Policy Making

A PUBLIC POLICY is a general plan of action adopted by government to solve a social problem, counter a threat, or make use of an opportunity.

A. All public policies are the means by which government pursues certain goals within specific situations.

B. Governmental approaches to solving problems can be divided into four broad types.

1. Some policies PROHIBIT behaviors that endanger society.

2. Policies can also PROTECT activities, business markets, or special groups of citizens.

3. Policies can PROMOTE social activities that are important to the government.

4. Public policies can PROVIDE benefits directly to citizens.

C. When policymakers are considering new policy options, they carefully consider the impact of each of these four approaches on those most affected by them.

D. The policymaking process can be separated into four stages.

1. AGENDA SETTING is the part of the process during which problems get defined as political issues.

2. POLICY FORMULATION is that stage of the policymaking process when formal policy proposals are developed and a decision is made whether to adopt one of these proposals.

3. IMPLEMENTATION is the process by which policies are carried
out.

4. POLICY EVALUATION is the analysis of public policy to see how well it is working.

a. Alternate approaches may be provided in order to improve a program's success.

b. Evaluation studies provide FEEDBACK to policymakers on program performance.

E. There are forces that pull governmental structure in different directions and make problems solving less coherent than it might otherwise be.

1. FRAGMENTATION of policymaking is the fundamental nature of government in America.

2. Authority is divided by both separation of powers and federalism.

3. Fragmentation results from conflict among branches or levels of government and from conflict within a single branch.

F. Although some degree of fragmentation is inevitable in a decentralized, federal system of government, mechanisms of coordination like interagency task forces, reorganization, and the Office of Management and Budget review can bring some coherence to policymaking.

II. Within each policy area there are a number of interest groups whose representatives interact with each other and with government officials on a recurring basis.

A. ISSUE NETWORKS consist of groups of individuals from inside and outside the government who work together to develop policy in a specific area. Policymaking takes place within institutions, but also among them.

B. IRON TRIANGLES were long considered a dominant force in American politics.

1. The three components of an iron triangle were a key administrator, congressional subcommittee or committee chairmen, and a few lobbyists from key client groups.

2. Iron triangles were thought to be largely autonomous. Elections didn't have much impact on how they operated.

3. They were characterized by movement back and forth among actors within the triangle. Administrators, for example, might become lobbyists in the same triangle.

C. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that iron triangles are not typical policymaking systems. The concept of ISSUE NETWORKS is considered to be a more accurate description of contemporary policy subsystems in American politics.

1. The proliferation of interest groups means there are many more organizations trying to influence policy in the same area.

2. The growth of subcommittees in Congress had produced overlapping jurisdictions.

III. Expertise within issue networks

A. Entry into an issue network is facilitated by a mastery of the technical complexities of the policy area. If you want to be a player in the oil issue network, you have to know the ins and outs of the oil industry.

B. Policy expertise is a tie between the various actors in the network.

IV. The "in-and-outers"

A. Job switching remains a pattern in issue networks just as it was in iron triangles.

1. The IN-AND-OUTERS remain within a particular issue network on one side of the fence or another.

2. Participation in an issue network endows government employees with contacts that provide many of them with a substantial financial incentive to leave government work.

B. Job switching can present a problem. The Ethics in Government Act places some restrictions on contact between administrators-turned-lobbyists and their former agencies. There are also restrictions on their dealings with all of government on issues with which they were substantially involved during their work in the executive branch. The case of former White House aide Lyn Nofziger illustrates this problem.

V. Issue networks and democracy

A. An argument in favor of issue network politics is that they work to bring more technical expertise into the policymaking process.

B. This dependence on technical expertise works to the advantage of interest groups.

C. Increasing the role of interest groups and issue networks in general promotes pluralism and works against majoritarianism. However, there are still significant Majoritarian influences on policymaking.

D. The principle disadvantage of issue networks is that they often allow the interests of well-organized constituents to prevail over broad national interest.

THE "BULLY PULPIT" AND POLICY FORMULATION

I. After agenda setting, the next step in the policymaking process is policy formulation. This is the stage where formal policy proposals are developed and refined.

A. An example of how the process moves from agenda setting to policy formulation could be seen in President Bush's efforts to revitalize public education (K-12) in the United States.

1. In his 1988 presidential campaign, Bush pledged that he would be the "education president."

2. Bush's education emphasis was politically wise for two reasons: it pre-empted what traditionally had been a Democratic issue and the dismal state of American education was apparent to virtually everyone.

a. At the same time, Bush's concerns were not without political risk.

(1) Education historically had been a state-and-local concern in the United States; there are over 80,000 public schools and 15,000 school districts across the states.

