1. Unit 6 Review PowerPoint
Public Policy

2. The Policymaking Process
Every policy has a unique history, but each generally goes through five basic steps.
Agenda Setting
Policy Formulation
Policy Adoption
Policy Implementation
Policy Evaluation
Public Policy

3. Setting the Agenda
“Agenda building may occur as the result of a crisis, a technological change, a mass media campaign, as well as through the efforts of a strong political personality or lobby groups.”
Most important decision affecting policy-making is deciding what belongs on the political agenda
1. Shared beliefs determine what is legitimate.
2. Legitimacy affect by
a. Shared political values
b. Weight of custom and tradition
c. Impact of events (war, depressions)
d. Changes in ways political elites think about politics
Public Policy

4. Making a Decision Nature of issue 1. Affects politicking
2. Affects intensity of political conflict
Costs and benefits of proposed policy a way to understand how issue affects political power
Cost: any burden, monetary or nonmonetary
Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary
Two aspects of costs and benefits important:
Perception affects politics
People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to benefit
Politics a process of settling disputes about who benefits and who ought to benefit
Public Policy

5. Types of Policy Politics: Breakdown
Costs
Benefits
Majoritarian
Large group
Interest Group
Small Group
Small group
Client
Entrepreneurial
Public Policy

6. The politics of deficit spending
The general landscape
Deficit: government spending over and above the amount taken in by taxes
National debt: combined amount of all deficits
Interest on the debt: typically the third highest item in that national budget
Gross domestic product (GDP): proportion in relation to debt about the same as 1964
Strategy: get rid of the annual deficit to make progress on the overall debt
By raising taxes (political liberals)
By cutting spending (political conservatives)
Economic Policy

7. The Politics of Taxing and Spending
Inconsistency in what people want out of majoritarian politics
No tax increases
No government deficit
Continued (or higher) government spending
Difficult to make meaningful tax cuts
Politicians get reelected by spending money
Strategy: raise taxes on “other people”
Economic Policy

8. Economic Theories & Political Needs
Monetarism – inflation occurs when there is too much money chasing too few goods; advocates increase in money supply about equal to economic growth
Keynesianism – government should create right level of demand
Planning – free market too undependable to ensure economic efficiency; therefore government should control it
Supply-side tax cuts – need for less government interference and lower taxes
Economic Policy

9. Fiscal Policy Managing the economy by the use of tax and spending laws.
Where the Money Comes From
Federal Income Taxes
Social Insurance Taxes
Borrowing
Other taxes
Where the Money Goes
Entitlement programs
National defense
National debt
Economic Policy

10. Monetary Policy Managing the economy by altering the supply of money and interest rates
Monetary policy is the government’s control of the money supply
Too much money in system leads to inflation (devaluation of dollar)
Too little money in circulation leads to deflation
Economic Policy

11. The Machinery of Economic Policy Making
Fragmented policymaking: not under president’s full control
3 people of special importance (The Troika):
Chairman of Council of Economic Advisers
Forecast trends, analyze issues, submit congressional report
Director of Office of Management and Budget
Analyzes and estimates what departments will spend
Secretary of Treasury
Estimates US revenue from taxes
Usually closely tied to business/finance world
Economic Policy

12. The Machinery of Economic Policy Making
The Fed (Federal Reserve Board)
7 members, Pres appointed-Senate confirmed, 14yr terms
Regulates the supply of money and interest rates (=monetary policy)
Independent of Pres and Congress (though sometimes questionable)
Congress
Most important! Creates the nation’s tax and spending laws (= fiscal policy)
Economic Policy

13. Social Welfare in the United States
1. Who deserves to benefit?
Insistence that it be only those who cannot help themselves
Slow, steady change in deserving/undeserving line
Alterative view: fair share of national income; government redistribute money
Preference to give services, not money, to help deserving poor
Social Policy

14. 3. Influence of federalism
Federal involvement “illegal” until 1930s
Experiments by state governments
Argues against federal involvement because state already providing welfare
Lobbied for federal involvement to help states
Social Policy

15. Majoritarian welfare programs
Social Security Act of 1935
Great Depression of 1929: local relief overwhelmed
Elections of 1932: Democrats & FDR swept in
Legal and political roadblocks; was direct welfare unconstitutional?
Cabinet Committee’s two-part plan
“Insurance” for unemployed and elderly
“Assistance” for dependent children, blind, aged
Federally funded, state-administered program under means test
Social Policy

