The Policy-Making Process

The Policy-Making Process Chapter 17 P. 468-490

Arguments on How Policies are Made • Serve corporate interests • Marxist theory • Manage conflicts among groups • Pluralist theory • Sustain the bureaucracy • Weber • EXAMPLES • Oil companies • Got government to restrict imports—no longer • Preferential tax treatment—been reduced considerably • Government allowed them to drill anywhere—now restrictions offshore • Railroads • Regulation reduced their profitability • Autos • Once no controls—now many • Airlines • In the past regulations helped increase their profitability • No more • Electric utilities • Policies had no appreciable effect

Policy Making • Two stages • Placing an issue on the political agenda • Deciding what to do about the issue

Political Agenda • Issues that people believe require governmental action • Steadily expands as a result of • Historical crises • Interest group activity • Competition for votes • Operation of key institutions • Courts • Bureaucracy • Mass media

Setting the Agenda What is Legitimate for Government to do? Scope of Government Action Action by the States

Setting the Agenda • Political agenda • Issues that people believe require government action • Most important decision that affects policy making • WHAT to make policy about • Current political agenda includes • Taxes (Not till 16th Amendment 1913) • Energy (Not an issue till 1930s) • Welfare (Cities and towns should handle this) • Civil rights (Matter of private choice) • Shared beliefs determine what is legitimate for the government to do

Political AGENDA September 11, 2011, known ever after as 9/11, had a powerful effect on the agenda of American politics. This photo was taken one year after the disaster.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear Comedians Jon Stewart (right) and Stephen Colbert (left) sing on the Washington Mall October 30, 2010

“He who decides what politics is about runs the country.” E.E. Schattschneider The Semisovereign People 1960

Forces that Determine Legitimacy • Shared political beliefs • If poverty is caused by individual failure and not social forces then no need for government involvement • Custom and tradition • People accept what’s been done but are • Leery of new proposals • Impact of events • Alter people’s sense of proper role of government • Wars—most rapid growth • Depressions—unemployed, elderly, poor • Mining (or other) disasters—safety requirements • Hijackings—greater security measures • Changes in elites thinking

Scope of Government Action • Government always gets larger • People generally believe that government should continue to do what it is doing now • Changes in attitudes and events tend to increase government activities • Government growth cannot be attributed to one political party • “Big government” • Sustained by expanded beliefs about legitimacy • BothDemocrats and Republicans created bigness

Bigness • Gerald Ford—Slogan in Election of 1976 • Government big enough to give everything was also big enough to take away everything you have • Thought he was criticizing Democrats HOWEVER • Nixon • Imposed peace time wage and price controls • Proposed guaranteed annual income for every family • Eisenhower • Sent federal troops to Arkansas • Reagan • Federal payments to farmers grew to six times larger than in 1970s • Expansion of government is a result of a • NONPARTISAN process

Government Can Enlarge Without any Crisis • Widespread public demand • Auto safety standards 1966 • Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970 • Passed at a time when industrial deaths had been dropping for twenty years • Programs to combat poverty passed at a time when • Number of persons below the poverty line was declining • Affirmative action programs were introduced at a time when • Minorities were already making rapid progress

Reasons whyGovernment Adds Issues to the Agenda • Behavior of Groups • Corporations • Unions • Urban minorities • Workings of Institutions • Courts • Bureaucracy • The Senate • Opinions of Political Elites • Mass Media • Elite attitudes and government actions • Action of States

Groups • Behavior of Groups • May react to a sense of relative deprivation • Corporations • Organized interests • May work quietly behind the scenes • Unions • Federal safety laws governing factories • Urban minorities • Black riots in cities in mid-1960s

Relative deprivation • Citizens are most restless when they’ve started to become better off Alexis de Tocqueville

Institutions • Influence of Institutions • Courts • Make decisions that force action by other branches • Act as a tripwire setting off a chain reaction of events • Alters the political agenda • 1954 Brown • Preferred vehicle for advocates of unpopular causes • Roe 1973 • Bureaucracy—source of policy proposals and innovation • Professionalization of reform, Daniel Patrick Moynihan • LBJ’s Great Society • Federal aid to education, manpower development, Medicare, Medicaid, War on Poverty • All developed, designed and advocated by government officials, bureaucrats and political allies • The Senate • Chief among the political allies • An incubator of new policies • Source for political change rather than • What Founders intended—a balance wheel designed to moderate change • Source of presidential candidates with new ideas

Media • Opinions of Political Elites • Media • Help place matters on the political agenda • Publicize matters placed there by others • May stimulate congressional interest or • May merely report on what Congress decides to pursue • Elite attitudes and government actions • More volatile and interdependent • Change more quickly than popular attitudes

States • Actions by the States • National policy is increasingly being made by actions of state governments • Congress passes and adopts ideas pioneered by the states • “Do Not Call” law to reduce calls from salespeople after states had taken the lead on this • Attorneys General of states may sue a business firm and settle the suit with an agreement that binds the industry throughout the country • 1998 tobacco agreement between cigarette companies and some states • Companies raised prices • Agreed to pay states > $240 billion for states to use as they wished

