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KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY

KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY. LECTURE 1 Readings: Parsons, pp. xv-xviii, 1-16 ; Goldhamer, p. 7-27. Agenda. Topic: What is public policy? Website: http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~myildiz/. Goldhamer Historical Background: WHY. Good decision-making dominates material force

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KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY

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  1. KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY LECTURE 1 Readings: Parsons, pp. xv-xviii, 1-16; Goldhamer, p. 7-27.

  2. Agenda • Topic: What is public policy? • Website: • http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~myildiz/

  3. GoldhamerHistorical Background: WHY • Good decision-making dominates material force • “Information is power” • Ruler as a lonely and isolated (wo)man • Providing political wisdom and moral instruction • The leaders’ dependance on advisors • Especially when they are young & inexperienced

  4. Historical Background: WHAT • The Advisor • Definition • No well-established meaning • Not strictly defined by law or custom • Teaching kings what to do and what not to do • Great variety of roles • Friend, educator, conscience, eyes & ears, executor...

  5. Historical Background:WHO • Man of religion as moral and political advisors • Separation of the favorite & mistress from the advisor • Clashes between these groups • Today, the mass media become the critics and admonishers of political leaders

  6. Historical Background: HOW • Tasks of the Advisor • Advising on specific problems of public policy • Educating the leader in a way to improve his/her own judgement and knowledge • Criticizing the leader’s own ideas and plans

  7. Historical Background: HOW • The word “wazir” derives from the words “help”and “load” (Ibn Khaldun) • Help carry the rulers’ burdens • Close personal relationship with the ruler • Oral and/or Oral Advice • E.g. “Mirrors of Kings”: Books of Instruction • Need for governing information • Advisors may filter and interpret information reaching the political leader • Establishment of spy networks

  8. ParsonsPublic Policy Studies • Interdisciplinary (multi-disciplinary) • Integrates knowledge from different disciplines • Public adm., political science, sociology, psychology, economics & management • Multi-method • Qualitative and quantitative • Problem-focused, action-oriented • Analyzes public choices & decision-making • We expect governments to have policy

  9. What is public policy? • Focuses on the public & its problems • What governments do, why they do it & what difference it makes? • How issues & problems are defined & constructed • How they are placed on the political & policy agenda

  10. PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK • What is a public? • The idea of public policy presupposes that “ there is a sphere or domain of life which are so designated as public, as opposed to private”. • The public comprises that dimension of human activity which is regarded as requiring governmental or social regulation or intervention, or at least, common action. • People as a whole • “Res publica” in Romans: the “public thing”: Buildings, property, funds and other physical resources involved in the performance of public office vs. “Res priva” • Public versus Private • Different but related

  11. Public Polis Freedom Male Equality Immortality Open Private Household Necessity Female Inequality Mortality Closed Hannah Arendt’s Analysis of the Dichotomy in Greeks

  12. PUBLIC • Not only government units and officers • Elected, appointed and contracted • Public purposes of non-governmental actors • Hospitals and schools built by private persons and firms (e.g. public-private partnerships) • Elements of civil society • Member serving organizations: e.g. Political parties • Public serving organizations: TEMA • E.g. Reports of associations

  13. PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK • What distinguishes public problems? • Scale/ Bigness: Problems confronting whole populations • Complexity: Many different views and preferences • Actors: • Public, Private and Civil Society Sectors; and multiple combinations • Question: How much government is required?

  14. ACTORS OF PUBLIC POLICY Use of various combinations • Three sectors compete & cooperate for doing public work • How much government is required? At which level?

  15. Kaynak: B. Ayman Güler, http://politics.ankara.edu.tr/~bguler/kytk-semasi.pdf, (26.02.2007)

  16. YÖNETİM BİRİMLERİ (2008) • Taşra Birimleri • 81 İl • 850 İlçe • Yerel Yönetim Birimleri • 81 İl • 3.215 Belediye • 16 Büyükşehir Belediyesi • 35.000 Köy

  17. POLICY PROCESS • What is it? • A cyclical problem-solving activity • Analytical, legislative, budgetary and administrative steps • Why is it complicated? • Diverse population, many stakeholders • Frame the issues differently • Special-interest groups; • Different priorities, gridlock • How to discover the collective will in diversity?

  18. POLICY CYCLE In the real world, there are no defined or distinct phases.

  19. Different Approaches to Government Involvement • Thomas Hobbes 17th C. • `Leviathan` • Adam Smith, 18th C. • `The Wealth of Nations` • Invisible hand • Alexis De Tocqueville, 19th C. • `Democracy in America` • Power of associations

  20. Limited Involvement Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Invisible hand Government is best when it does the least The aggregate of people’s self interests make up of the public interest (clear distinction & well-defined boundary) Larger Involvement Hobbes Public order Reasons Externalities Monopolies Imperfect Information Some Actions Break up monopolies Degree of Government Involvement in Economy

  21. Historical Development • Woodrow Wilson (1880s) • Distinction between politics & administration • Bureaucracy as a defender of public interest • Weber (Early 1900s) • Bureaucratic rationality • Simon & Lindblom • Irrationality & bounded-rationality • Public choice/ New Right literature • Bureaucrats have distinct goals of their own • The relationship between public & private is best defined by the market & freedom of choice

  22. Harm, Utility & Market Failure Criteria • The private is that sphere which did no harm to others (J. S. Mill) • The greatest happiness to the greatest number (Mill & Bentham) • The role of the state is to manage the public and its problems so as to deal with those aspects of social & economic life which markets are not capable of solving (Keynes, Roosevelt-New Deal)- 1950s to 1970s

  23. New Right • After the “stagflation” of the 1970s, beginning from the 1980s: New Right • The attempt to use public policy to promote the public interest was wrong (Hayek & Friedman) • New Right’s recipe is to expand the use of the market mechanism • New Public Management”

  24. Some reasons of why we need government intervention • Externalities • Public Goods • Monopolies • Imperfect Information

  25. PUBLIC GOODS

  26. How to “sell” policy to the public? • Policy involves creating a plausible story which secures the purposes of the policy maker. • In liberal democratic systems, political elites have to give rational reasons for what they propose or what they have done. • Claim of legitimacy

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