Introduction to Public Policy

1. Introduction to Public Policy

2. What Is Public Policy? • What government chooses to do (or not to do) about problems • Formally approved policy goals & the means to achieve them • Practices of implementing agencies

3. Basic Concepts • Government: the institutions & political processes through which public policy choices are made • Politics: the exercise of power by elected officials, political parties, and interest groups • Policy analysis: the examination of components of public policy, the policy process, or both

4. Contexts of Public Policy • Social context • Social changes (e.g. population changes) • Economic context • State of the economy (e.g. growth or recession) • Political context • Political ideological issues (& who is in power) • Governing context • Structure of government (e.g. separation of powers) • Cultural context • Values, beliefs (e.g. red v. blue states)

5. Why Does Government Intervene? • Political reasons • Moral, or ethical, reasons • Economic reasons: market failures • when the market fails to be efficient, or to work at all • four categories • monopolies or oligopolies • externalities • information failures • public or collective goods

6. Market Failures Private Goods and Public Goods No Joint Consumption Joint Consumption Exclusion Is Feasible Pure Private Goods Toll Goods Exclusion Is Not Feasible Common Pool Resources Pure Public Goods

7. Market Failures (con’t) Externalities: the decisions and actions of those involved in the market exchange that affect others - negative externality: third party not compensated for harm/loss (e.g., pollution) - positive externality: third party does not have to pay for a gain (e.g., education, new jobs)

8. Market Failures (con’t) Information Failures • Information sharing becomes a problem • Not a problem for certain items one buys a lot (e.g., food) – able to make adjustments • More of a problem for • Large (costly) items (cars) or • Items that are difficult to understand without assistance (e.g., prescription drugs)

9. Why Study Public Policy? • To sharpen analytic skills, and to decide what political positions and policies to support • To consider careers in public policy, law, or government • To improve citizen’s ability to participate and make choices (by increasing knowledge of substance and process) • To improve citizen’s ability to influence policy decisions (through more informed arguments and analyses)

10. Role of Policy Analysis Policy analysis: a systematic, organized way to evaluate public policy alternatives or the programs themselves • used in a variety of ways • assessing problems • developing alternative solutions • Evaluating existing programs • can be used to influence policy

11. Criteria For Analyzing Policies • Effectiveness • Efficiency • Equity and freedom • Ethics • Technical feasibility • Political feasibility • Institutional capacity • Social acceptability

12. Criteria For Analyzing Policies, cont. • There may be others as well, such as the extent of public participation or the flexibility of a policy • Each criterion may not carry equal weight in each decision