Making a Decision Cost Benefit

What are the Costs and Benefits of a Particular Policy • Politics is a process of settling disputes over • Costs and Benefits of the new policy • Who benefits/pays and • Who ought to benefit/pay • People prefer government programs that provide substantial benefits to them at low cost

Cost • Burden people believe they must bear if a policy is to be enacted • Money or not • Taxes • Foreign policy initiative that may lead to war • Widely distributed cost • Spread over many, most or all citizens • Income tax • Social Security tax • High rate of crime • Narrowly concentrated cost • Limited to a small number of citizens or • Some identifiable, organized group • Expenditures by a factory to reduce pollution • Government regulations on doctors, hospitals • Restrictions on free speech to a dissident political group

Benefit • Satisfaction people believe they will enjoy if a policy is adopted • Monetary or nonmonetary • Payments • Subsidies • Contracts • Foreign policy • Enhanced security of the nation • Protection of a valued ally • Vindication of some important principle • Human rights • Widely distributed benefit • Spread over many, most or all citizens • Clean air • National security low crime rate • Narrowly concentrated benefit • Limited to a small number of citizens • Subsidies to farmers or merchant ship companies • Enlarged freedom to speak and protest afforded a dissident group • Protection against competition given to and industry because of favorable government regulation

Policy Advocates Highway safety was always a problem, but it became a national issue after policy advocates, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) emphasized it.

Two Aspects of Costs and Benefits • Perceptionof costs • Example—Auto emission controls • Paid by manufacturer or • Passed on to consumer in higher prices • Political conflict will depend on who the consumer thinks will pay for the change • Whether it is legitimate for the group to benefit • Aid to women with dependent children • Noncontroversial—widows and orphans • Controversial—recipients thought to be sexually loose women who had not married • Is beneficiary deserving?

Kinds of Politics Four Kinds of Coalitions Majoritarian Politics Interest Groups Politics Client Politics Entrepreneurial Politics

Kinds of Politics (Coalitions) • Majoritarian politics • Policy in which almost everybody benefits and pays • Interest group politics • Policy in which one small group benefits and another small group pays • Client politics • Policy in which one small group benefits and almost everybody pays • Entrepreneurial politics • Policy in which almost everybody benefits and a small group pays the cost

A Way of Classifying and Explaining the Politics of Different Policy Issues

Majoritarian Politics • Large number of people bear cost and benefit • Distributed benefits, distributed costs • Social Security benefits • Military Defense protecting the nation against attack • Government sponsored research for cures for cancer • Not dominated by pulling and hauling of rival interest groups • No incentive to join a group when you will benefit anyway • Free-rider problem • May be controversial but controversy is over • Cost or ideology NOT rival groups • Everyone wanted to reduce drug use • Controversy over whether death penalty for drug traffickers

Interest Group Politics • Small identifiable group will get benefit • Small equally identifiable group will bear cost • Concentrated benefits, concentrated costs • FOUGHT by Organized Interest Groups are powerful when regulatory policies confer benefits on one organized group and costs on another equally organized group • Examples • Labor-Business • 1935 labor unions sought government protection for their rights; business firms were in opposition • 1988 bill gave labor 60 day notice before plant closings • Labor unions benefitted • Business firms paid cost • Television broadcasters and cable companies • Who may send what kind of signals to which homes • Banks and insurance companies • Struggle between over the right to sell insurance • American Nazi Party wanting to march through Jewish neighborhoods carrying swastikas

Client Politics • Small identifiable groups benefits • Group receiving the benefits organized and worked to get the legislation • Everyone pays the cost • Most are usually unaware of costs and/or are indifferent to them because per capita they are small • Concentrated benefits, distributed costs • Examples • Farmers benefit from price supports • Consumer pays but not aware of how much higher the grocery bill is • National regulation of milk industry, sugar production, merchant shipping • Cities/Localities benefit from a dam, harbor, improved navigation • Pork-barrel projects

Pork-barrel LegislationLogrolling • Pork-barrel legislation • Gives tangible benefits to constituents in several districts or states in the hope of winning their votes in return • Client politics • Small group benefits • Everyone pays • Logrolling/Reciprocity • Process in which a majority coalition is formed by a • Legislator supporting a proposal favored by another in return for support of his/hers • Trading votes attracts other members of Congress

Entrepreneurial Politics • Society as a whole benefits • Small identifiable group pays substantial costs • Distributed benefits, concentrated costs • Relies on entrepreneurs to galvanize public opinion and mobilize congressional support • Examples • Consumer and environmental protection statutes passed • Clean Air Act 1970 • Toxic Substance Control Act 1976 • Brady Handgun Violence Prevention 1994 • Background checks before purchase a gun • Auto Safety

Policy Entrepreneurs • Activists in or out of government who pull together a political majority on behalf of unorganized interests • Work on behalf of an unorganized or indifferent majority • Ralph Nader • Consumer advocate • Best known example

