Chapter 14 Domestic and Foreign Policy

Public Policymaking in Five (Not-So-Easy) Stages U.S. policy making may be described in terms of five stages. Policies do not proceed neatly from one to the next, but the “stages” idea is a useful way of distinguishing among different actions carried out by policy officials. The first of these is agenda setting, whereby concerns receiving widespread attention become policy issues. A second stage is problem definition and framing, featuring debates about how to describe an issue and which solutions are most viable. A third stage is policy formation, a process of legislative and executive activity to develop the policy idea in concrete terms. A fourth stage is policy implementation, marked by rule making and service delivery. The fifth stage includes evaluation and policy feedback, steps that help determine whether a policy works—and that often start the debate all over again.

U.S. Social Policy Social policy making in the United States is typically more controversial and features less expansive coverage than social policies in other advanced industrial nations. Wars, along with severe economic downturns, have been major sources of expansions in American social policies across U.S. history. Three large social programs—old-age insurance, or Social Security; unemployment insurance; and health/disability benefits, or Medicare and Medicaid—are especially significant in U.S. politics and government.

Economic Policymaking: Fiscal and Monetary Policy The U.S. government employs both fiscal policy and monetary policy to affect the economy. Taxes and spending are the two main levers of fiscal policy. During economic downturns, Republicans prefer to enact tax cuts; Democrats favor spending programs. The Federal Reserve is the main architect of monetary policy. By adjusting interest rates and the national supply of money, the Fed works to affect inflation and unemployment.

Economic Policymaking: The Federal Budget Process The U.S. budget process, when on schedule, runs from early February through October 1 and encompasses a presidential proposal, concurrent budget resolution, and appropriations bills. In practice the process rarely runs on time, and various “fixes” like omnibus bills and continuing resolutions have been invented to keep the budget system functioning. Although the details can be obscure, budget battles in Washington are almost always among the most dramatic features of U.S. policy making because of the high stakes that are involved.

American Foreign Policy Goals The first goal of American foreign policy is security. To pursue security, the United States deploys a large military and maintains a policy of primacy—the idea that no military power should rival ours. Additional security tools include diplomacy, soft (or cultural) power, and foreign aid. A second goal of foreign policy is to protect prosperity. Economic strength is the ultimate source of power on the world stage. Today, the U.S. economy is the largest in the world, but but many Americans and allies around the globe wonder: will the United States maintain its economic strength relative to other nations? American economic policy has been guided by pursuit of free trade—the dropping of barriers to international commerce. The United States tries to spread its own values of democracy and freedom—a third foreign policy goal.

Who Makes Foreign Policy? Although we often talk about nations as if they had a single interest, many different individuals and institutions shape foreign policy. Congress and the presidents were originally foreign policy partners. Today, the president takes the lead and Congress offers a check. The most important executive agencies in foreign policy making are the State Department, the Defense Department, and the National Security Council.

Grand Strategies in U.S. History The United States forged four grand strategies in the twentieth century. It stood alone and acted unilaterally (1918–1939), it led the democratic nations in multilateral coalitions during the Cold War (1945–1991), it debated a new world order after the Cold War (1991–2001), and it launched a war on terror. The Obama administration called for a move away from the war on terror but found that difficult to do. The administration scaled back many of the Bush administration policies (forbidding torture, overseeing extraordinary rendition, quietly dropping the phrase “the war on terror” itself); nevertheless, it has kept the basic institutional framework of the war on terror in place.