Transcript KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY

KAY 386: PUBLIC POLICY
LECTURE 2
Reading: Parsons, pp. 16-41.
Course Agenda

Course Syllabus and Slides will be
available at



http://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~myildiz/
Select the readings to be read after the
midterm
Select the topics for newspaper
assignments
Meanings of Public Policy

Public policy (PP) as rationalization of the
state and politics as a policy-making activity.


Concerned with what decision policy makers have
or do not have.
Empirical assumptions:


the laws that govern human behavior exist
independent of human control,
the units of analysis in social systems are highly
similar over time and space.
Enlightenment Notion in PP

Background of the growth of the policy approach


Policy science as the desire for knowledgeable
governance.


The world is full of puzzles and problems which, through the
application of human reason and knowledge, could be
solved.
The acquisition of facts and knowledge about problems so as
to formulate better solutions.
The analysis of policy requires that we have an
understanding of the historical, legal, anthropological
and geographical contexts of PP.
The growth of PP




The growth of PP as a distinct field of
academic activity may be dated to the late
1960s.
In 1972 the Policy Studies Organization
was founded.
1970s and 1980s witnessed an explosion of
think-tanks and research institutions in which
interdisciplinary approaches to policy thrived.
In the 1980s and 1990s the PP field has
spread beyond America to other countries.
The growth of PP-2



Expansion of government as a problem
solver
In the US, in 1960s, governments
increasingly required more information
and analysis about education, transport,
health, etc.
A belief in social science as a form of
engineering and medicine.
Harold Lasswell

A pre-eminent moving spirit behind the
growth of a policy science approach.





Supply of data is needed for the making of rational
judgements on policy decisions
Policy sciences are contextual, problem-oriented,
multidisciplinary, multi-method, and involved in
the synthesis of ideas and techniques.
Policy scientist is an integrator of knowledge and
action.
Policy analysis is “speaking truth to power”.
Setting up of early think-tanks in 1940s.
Other Important PP Scholars



Herbert Simon- bounded rationality
Charles Lindblom- incremental approach
David Easton- proposing a model of political
“system”


Conceptualizing the relationship between policymaking, policy outputs and its wider
“environment”.
Yehezkel Dror and Lindblom agree that
policy-making is far too complex to be
captured in any model.
Institutional Settings
Institutional settings that one can find
policy analysts (not mutually exclusive):







Universities
Independent research institutions & think-tanks
In-house policy units
Pressure and lobby groups
Political parties
Freelance consultants
PP Frames



Frames of analysis are models of organizing problems, giving
them a form and coherence.
It involves constructing a boundary around reality which is
shared, or held in common by a group or community.
Main frames in PP are:








Welfare Economics
Public Choice
Social Structure
Information Processing
Political Philosophy
Political Process
Comparative Politics
Management
Political Policy Processes in PP


Stagist approaches
Pluralist-elitist approaches


Neo-Marxist approaches


Application of Marxian ideas on PP
Sub-system approaches


Focusing on power and its distribution
Application of communities, networks…
Policy discourse approaches

Influence of language and communication
patterns on PP
Comparative PP approaches (not
mutually exclusive)

Socio-economic approaches


Party government approaches


How political forms of class struggle affect PP
Neo-corporatist approaches


How party competition and partisan control of government
matters to PP
Class struggle approaches


How PP is the outcome of economic and social factors
Influence of organized interests on PP
Institutionalist approaches

The role of the state and social institutions in shaping PP
Methods of the comparative
PP approach



Single case studies of one party area in
one country
Statistical analysis of several case
studies and countries
A more focused comparison of a policy
area or sector between a selected
number of comparable countries
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS


Does human behavior, on which policy
analysis is based, depend on universal
principles?
Did Turkey/Turkish scientists produce
any original solutions to public policy
problems, which became an example to
other countries?