Policy-Making Process
Wilson 17A
Objective Questions
Who Governs?• Does some political elite
dominate American politics?
• Do powerful interest groups decide what policies our government should adopt?
To What Ends?• Why are Social Security
payments popular but welfare payments to unwed mothers unpopular?
• Why were government regulations on certain industries repealed over the objection of those industries?
Theory of policy-making
• Policies not made the same way• Many issues• Political agenda – issues that people believe require government
action• Four types• Majoritarian: distributed benefits, distributed costs• Interest Groups: concentrated benefits, concentrated costs• Client Politics: concentrated benefits, distributed costs• Entrepreneurial: distributed benefits, concentrated costs
Growth of Agenda
• Until 1930 the national political agenda small• Determining what is legitimate• Shared political values• Custom and tradition• Impact of events• Political elites
• Big Government• Nonpartisan examples
Legitimacy
• Impact of events• Public demand grows with event• War• Depression• Disaster
• New issues without public demand• Behavior of groups• Workings of institutions• Opinions of elites• Action of state governments
Setting Agenda
• Relative deprivation – when people start to become better off and realize that they are worse off than they ought to be
• Institutions – use courts, bureaucracy, and the Senate to influence political agenda• Professionalism of reform – government went from reacting to
becoming the source• Media – must decide what proposals get reported, not easy to
decide cause and effect
Making Decisions
• Starting in the states• Pioneering legislation• Working through the courts
• Which groups will be active?• Cost – burden that people believe they must pay• Benefit – satisfaction they believe they will enjoy• Influenced by perception and legitimacy• Who will benefit or pay?• Who ought to benefit or pay?
• Form political coalitions