(2) Any plan to increase dramatically the level of federal government involvement in public education could lead to a commitment of federal funds, a commitment that Bush did not want to make.

b. Candidate Bush's pledge to improve American education was made without detailing the goals he had in mind. 

B. After his election, President Bush faced the delicate problem of making good on his pledge to be the education president without having to propose a costly and politically contentious plan to improve public education.

1. In the first two years of his presidency, Bush realized most policy successes in foreign affairs.

2. Bush realized that the federal budget deficit presented a very real obstacle for the federal government in terms of increased funding for public education.

3. The president was aware that he would be politically vulnerable in the 1992 elections if he offered no leadership on education given his campaign pledge.

II. The Bush strategy: the "bully pulpit"

A. In their book SCHOOLS IN CONFLICT (Berkeley, Calif.: McCutchan, 1989), Frederick Wirt and Michael Kirst discuss six models of federal action for public schools. The models range, on one end, from unrestricted commitment of federal funds to schools to having administration officials exert moral suasion (using the "bully pulpit") at the other end.

1. The federal government has not given unrestricted funds to schools, but it has supported specific programs (such as Head Start since 1965 for preschoolers), assisted schools to comply with desegregation orders, and so forth.

2. The expenditure of federal funds for public education has never been very significant. In 1972, federal aid peaked at about 9 percent of total school expenditures; currently, federal funds amount to about 6 percent of total school expenditures.

B. Bush's educational strategy was to exert moral suasion on this issue, to use the "bully pulpit" to forge a national consensus on the need to rebuild public education in the nation.

C. The first step employed by Bush to move the agenda was to convene an "educational summit" with all fifty state governors and himself at the University of Virginia in September of 1989.

1. Only twice before had a president met with all governors to discuss a national issue. Theodore Roosevelt did so in 1908 to address the over-logging of American forests, and Franklin D. Roosevelt met with the governors in 1933 to discuss the Depression.

2. This was the first time an American president had elevated education to a position demanding national attention.

3. The site of the meeting at the University of Virginia was not by accident. The university was founded by Thomas Jefferson, and the non-D.C. location suggested that the federal government was not to play dominant role in what was to follow.

D. The Virginia meetings did not produce any specific proposals; rather, the president and the governors agreed to work together on the issue.

E. In December 1989, a meeting was held in the capital with representatives of the White House and the governors to discuss setting national goals for education. A consensus emerged on the following general goals:

1. The need to help young children get ready for school, both physically and mentally.

2. The crucial role played by parents in helping children to learn.

3. The need to help all children achieve higher educational standards.

4. The recognition that American competitiveness would be harmed if American education were not improved.

F. The "educational summit" and subsequent meetings provided President Bush with the more focused goals for educational reform that he outlined in his 1990 State of the Union speech to Congress. By the year 2000, the president said:

1. All children in America will start school ready to learn.

2. The high school graduation rate (currently 74 percent) will increase to 90 percent.

3. Students will leave grades four, eight, and twelve with demonstrated competency in English, math, science, history, and geography.

4. American students will be first in the world in math and science achievement.

5. Every adult American will be literate.

6. Every school in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer an environment conducive to learning.

G. In addition to these goals, Bush announced his support for the creation of "nontraditional" schools, rewarding better teachers with higher pay, and allowing parents to choose their schools, private or public.

H. Collectively, the President's proposals touched on the four basic types of goals mentioned in the text.

1. They prohibited certain types of behavior (e.g., drugs, violence).

2. They protected certain activities (e.g., state and local governmental responsibility for education).

3. They promoted certain activities (e.g., national testing, better curricular planning).

4. They promoted certain activities through the tax structure (e.g., the Bush proposal for parental choice in sending children to public or private schools).

III. The move from policy formulation to policy implementation would meet significant obstacles.

A. Bush and the governors established a National Educational Goals Panel to advise the president on policy directions.

1. Members of the panel included six governors, the Secretary of Education, three members from the White House, and (as nonvoting members) the majority and minority leaders from both houses of Congress.

2. The composition of the panel indicated that Congress would not play a major role in policymaking on the issue. Note also that no members of the "educational establishment" were included.

3. Members of the panel met regularly to discuss ideas.

B. The centerpiece of Bush's strategy was the use of the Oval Office to forge a national consensus on education reform and to leave the implementation of the specific reforms to the states.


1. Although the president did not specifically state so, educators assumed his goals involved some type of a national curriculum and national testing.

2. Both of these outcomes would be difficult to achieve since educators were divided on their merits, though more so on national testing than on a national curriculum, which could leave room to local concerns and innovations.

