1 / 18

POL 358 Week 2

POL 358 Week 2. Public Policy and the Environment Issues and Perspectives. Today’s lecture. Overview of public policy The 5 Ws Environmental policy making and assessment. New issues and trends. Public Policy Definition.

garrett-potts
Download Presentation

POL 358 Week 2

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. POL 358Week 2 Public Policy and the Environment Issues and Perspectives

  2. Today’s lecture • Overview of public policy • The 5 Ws • Environmental policy making and assessment. • New issues and trends

  3. Public Policy Definition “ A course of action or inaction chosen by public authorities to address a given problem (or opportunity) or set of interrelated problems.” (Pal, Ch 1) Q: Key policy issues for Canada?

  4. Public Policy Rationale • Public policies provide guidance for governments and accountability to citizens. • Demonstrate intent and provide a way to measure effectiveness of government. • Counter market/social failures and problems (PE debate). • Reduce the number of ad-hoc/haphazard decisions. • Take actions in the ‘public interest’ (contested).

  5. Public Policy • Ways to study • The process • The outcomes (evaluation) • The actors • The issues • Normative vs positive policy analysis • Rational/linear/deductive vs complex/contextual/inductive

  6. Levels of policy/ policy analysis • Local/Municipal • Provincial • National • International

  7. Public Policy • Who makes public policy? • Policy communities/networks • Bureaucrats • Courts • Elected officials • Domestic/international actors • The public, civil society, NGOs

  8. Agenda-setting • “Out of the set of all conceivable subjects or problems to which officials could be paying attention, they do in fact seriously attend to some rather than others. So the agenda-setting process narrows this set of conceivable subjects to the set that actually becomes the focus of attention.” (Kingdon, 1984: 3-4)

  9. Problem/Issue Definition • All problem definitions have a causal character. • In the story of what the problem is we have ideas about why we got there. • Shaped by values, by philosophies, ideologies. • Not just a matter of ‘simple’ problem identification and efficient solving.

  10. Types of Reasoning (Pal p.17)

  11. Science and Policy • The difficulty with ‘facts’ and ‘experts’- whose experts?. • Tension between bureaucracy and scientists. • Diversity of opinions between scientists. • Trust, uncertainty and authority (black box). • Principle-agent problems. • Rent-seeking behaviour.

  12. Considerations for tools • What tools exist; • What is acceptable (culturally, financially, NAFTA, separation of powers); • What is feasible; and • What you think will work.

  13. Policy Evaluation • Criteria for evaluation and problem definition are very important. • Consistency is a real issue- internal, vertical, horizontal. • Common tools of measurement • Quantitative/Qualitative • GDP growth • Job creation/Employment figures • Good policy analysis is: • Self critical/aware of bias. • Systematic.

  14. Trends affecting Public Policy • Globalization of the economy and of trade. • Internationalization of environmental and nature protection. • Privatization and a changing understanding of the role of the state. • Participation of stakeholders and the public. • Influence of non-governmental organizations in public decisions. • Diversification of society’s demand for goods and services.

  15. Environmental Policy • Problem definition - what’s the issue? • Security, health, economic, social, moral. • Policy communities/actors • Jurisdictional issues • Policy analysis tools (old and new) • Challenges • Interdisciplinarity (Howlett) • Intertemporality (Fuji-Johnson) • Uncertainty (Beck)

  16. Summary • Ethical rationale for environmental policy: • Enlightened self-interest. • Obligation as a member of community. • Public policy • Study of what governments do, and • The ideas which inform the ‘possible’ and define the issues. • QUESTIONS?

More Related