Policy Context, Crisis Management, and Agenda Setting in Public Policy
Policy Context
Key Concepts
- States as actors and arenas
- State projects and social projects
- Meta-institutions
- State-society relations
- Unitary vs federal state
- Actors: executives, legislators, bureaucracies, political parties, publicity, pressure groups, think tanks, mass media
Unitary State
Policies are implemented faster in a unitary state, but they still need to take politics into consideration.
Executive
The executive branch has the power to implement policies, not the legislators. Ministers are part of the executive branch (e.g.). They set the political agenda, have more access to information, and control over physical (financial) resources. They set revenues and expenses, which legislators can’t do. Bureaucrats are controlled by the executive branch.
Legislators
Legislators can affect policies too. They can suggest policy changes.
There are differences depending on whether a legislature is unicameral or bicameral. The type of regime, whether parliamentary or presidential, also matters.
Political Parties
Political parties have an indirect effect on policies. The distribution of seats is also important.
Bureaucracy
Bureaucrats have command over resources, e.g., law, organizational resources, and expertise. Their jobs are permanent and protected. The structure of the bureaucracy matters. How concentrated is power? If bureaucrats are organized vertically, there are fewer conflicts between agencies. If power is dispersed, there are more conflicts. If power is more concentrated, there is more long-term planning and vice versa. Bureaucratic independence is achieved through clear mandates, politicians’ support for bureaucracies, and the absence of clientelism.
Public
The public doesn’t have much of a role at all. You can vote.
Think Tanks
Think tanks are starting to influence policy more and more, both on the left and the right. They can generate policy crises by reporting on problems.
Mass Media
The mass media can affect how people see problems. Crime narratives are very easy to report on, unlike taxes. Politicians can use the media to boost their projects.
Key Concepts
- Globalities
- Crisis vs. Emergency
- Ideas as policy paradigms
- Cognitive ideas and normative ideas
- Ideational change
- Critiques of ideas as variables
Crisis vs. Emergency
An emergency is an abnormality, while a crisis is a destabilization of the system. Risk management involves internal and external scans.
Emergency Management
Ideally, emergency management aims to avoid risk to people, then to property. The focus is first on people, then on property.
Emergency management tries to avoid risk but also to cope with it. It then makes sure that an emergency doesn’t turn into a crisis.
4 Steps of Emergency Management
- Mitigation: Internal and external scans
- Preparation: Have prepared plans
- Response: Follow those plans, which need to be flexible
- Recovery: Where did we go wrong, etc.
Problems in Emergency Management
How to coordinate agencies? Governments ask for help from third-party organizations (e.g., the Red Cross during floods).
Crisis
Crises are of more interest to policymakers. Why might people panic during a crisis?
- Wide availability of information (e.g., WikiLeaks)
- 24/7 news cycle
- People don’t trust governments
5 Things Governments Can Do During a Crisis
- Acknowledge it
- Respond (fast!)
- Everyone has to know their role
- Good communication strategy
- Learn lessons from it
Ideas
Ideas inform policymakers how to respond to crises.
Ideas serve as discourse.
Ideas are narratives and solutions.
Ideas help answer the question, “What do we do?”
Ideas serve as a roadmap and optimize outcomes.
The rise of constructivism focuses on how problems are constructed and how to act on them.
Ideas play a role in learning.
Ideas make claims about causal relationships.
Once an idea is in your head, it’s hard to shake it off.
Ideas address the problem of what needs to be addressed.
Ideas are an ideological weapon to change the existing regime and make a case for policy reform.
Cognitive Assumption
What can be done?
Normative Assumption
More symbols and concepts. What is good and what is bad?
Transnationalization of Ideas
There is increasing transnationalization of ideas.
Think tanks are important actors in this process.
Types of Idea Transfer
- Voluntary transfer: Ideas spread organically.
- Coercive transfer: Pressure to behave a certain way leads to the adoption of ideas.
Why Ideas Don’t Spread
- Absence of political actors promoting the idea
- Political power might be fragmented
- The idea might threaten interests
Measuring the Impact of Ideas
It is difficult to measure how ideas form action.
Ideas are just one factor among many in policy change.
Setting Policy Agenda
Understanding Agenda-Setting
- Variables that set the policy agenda
- Models of agenda setting
Agenda Setting
Agenda setting sometimes involves politicized problems.
Types of Agendas
- Systematic agenda: Issues on the general public’s mind
- Institutional agenda: Issues the government acts on
Focusing Events
Something happens that draws attention to an issue. This acts as an opportunity to suppress groups. The event has to be obvious but doesn’t have to be a new problem. It can also lead to attention being paid to an old problem. Focusing events lead to a search for solutions and create discourse on how to fix or improve the situation.
Conditions for Focusing Events to Impact Policy
- There has to be initiation.
- A solution needs to be present.
- Support has to expand.
- The issue turns from systematic to institutional.
Approaches to Agenda Setting
Positivist Approach
Focuses on the level of development (why does it matter?). Political business cycles are involved (some things are done before elections).
Post-Positivist Approach
Focuses on world views, political culture, and causal ideas. It takes a qualitative approach.
Both positivist and post-positivist approaches agree on factors that drive public policy.
Multivariable Approach
A mix of both positivist and post-positivist approaches:
- Use of causalities: How variables relate to each other. Looks at the relation between material and ideational factors.
- Issue attention cycles: Issues get addressed until they disappear (either because they are too complex or untraceable, or people just lose attention).
Policy Cycles
Where do issues originate?
Policy Windows
Setting the policy agenda during moments when policymakers can act.
Problem Stream
An array of options available to policymakers.
Factors Influencing Policy Windows
- Legislator turnover
- Multiyear budgets
Policy Monopolies
– how discourse is controlled. Looking at set of actors. Agenda denial. They set the terms of debate or mute debates. Control of policy agenda and further channeling it into direction.