1. Chapter 17 Public Policymaking and Budgeting

2. Public Policymaking in Five (Not-So-Easy) Stages
U.S. policymaking 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 stages 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 rulemaking and service delivery.
A fifth stage includes evaluation and policy feedback, steps that help determine whether a policy works—and that often start the debate all over again.

3. U.S. Social Policy
Social policymaking in the United States is typically more controversial, and features less expansive coverage, than social policymaking 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.

4. 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.

5. 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, a 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. policymaking because of the high stakes that are involved.

6. Making Good Policy
Although everyone wants “good” public policies passed, Americans have a hard time agreeing on what constitutes those.
Moral arguments about equality and fairness in policymaking have declined in recent years, as attention to economic efficiency as a measure of a policy’s worthiness has grown.
One article of faith among efficiency advocates is that privatizing government programs enables more cost-effective and higher-quality services. But concerns about markets sorting out public policies are also evident: just take a look at many popular American movies.

7. Reforming U.S. Policymaking
System-wide policy change is frequently pursued by reformers, but it is very difficult to achieve in a United States that organizes its policymaking around separated powers.
Policy entrepreneurs, drawn from all walks of life, seek innovative solutions for public policies. The most successful among them tend to develop compelling narratives about their preferred issue, willingly risk creature comforts to pursue policy change, and develop networks to diffuse and test their ideas.
Although novel policies are hard to push through to completion, the contest over agenda setting and problem definition is relatively open. As in the business or the nonprofit sector, a persistent entrepreneur can realize rewards.