Policy Making
- 1. Policy Making Presented by: Melissa Hyde Jenalyn Pirosch Leila Beckham Greg Batore
- 3. Key Concepts The political agenda determines which issues will receive consideration in formulating new policy Costs and benefits determine who supports a policy, who opposes it, and the coalitions that form to compete over a policy Business regulation is an excellent case study of the different types of policies and policy-making. Perceptions, beliefs, interests, and values all play a critical role in the policy-making process.
- 4. Vocabulary client politics: some identifiable, often small group will benefit, but a large part of society will pay the price. costs and benefits: costs = burdens people must bear from the policy. Benefits = any satisfaction that people expect to receive from the policy. entrepreneurial politics: large part of society benefits greatly from a policy that costs an unidentifiable, small group a great deal.
- 5. Vocabulary, cont. interest group politics: policy benefit a small, relatively unidentifiable group, and will cost other small, unidentifiable groups. majoritarian politics: policy that benefits a large groups of people with a large cost to a lot of the same people. policy entrepreneurs: public entrepreneurs who, from outside the formal positions of government, introduce, translate, and help implement new ideas into public practice. political agenda: determines which issues will receive consideration in forming new policy. It can change because of shifts in popular attitudes, elite interest, critical events, or government actions.
- 7. Majoritarian Politics Pit the general public against itself, as it considers or reconsiders programs with broadly distributed costs and benefits. Majoritarian politics are fought out through broad public debate. They address basic ideological beliefs and occur in the visible institutions of governments, particularly elections and legislative debates. Ex. Social Security and Military Defense
- 8. Interest Group Policy Pit special interest against special interest. Interest-group politics take place "behind the scenes," in executive agencies and legislative committees. They stimulate the organization of client groups to promote programs, and are characterized by changing alliances as issues and influence shift. Ex. Bills requiring business firms to give benefits to labor unions
- 9. Client Policies Pit special interests against the general public by distributing costs and concentrating benefits. They typically support health programs benefiting special groups and financed by general taxes. Client politics, like special-interest politics, are behind the scenes. A crucial aspect of client politics is the extent to which the relevant executive branch agency is captured by the interest groups (as in some pollution control), which may squeeze out the health interests (as was the case in tobacco policy). Ex. Regulated milk process benefit dairy farmers but increase the cost of milk to consumers.
- 10. Entrepreneurial Politics Pit the general public against special interests by distributing benefits widely while more narrowly concentrating the costs. Entrepreneurial politics are the reverse of client politics Entrepreneurial politics are occasional, short lived, facilitated by mass media, and involve political entrepreneurs who identify and exploit an opportunity. Ex. Antipollution and safety requirements for automobiles, proposed as ways of improving the health and well-being of all people but at the expense of the automobile manufacturers.
- 12. Hatch act of 1939 Restricts the ability of civil service, or federal, employees to participate in partisan political life Goal was to ensure that civil service would remain politically neutral. Many believed that it infringed upon federal employees rights. Recent amendments give government employees the rights to speak, organize, and act peacefully to carry out their own personal political views. All while at the same time ensuring that the public administration of government is carried out in an efficient and neutral manner.
- 13. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Forbids discrimination against those with disabilities. 3 Parts
- 14. No entity that is covered shall discriminate against a qualified with a disability because of said disability. This applies when the qualified disabled person is in the job application process, hiring, advancement, or termination. Also included is job training, employee compensation, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. ADA Title 1
- 15. ADA Title 2 Any individual that has a disability cannot be excluded from benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a specific public entity because of said disability.
- 16. ADA Title 3 No individual can be discriminated against on the basis of their disability when being applied to the enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place that is public. This applies regardless of whether or not the person owns, leases (or leases to), or operates the public place.
- 17. Unfunded Mandate Reform Act 1995 The purpose of this act is to strengthen the partnership between the Federal, state, and local governments. It’s also used to assist Congress in its consideration of proposed legislation that is establishing or revising Federal programs that contain Federal mandates that affect State, and local governments.
- 18. No Child Left Behind 2001 Federal law to help improve the education for all children by holding the schools responsible for results Gives the parents more choices and promotes better teaching methods.
- 19. Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 Way to ban ‘soft money’ given to candidates for campaigning. Soft money is money given to the political party rather than the candidate it represents.