Week 2:

Key Concepts in Public Policy

PA 241
RBCruz, UP NCPAG
 Agenda
• Introduction
• Overview of Course Syllabus
• Key Concepts
– Public Policy
– Typologies
– Policy Process
– Analysis of Public Policy
• Readings for Next Week
1. Overview of Course Syllabus
Course Description and Objectives
• PA 241 is a survey course on public policy and its
representative literature. It introduces graduate
students to the concepts, models, processes,
methodological and practical issues in public
policy.
• The course aims to develop a basic understanding
of core concepts in public policy and to improve
analytic skills in applying these concepts to issues
of interest to the student.
 Course Content
• Key Concepts and Disciplinary Foundations
• Rationales for Public Policy
• Public Policy Models and Approaches
• Policy Process and Subsystem Politics
• Policy Analysis and Research
• Policy Implementation and Evaluation
 Requirements and Grading
• Annotated Biblio — 25%
• Midterm Exam — 30%
• Policy Issue Paper — 35%
• Class Participation — 10%
 Reminders
• Student Info Card
• Google Drive
• Readings in pdf
• 2012 Code of Student Conduct
– Absences
– Intellectual Dishonesty
2. Key Concepts
 Readings for Today
• Anderson, James E. (2015). Public Policymaking: An Introduction. 8th
edition. Chapter 1, “The Study of Public Policy.” Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company.
• Dye, Thomas R. (2013). Understanding Public Policy. 14th edition.
Chapter 1, “Policy Analysis: What Governments Do, Why They Do It,
and What Difference It Makes.”
• Hogwood, Brian and Lewis A. Gunn (1984). Policy Analysis for the Real
World. Chapter 2, “Analyzing Public Policy.” Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
• Ocampo, Romeo (2003). “The Nature of and Need for Policy Studies.”
In Introduction to Public Administration Public Administration in the
Philippines: A Reader, 2nd edition.
 Key Questions
• What is public policy?
• What are the common typologies of public
policies?
• What are the stages of the policy process?
• Why adopt a process perspective?
• What are the different types of analysis of
public policy?
Public Policy
 What is Public Policy?

• Cite an example of public policy.

• Why do you say it’s “public policy”?
 What is Public Policy?
Various ways the word “policy” is used
• As label for a field of activity
• As expression of general purpose or desired state of affairs
• As specific proposals
• As decisions of government
• As formal authorization
• As program
• As output
• As outcome
• As theory or model
• As process
Source: Hogwood et al. 1984
 What is Public Policy?
• Policy is to be distinguished from “decision”
• Policy is less readily distinguishable from
“administration”
• Policy involves behavior as well as intentions
• Policy involves inaction as well as action
• Policies have outcomes which may or may not
have been foreseen
• Policy is a purposive course of action but
purposes may be defined retrospectively
Source: Hogwood et al. (1984)
 What is Public Policy?
• Policy arises from a process over time
• Policy involves intra and inter-organizational
relationships
• Public policy involves a key, but not exclusive,
role for public agencies
• Policy is subjectively defined

Source: Hogwood et al. (1984)

 What is Public Policy?
• Developed by governmental bodies and officials
• Purposive or goal-oriented action
• Courses or patterns of action followed over time
• A response to policy demands
• Involves what governments actually do
• May either be positive or negative
• Based on law and its authoritative

Source: Anderson (2015).

 What is Public Policy?
• A rule of action, manifesting or clarifying specific
organizational goals, objectives, values or ideals,
often prescribing the obligatory and most
desirable ways and means of their
accomplishment. Such a rule for action
established for the purpose of framing, guiding,
or directing organizational activities, including
decision-making intends to provide relative
stability, consistency, uniformity and continuity in
the operations of the organization. (Nicolaidis 1963)
 What is Public Policy?
• A policy is a purposive course of action or
inaction followed by an actor or set of actors in
dealing with a problem or matter of concern
(Anderson 2015).
• What government choose to do or not to do (Dye
2013).
• An expression of political rationality. To have a
policy is to have a rational reasons or arguments
which contain both a claim to an understanding
of a problem and solution. It puts forward what
is and what ought to be done. A policy offers a
kind of theory upon which a claim for legitimacy
is made (Parsons 1995).
Typologies of Public Policy
 Categories of Public Policies
• Material policies
• Symbolic policies
• Policies involving
– collective goods
– private goods
 Categories of Public Policies
• Constituent policy
• Distributive policy
• Regulatory policy
• Self-regulatory policy
• Redistributive policy
Lowi, Theodore J. (1972). Four Systems of Policy, Politics, and Choice. Public
Administration Review 32(4): July-August, 298-310.
CLASSIFICATION OF POLICY TYPES
POLICY TYPE CHARACTERIS- CHARACTERIS- EXAMPLES GUIDING
TICS OF POLICY ITCS OF ARENA PRINCIPLES

Distributive Collective public • Consensual • Research grants Incentives

provision • No opposition/ • General tax
resistance reduction
Redistributive Relation • Conflictual • Progressive Imposition by
between costs • Polarization taxation the state
and benefits between winners • Labor market
obvious and losers policy
• Ideological • Social
framing assistance
Regulatory (Legal) norms • Changing • Consumer • Imposition by
for behavior/ coalitions protection the state
interaction according to the • Safety at work • Persuasion
distribution of • Protection of • Guidance by
costs and benefits environment exemplary
models
• Self-regulation
Heinelt, Hubert. “Do Policies Determine Politics?” In Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theories,
Politics, and Methods, pp. 109-119. Edited by Fischer, Frank et al. NY: Taylor & Francis., 2007
Policy Process
 Stages of Policy Process
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

