3/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making Mechanisms behind internationalization: • Imposition: • External political actor forces a government to adopt a certain policy • International harmonization: Member states engage voluntarily in international cooperation (negotiated transfer) • Regulatory competition: Homogenization as a result of competitive pressures (race to the bottom or race to the top) • Transnational communication: Mechanisms purely based on communication (drawing from available experience)

17. Chapter 20: Policy-making The role of international factors for domestic policy-making (4/4) Introduction Conceptual models of policy-making Analysing policy-making as a process: the policy cycle The importance of institutions, framing, and policy styles The role of international factors for domestic policy-making Empirical illustration: • Policy diffusion: • Climate policy instruments (e.g. emission trading systems) mainly through international harmonization • Policy transfer: • CEECs refugees policies through imposition by EU • Policy-convergence: • Environmental policies, mainly driven by transnational communication