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Chapter 5: Unofficial actors and their roles

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1 Chapter 5: Unofficial actors and their roles
An Introduction to the Policy Process Chapter 5: Unofficial actors and their roles

2 Overview: unofficial actors
Individual citizens Interest groups Political parties Think tanks and research groups

3 Overview: unofficial actors
Organization of interests Subgovernments Issue networks policy domains Opening up policy networks Exploiting decentralization Going public

4 Individual citizens Why do we consider citizens as unofficial actors?
Problems with citizen engagement Low election turnout Low levels of knowledge Low levels of motivation to become involved Low levels of other activity Participating in rallies Signing petitions Joining groups Young people are traditionally the least engaged

5 What do citizens want? The most benefits at the least cost
For others to pay for our benefits What motivates greater mobilization? Threats to livelihood Threats to lifestyle Belief that a problem exists, and that government can address it

6 Citizens and public policy
A very small proportion of citizens mobilize The sum of individual and group activity ≠ “the public interest” Citizens must join in groups to be effective

7 Interest groups Why are groups so important?
Can individuals make change acting alone? Aggregation of resources Aggregation of members=power Forming “advocacy coalitions” Groups or “special interest groups” are sometimes viewed as a bad thing. Why?

8 Interest groups: background
Have been around a long time Madison mentions them in Federalist 10 A relatively small number of groups until the 1960s Major growth in interest groups in the 1960s. Any ideas why?

9 Rapid interest group growth
Many government programs=many clients Lack of legal constraints against group formation in a democracy Increasing number of public demands Resources Rights

10 Interest groups and social movements
Social movements are rare Civil rights Women’s rights Gay rights? (Is this a social movement?) Others? Social movements include a broad range of groups

11 Kinds of interest groups
Institutional interest groups Membership because you belong to a particular category, such as All students Undergrad Grad Faculty Membership interest groups Groups you choose to join Are you a member of an interest group? Why did you join? What benefits did you receive?

12 Why do people join groups?
To gain some sort of a benefit. Economic well being or gain. The desire to do good. The desire to belong to or identify with a group. The desire to find a way to make one’s voice heard. To get the freebies: magazines, calendars, etc.

13 Types of membership groups
Economic (private interest). Are primarily interested in benefits for members. Do you think they will at least argue that, when their members benefit, the public benefits? Public interest groups. Seek to create broad benefits for everyone. Hard to define a single “public” interest. Other types of groups. Churches, for example.

14 What do groups do? Lobbying (providing information) Support candidates
Money Votes Mobilize members to take action Sue in court Public protests and “direct action”

15 Groups and power We all know that some groups have more power than others What is power? Why do some groups have more power than others?

16 Differences in group power
Resources Money Information Size of membership Reasons for membership Direct economic incentives Material inducements Congruence of goals with prevailing ideas and values

17 Political parties They aggregate preferences into broad coalitions
They organize the legislative branch They provide opportunities for participation They help integrate national and state politics

18 There are many political parties
The Democratic and Republican presidential parties (2). The Democrats and Republicans in the House (2). The Democrats and Republicans in the Senate (2). The Democrats and Republicans in the upper and lower houses of very state except Nebraska (which only has one house of the legislature) (99). The Democratic or Republican Gubernatorial party (50). Total: 155 parties—not entirely separate or unique.

19 What does the party system mean?
Conflicts over partisan and ideological issues that influence public policy (is this bad?) The need for bipartisan cooperation on some issues to get anything done. Some states have very dominant parties Even then, the parties then divide into factions

20 Think tanks Research organizations that provide information on public policy Private, sometimes ideological Be careful! Sometimes their ideologies are not immediately obvious! University, often research-oriented Their goals To provide research and information for policy makers to promote “the public interest” To influence public policy, often in a way consistent with their ideological perspective

21 Think tanks Their numbers have grown—why?
Desire for influence in politics Ideological sponsorship The proliferation of particular interests What’s the difference between think tanks and interest groups Organization Goals Techniques for asserting influence

22 The news media Serve as “watch dogs” that keep track of government
This is the role assumed in the first amendment This is sometimes referred to as “muckraking” or investigative journalism What sort of reforms were promoted by the “muckrakers”?

23 How effective are the media as watch dogs?
Very little news (<1%) is the result of investigative journalism. Most news in an average news paper is wire service copy, press releases, etc. Much of what is printed or aired is because of the beat system and personal relationships with sources. Is the internet going to be a “better” alternative source of news?

24 News emphases and biases
Personalized news Dramatized news Fragmented news Normalized news How do news biases influence public policy? Distorted agendas Distorted “facts” This is not ideological bias These are organizational biases in journalism

25 Trends in news and “new media”
Disturbing trends for old media The number of newspapers has declined The circulation of newspapers has declined Daily viewership of the main network news is down

26 Figure 5.2: Number of U.S. Newspapers, 1940-2008

27 Figure 5.3: Newspaper Circulation, Daily and Sunday, 1940-2008

28 Figure 5.4: Number of Daily Viewers of Evening Network TV News, 1980-2006

29 Why does this matter for policy?
Declines in news consumption start before the “internet revolution” News audiences are becoming narrower, lots of fractioning Local news is suffering greatly—local affairs receive less attention as outlets lose money National newspapers are still important, in print and on line All news sources are accommodating themselves to the new media environment

30 Figure 5.5: Trends in Home Internet Adoption, 2000 to 2009

31 Figure 5.6: Most Commonly Visited Types of Internet News Sites, February 2008

32 Implications of new media
More broadband capacity But is this being used for news? Or for entertainment? Capacity exists for video, audio, interactivity, podcasting News comes from the same sort of sources About 10% of news is truly “new media” Same sources, same newsgathering routines = same information biases

33 Summary: news and public policy
The media environment is changing, although not fundamentally The news is a venue for interest group activity and attention seeking The news media aren’t policy makers’ only information resource The media help shape what we think about, not what we think

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