Entrepreneurial Politics • Can occur when large numbers become disgruntled • Price of oil goes up • Smog creating burning eyes • Toxic hazardous waste forced people to leave homes • Love Canal, New York 1977 • Times Beach, Missouri 1980 • Superfund program 1980 • Result of pressure in the wake of these disasters • Authorized EPA to identify and clean up sites that posed imminent danger • > 30,000 toxic waste sites

Entrepreneurial Politics • Entrepreneurial politics more common and more visible because • Enlarged political role of the media • Decentralization of Congress • Change in the attitudes of many citizens

The Case of Business Regulation Majoritarian Politics Interest Group Politics Client Politics Entrepreneurial Politics

Relationship between Wealth and Power One View • Economic power will dominate political power because • Money to buy influence • Politicians and businessmen similar class and backgrounds thus similar beliefs on public policy • Elected officials must defer to preferences of business to keep economy growing • Karl Marx’s view • The state was nothing more than the executive committee of the propertied class

Relationship between Wealth and Power Another View • Politics is a threat to the very existence of a market economy and the values of • Economic growth • Private property • Personal freedom • Politicians to get votes will side with the non-business majority • Heads of large corporations will be portrayed as a sinister elite who can be blamed for war, inflation, unemployment, pollution • Corporations worry they will be taxed excessively to pay for social programs • Belief that universities tend to inculcate antibusiness values in their students

Majoritarian Politics Widespread bank failures in the 1930s helped pave the way for laws regulating and insuring financial institutions.

Majoritarian Politics • Antitrust movement • Result of broadlybased criticism of business monopolies • Anti-trust feeling was strong but unfocused • During the reform era, politicians and business leaders committed to a strong antitrust policy however • Laws were vague and no agency was created to enforce it so it passed easily • Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 • Vague with no specific enforcement agency • Federal Trade Commission Act 1914 • Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914

Majoritarian Politics • Antitrust Movement • Vague laws lie dormant unless enforced • Enforcement is determined primarily by the ideology and personal convictions of the current presidential administration • Teddy Roosevelt 1904 (enforcement) • Hired five lawyers to prosecute about seven cases per year • Franklin Roosevelt 1938 (enforcement) • Appointed Thurmond Arnold • Head up the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department • Vigorous lawyer filed about 50 cases/year

Majoritarian Politics • Antitrust movement • Not interest group politics because laws don’t divide society into permanent and identifiable blocs of people for or against RATHER • Enforcement is driven by the administration in power • Ronald Reagan 1983-84 • Break up AT&T • Not worth it to break up IBM • Bill Clinton 1998 • Suit against Microsoft

Interest Group Politics • Sought government protection • Wagner Act (NLRB) 1935 • Right to organize • Bargain collectively • Hear complaints of unfair labor practices • Sought to reverse gains of labor • Taft-Hartley Act 1947 • Made closed shops and secondary strikes illegal • Authorized president to obtain a court order to block for up to 80 days any strike that imperiled “national health and safety” Labor Management

Interest Group PoliticsLabor/Management • Struggle highly publicized • Winners/losers determined by the partisan composition of Congress • Republicans and southern Democrats— pro business • Democrats— pro labor • Public opinion determined by • 1930s Depression • 1950s Labor racketeering • 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act • To prevent corruption in unions • Changed way in which organizing drives were carried out • Prohibited certain strikes and picketing

Interest Group PoliticsLabor/Management • In spite of laws struggle continued • NLRB adjudicated countless disputes • Five members/Five year terms • Presidents sought to tilt membership in one direction or another • Democrats—Labor • Republicans—Business

Interest Group PoliticsOccupational Safety and Health • Similar pattern of interest group behavior to labor/management struggle • Labor wanted strict bill with tough standards • Business wanted more flexible bill • OSHA 1970 (Labor won) • Single administrator inside Labor Department • OSHA decisions often appealed in the courts • Safe limits for exposure to chemicals • Inspects tens of thousands workplaces • Carter OSHA Head sympathetic to labor • Reagan OSHA Head sympathetic to business

Client Politics • When a policy confers a benefit on one group at the expense of many other people • “Agency capture” • Is likely when benefits are focused and costs are dispersed • The agency created serves the client • 1935 dairy farmers declining prices • AAA authorized Department of Agriculture to • Regulate the milk industry • Consumers end up paying more for milk however • Consumers have little incentive to organize • Similar system with sugar • Protect Louisiana producers from Brazil and the Philippines • Farm subsidies are a result of history and politics • Thought to be a deserving client • Struggle relies on “insider politics”

Client Politics • Devastating flood, tornado, earthquake, hurricane • Community and victims deemed deserving of help • Not their fault • However, built homes in areas known to be at high risk for floods or hurricanes • They receive client benefits

Client Politics • Different form of client politics uses • Regulations instead of money to help groups • Radio broadcasters wanted FCC to bring order and stability BUT • FCC started to review mergers and extracted concessions from the companies • Agency had so much freedom that it became a burden to the client

The Policy-Making Process