IV. Goal implementation can be made easier if there is widespread popular and political support for the policy. Reaction to the Bush goals was strong, though there were doubts about the implementation time line.

A. A Gallup Poll (April-May, 1990) found the public enthusiastic about the president's six goals.

B. Most respondents, however, were skeptical that they could be achieved by the end of the decade.

1. Only 50 percent of the sample felt one of the goals (preparing children to enter kindergarten ready to learn) could be attained by the year 2000. By contrast, 76 percent felt the last goal (drug and violence free schools) could not be reached by 2000.

2. Though 71 percent of the sample favored the idea of choice in deciding which schools to send their children to, 78 percent said they would keep their children in the schools they are now attending.

B. Educators and governors were concerned about the success of school reforms in the absence of efforts to diminish the impact of poverty on children in the states; they also wanted to know how the goals were to be met since the economic resources of the states were overextended.

C. Bush got high marks from governors and educators for making this issue a national one deserving of urgent discussion and remedial action.

V. Concluding the policymaking process

A. President Bush's educational reform proposals would move to the next stage in the process, that of implementation.

1. This would be a slow process because the goals were still quite general and lacked the specifics of how they would be achieved.

2. The economics of educational reform would have a major political impact on goal implementation; if the federal government could not provide more funds to assist the states, then the states would have to increase taxes or reduce spending in other areas to achieve the goals.

B. The implementation stage most certainly would have to recognize the power of groups well entrenched in educational policymaking in the states: the National School Boards Association, American Federation of Teachers, Educational Commission on the States, National Educational Association, and Council of Great City Schools, among other organizations.

POLICYMAKING THROUGH SUBTERFUGE

During the Reagan Administration, the U.S. was carrying out a covert war by training and supplying Nicaraguan "contras" (counter-revolutionaries) who opposed the Sandinista government in Managua. The vast majority of Americans had no idea that their tax dollars were being spent on this project, and the entire episode became public through the Iran-Contra hearings of 1987-88. This lectures explores the secret political process that created American foreign policy during the 1980s.

I. Although there is still a dispute over the facts, former Reagan campaign aide Barbara Honegger and Gary Sick, professor of International Relations at Columbia University, both maintain that the Reagan campaign of 1980 sent George Bush to Iran to cut a deal: keep the hostages until Reagan could defeat Carter. 

A. American hostages were being held by the Khomeini government and then-President Jimmy Carter seemed unable to arrange for their release.

B. The hostage crisis was considered one factor that led to the defeat of Jimmy Carter by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

C. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981--the same day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

D. In exchange for the hostage deal, Iran would receive certain weapons it wanted to use against Iraq.

II. Soon after Reagan's inauguration, he decided to squash the Nicaraguan government, which had overthrown a corrupt dictator,
Anastasio Somoza, in 1979.

A. Reagan began his anti-Sandinista campaign with a policy of withholding wheat from Nicaragua.

B. In response, the Nicaraguans turned to the Soviet Union for wheat supplies.

C. This further reinforced Reagan's argument that the Sandinistas were communists and thus had to be eliminated.

III. Congress would not agree to any military activity in Central America.

A. Due to pressures from Americans who opposed U.S. intervention in Nicaragua, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, which prohibited American tax dollars from being spent on any activities to subvert or overthrow the Sandinista government.

B. Reagan determined to find a way to go around Congress to wage a war that he viewed as an essential part of the Cold War against communism.

IV. Oliver North, an American with strong anti-communist beliefs, became a key player in the secret actions.

A. North admitted to a Congressional committee on the Iran-Contra scandal that he had decided to support his President and his beliefs despite Congressional decisions.

B. North further explained that he and his colleagues thought it was clever to use money from illegal arms deals in the Mideast and spend it on weapons and uniforms for the Nicaraguan contras.

C. North was found guilty of lying to Congress and was penalized by fines and community service.

D. North became wealthy from the sales of his autobiography and ultimately ran for office himself.

V. Throughout the Congressional investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal, Ronald Reagan remained relatively separate from his staff members.

A. However, several of his staff members were found guilty of various violations and some went to prison.

B. George Bush, who was Vice-President, was also able to keep himself separate from the Iran-Contra affair enough to win the 1988 election.

VI. The entire incident revealed the ways in which government policy can be made by a small group of people willing to violate the law in order to serve their particular agendas.

A. Only through becoming politically knowledgeable and paying close attention to politics can the American public be its own "watchdog" on elected officials and their staff members.

B. Americans must decide whether there are justifications for "covert" operations kept secret from the public, the media and the Congress. Does the executive branch have the authority to wage wars, sell arms, and hold secret meetings with hostile nations without telling anyone?

C. What can Americans do to prevent government from operating in secret?