16. Majoritarian welfare programs
Medicare Act of 1965
Medical benefits omitted in 1935: controversial but done to ensure passage
Opponents:
AMA
House Ways and Means Committee under Wilbur Mills
1964 elections: Democrats’ big majority altered Ways and Means
Objections anticipated in plan
Application only to aged, not everybody
Only hospital, not doctors’, bills covered
Broadened by Ways and Means to include Medicaid for poor; pay doctors’ bills for elderly
Social Policy

17. Reforming majoritarian welfare programs
Social Security
Not enough people paying into Social Security
Three solutions:
Raise the retirement age to seventy, freeze the size of retirement benefits, raise Social Security taxes
Privatize Social Security
Combine first two methods and allow individual investment in mutual funds
Social Policy

18. Reforming majoritarian welfare programs
Medicare
Problems: huge costs and inefficient
Possible solutions
Get rid of Medicare and have doctors and hospitals work for government
Elderly take Medicare money and buy health insurance
Delaying the inevitable
Clinton and surplus, new benefits
Bush and attempts at new health care measures – Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
Social Policy

19. Pros and Cons: Majoritarian politics
Programs with widely distributed benefits & costs
Beneficiaries must believe they will come out ahead
Political elites must believe in legitimacy of program
Social Security & Medicare looked like “free lunch”
Debate over legitimacy: Social Security (1935)
a. Constitution did not authorize federal welfare (conservatives)
But benefits were not really a federal expenditure (liberals)
Good politics unless cost to voters exceeds benefits
Social Policy

20. Pros and Cons: Client politics
Programs pass if cost to public not perceived as great and client considered deserving
Americans believe today that able-bodied people should work for welfare benefits
Americans prefer service strategy to income strategy
Charles Murray: high welfare benefits made some young people go on welfare rather than seek jobs
No direct evidence supports Murray
Social Policy

21. Client welfare programs: AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children)
Scarcely noticed part of Social Security Act
Federal government permitted state to
Define need
Set benefit levels
Administer program
Federal government increased rules of operation
New programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, free school meals)
Abolished and replaced by TANF.
Social Policy

22. Kinds of Foreign Policy
Majoritarian Politics- widespread benefits and costs (Pres has most power, public opinion supports but doesn’t guide)
Ex. Wars, military alliances, nuclear test ban,
Interest Group Politics-groups pitted against one another for benefits/costs (larger Congressional role)
Ex. Tariffs: Japan vs. the Steel industry
Client Politics- benefits to identifiable group w/o costs to any distinct group (Congress is central)
Ex. Israel policy (may be changing!)
Foreign and Military Policy

23. Constitutional/Legal Context
Constitution creates “invitation to struggle” between President and Congress
Pres Commander-in-Chief, Congress appropriates $
Pres appoints, Senate confirms
Pres negotiates treaties, Senate ratifies
Americans perceive President as being in charge, which history confirms
Foreign and Military Policy

24. Checks on President’s Power
Political rather than constitutional
Congress controls the $$$
War Powers Act of restricts pres
If Pres commits troops he must report it to Congress within 48 hours
Only 60 day commitment w/o declaring war
Previously, Congress could use legislative veto to bring troops home
Has had very little influence, politically impossible (Congress will of course support successful military action)
Foreign and Military Policy

25. Effects of War Powers Act
Congress rarely invokes it
Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton all sent troops w/o authorization
Politically impossible
Congress wouldn’t challenge successful military action (even Vietnam)
Constitutionality is questionable (so they don’t push it)
Foreign and Military Policy

26. Machinery of Foreign Policy
Post-WWII major power status consequences:
President more involved in foreign affairs (top of agenda)
More agencies shape foreign policy
Too many and too big to really be coordinated (Sec. of State is only 1 person, agencies owe no loyalty to him)
National Security Council created to coordinate
Foreign and Military Policy

27. Backing the President
Public tends to support the president during crisis (approval ratings go up!)
Support does not decrease with casualties
Body bag fallacy: soldiers come home in coffins
Support for escalation and victory
Most wars do have public opposition
Highest among Democrats, African Americans, and those with post-grad degrees
*In sum: People are leery of wars until they start, then they support them and want to win.
Foreign and Military Policy

28. 4 Worldviews Isolationism: opposes involvement in world affairs
Adopted after WWI after little accomplished
Ended with Pearl Harbor
Containment: (anti-appeasement) US should resist the expansion of aggressive nations
Successful in that it didn’t harm US interests, proved welcome to allies, prevented military conquest
Foreign and Military Policy