Policy Policy Policy Policy Policy

Agenda Formulation Adoption Implementation Evaluation

Getting the Getting the

What is
govt to govt to accept Applying the
proposed to Did the policy
consider the a particular govt’s policy to
be done about work?
action on the solution to the the problem
the problem
problem problem
 Stages of Policy Process
POLICY 1st Stage 2ND Stage 3rd Stage 4th Stage 5the Stage 6th Stage
TERMINO- PROBLEM POLICY POLICY POLICY POLICY POLICY
LOGY FORMATION AGENDA FORMULATION ADOPTION IMPLEMENTA EVALUATION
TION
DEFINITION Relief is sought Those Development of Development Application of Attempt by
from a problems, pertinent and of support for the policy by the govt to
situation that among many, acceptable a specific the determine
produces a which receive proposed proposal such government’s whether or
human need, the courses of that the policy bureaucratic not the policy
deprivation, or government’s action for is legitimized machinery to has been
dissatisfaction serious dealing with or authorized the problem effective
attention public problems
COMMON Getting the Getting the The govt’s Getting the Applying the Did the policy
SENSE govt to see the govt to begin proposed govt to accept govt’s policy work?
problem to act on the solution to the a particular to the
problem problem solution to problem
the problem

Sources:
Anderson (2015).
Bucholz, Rogene A. (1990). Essentials of Public Policy Management, 2nd ed. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
 Stages of Policy Process
• Deciding to decide (issue search or agenda
setting)
• Deciding how to decide (or issue filtration)
• Issue definition
• Forecasting
• Setting objectives and priorities
• Options analysis
• Policy implementation, monitoring, and control
• Evaluation and review
• Policy maintenance, succession, or termination
Source: Hogwood et al. (1984).
 Why the Policy Process?
• The policy process approach centers attention
on the officials and institutions who make
policy decisions and the factors that influence
and condition their actions.
• Its sequential nature thus helps one capture
and comprehend the flow of action in the
actual policy process.
• It is flexible and open to change and
refinement.
 Why the Policy Process?
• It helps present a dynamic and
developmental, rather than static and cross-
sectional, view of the policy process.
• The policy process approach is not culture
bound.
Source: Anderson 2015.

Q: What do you think are the limitations of a

policy process approach?
 Major Criticisms Against
the Policy Cycle or Stagist Approach
• The notion of a policy cycle ignores the real world of
policy-making which involves multiple levels of
government and interacting cycles.
• It characterizes policy-making as essentially “top-
down,” and fails to take account of “street level” and
other actors.
• It does not provide causal explanation of how policy
moves from one stage to another.
• It cannot be tested on an empirical basis.
• It does not provide for an integrated view of the
analysis of the policy process and analysis (knowledge,
information, research) which is used in the policy
process. Policy analysis does not just take place in the
“evaluation” phase.
Different Types of Analysis
 Different Types of Analysis

Study of Study of Study of Evalua- Informa- Process Policy

Policy Policy Policy tion tion for Advocacy Advocacy
Content Process Output Policy
Making Analyst as Political
Political Actor as
Actor Analyst

POLICY STUDIES POLICY ANALYSIS

(Knowledge of policy and the policy process) (Knowledge in the policy process)

Source: Hogwood et al. (1984)

Policy Analysis and Policy Advocacy
• Policy analysis is finding out what
governments do, why they do it, and what
different, if any, it makes.
• Policy analysis – explaining the causes and
consequences of various policies.
• Policy advocacy – prescribing what policies
governments out to pursue.

Source: Dye (2013).

 Policy Analysis
• A primary concern with explanation rather
than prescription.
• A rigorous search for the causes and
consequences of public policies.
• An effort to develop and test general
propositions about the causes and
consequences of public policy and to
accumulate reliable research findings of
general relevance.
Source: Dye (2013).
 STUDYING PUBLIC POLICY, ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

Society Political System Public Policy

Institutions,
processes,
behaviors B
A
E F

Social and C
Public
economic
D policies
conditions
Linkage A: What are the effects of social economic conditions on political and
governmental institutions, processes, and behaviors?
Linkage B: What are the effects of political and governmental institutions, processes, and
behaviors on public policies?
Linkage C: What are the effects of social and economic conditions on public policies?
Linkage D: What are the effects (feedback) of public policies on social and economic
conditions?
Linkage E: What are the effects (feedback) of political and governmental institutions,
processes, and behaviors on social and economic conditions?
Linkage F: What are the effects (feedback) of public policies on political and governmental
institutions, processes, and behaviors? Source: Dye (2013).
 The Characteristics of Policy Analysis
• Applied rather than pure
• Interdisciplinary as well as multi-disciplinary
• Politically sensitive planning
• Client-oriented

Source: Hogwood et al. (1984).

 Limitations of Policy Analysis
• Limits on government power
• Disagreement over the problem
• Subjectivity in interpretation
• Limitations on design of human research
• Complexity of human behavior
• Policy analysis as art and craft

Source: Dye (2013).

 Readings for Next Week
• Dunn, William (2008). Chapters 2.
• Ocampo, Romeo (2003). “The Nature of and Need for Policy
Studies.” In Intro to PA in the Philippines: A Reader, 2nd edition.
• De Leon et al (2006). “The Policy Sciences: Past, Present,
Future.” In Handbook of Public Policy, edited by B. Guy Peters.

Read in advance:
• Weimer and Vining (2005). Policy Analysis: Concepts and
Practice. Chapters 4-8, 10.