29. 4 Worldviews
Disengagement: (“Vietnam”) belief that US was harmed by its war with Vietnam(defeat and political disaster) so it should avoid similar events
Crisis interpreted 3 ways:
Correct worldview, but failed to try hard enough
Correct worldview but applied in the wrong place
Worldview itself was wrong
Critics believed world view wrong (#3) and new one should be based on isolationism
Foreign and Military Policy

30. 4 Worldviews
Human Rights: we should try to improve the lives of people in other countries (Kosovo viewed as similar to Nazi genocide)
But what about Rwanda, China, USSR??
New Question post 9/11: should the US “go it alone” or build a coalition?
Foreign and Military Policy

31. The Defense Budget Total Spending
Very low spending in peacetime until 1950
Driven up by Containment policy for USSR
Changes in spending tend to reflect changes in public opinion
Debate once USSR fell:
Liberals: cut defense, we aren’t world’s “police officer”
Conservatives: some cuts ok, but world is still dangerous and we must be ready
Saddam Hussein soon proved them right
Involvement in war in Bosnia proved military had been cut too much…Clinton increased spending
Foreign and Military Policy

32. Structure of Defense Decision Making
National Security Act of created Dept of Defense
Headed by Sec. of Defense (must be civilian)- command authority over defense on behalf of pres
Sec. of Army, Air Force, Navy, (also civilians)
manage daily functions
Joint Chiefs of Staff (military)
Branches of military kept separate- Why?
Fear if unified they would become too powerful
Desire of services to preserve autonomy
Inter-service rivalries intended by Congress to increase info
Foreign and Military Policy

33. Structure of Defense Decision Making
Joint Chiefs of Staff- committee of heads of 4 military branches, chairman, vice chair, and military officers appointed by the pres./confirmed by Senate
No command authority over troops
Key to national defense planning
Since 1986 reorganization, Chairman of JCS has been president’s principal military advisor
Chain of Command: Pres Sec. Defense various specified commands (these can go through JCS, but they have no command power)
Civilians head the military to protect from concentration of power
Foreign and Military Policy

34. Environmental Policy Why Controversial??
Creates winners and losers
Interest groups or average citizens
Losers must pay the costs but receive no benefit
Scientific uncertainty
Takes the form of entrepreneurial politics
Emotional appeals lead to distorted priorities
Decisions affect federal and international relations
States can pass own laws
US rarely signs international environ. treaties
Environmental Policy

35. All four points of public policy found in Environmental Politics
Costs
Benefits
Majoritarian
Large group
Interest Group
Small Group
Small group
Client
Entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurial role is in most environmental issues. Problems can be portrayed in life threatening terms. Goals can be related to the “good life.” Costs can be minimized, deferred, or placed on a small group.
Entrepreneurial hard to adopt!
(society benefits, small group pays!)
However, examples of past policy link to all four areas.
Environmental Policy

36. Majoritarian Politics
Clean Air Act tough restrictions on pollutants from automobiles
Started as entrepreneurial- public w/ media support demanded changes
Small provision of law said states would have to restrict use of cars if pollution problem persisted
Huge popular opposition, efforts failed (Congress and EPA backed down)
Consumers, auto industry, unions objected
Loss of horsepower, competitiveness, jobs
Clean Air Act revived in 1990 w/tougher restrictions, but a 20 year deadline
Most current laws target particular industries
Environmental Policy

37. Environmental Uncertainties
What is the problem? –often hard to see
Support goes to most current/popular problem, Congress and public, not the EPA, often decide
What goals do we want to achieve?
Must be realistic
Weigh costs and benefits
How do we achieve the goals?
Command-and-control strategy: set rules, enforce them in court
But often don’t know how to get the most environmental gain for the least cost
Environmental Policy

38. Environmental Policy Incentives replace command-and-control rules
Offsets: if you increase pollution in one way you must decrease it in another
Bubble Standard: total amount of air pollution allowed from a given factory. Company can decide how to meet it
Pollution allowances (or banks): if company comes in under the standard they can bank the leftover
Results
Less air pollution, probably less water pollution (harder to judge)
Hazardous waste (Superfund sites) still a problem
Environmental Policy

39. Good to Know
Understand the current implications of policy initiatives…especially social. (will they be successful, last, etc)
Understand the how and why economic policy is shaped by the president, Congress and the Fed.
Understand the four different policy types and examples of how each policy arena uses the four types. (ex: Clean Air Act = Majoritarian)