Public Policies- IIAgenda Setting

Agenda setting

• An agenda is a list of issues or problems towhich governmental officials and others in the policy community are paying someserious attention at any given time.

• Agenda setting is about a governmentrecognizing that a problem is a “public” problem worthy of its attention .

Agenda setting• the determination and definition of what constitutes

the “problem” that subsequent policy actions areintended to resolve

• the process by which the demands of various groupsin the population are translated into items thatgovernments consider for action.

• Problems:– many critical public problems fail to reach official policy

agendas, while many relatively minor concerns do; and– the poor framing of public problems leads to

preoccupation with ineffective and/or wasteful solutionsthat preclude consideration of alternative solutions withthe potential to resolve the problem

Agenda Setting: Features

• is nonlinear,• is political as well as technical, and• takes place within a complex network of state

and societal actors

Agenda Setting: Features

• We need to understand:– the material interests of both social and state

actors in relation to any particular issue,– the institutional and ideological contexts in which

they operate, and– the potential for change in the contingent

circumstances that shape discussions and debateson public issues.

Agenda Setting: ActorsState actors, including elected officials as well as

appointed administrators

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/basbakan_her_kurtaj_bir_uluderedir-1089235

Agenda Setting: Actors• it is sometimes possible for individuals, acting

as activists, litigants, or voters, to bring itemsto the government agenda.

http://seyircikedi.com/details.php?id=982

Agenda Setting: Actors• it is more common for agenda items to

emerge from organized “collective” actors, such as interest groups, religiousorganizations, companies, labor unions, associations, think tanks, or other kinds of policy research organizations.

http://www.sondakika.com/haber/haber-hakkari-de-ihd-hasta-tutuklulara-dikkat-cekti-5683299/

Agenda Setting: Actors• “the public” often plays a rather small and

only indirect role in the public policy process.

Agenda Setting: Actors• researchers working at universities, research

institutes, and think tanks.

http://t24.com.tr/haber/prof-cemal-saydam-kanal-istanbul-yapilirsa-istanbul-curuk-yumurta-kokacak/246022

Agenda Setting: Actors• In societies with a relatively free press, the

media can also play an important role in bringing issues onto the public and governmentagendas.

http://www.gazeteciler.com/kulis/imrali-zabitlari-ankarayi-birbirine-katti-63325h.html

Agenda Setting: Actors

International actors play an increasinglysignificant role in policy agenda setting.

http://one.wfp.org/operations/Procurement/food_pro_map_12/foodmap.html

Agenda Setting: Inside Initiation• the government controls almost every aspect of problem definition

and issue articulation. • government officials can often place an issue onto the formal

agenda of government even in the absence of a publicly recognizedgrievance.

• There may be considerable debate within a government over theissue, but the public may well be unaware of the policy and itsdevelopment until its formal announcement.

• Inside initiation also includes situations when influential groupswith special access to the government initiate a policy without thegeneral public’s involvement.

• The wish to exclude public scrutiny may be a result of technical as well as political reasons, for example when it is feared that an issuemight be hijacked or stalled by opponents. International lendingagencies, for example, have been alleged to have initiated in unpopular policy reforms in this manner.

Agenda Setting: Outside Initiation• issues appear on the government agenda as a result of

“pressure” from individuals, groups, and organizations outside government.

• Issues arise in a nongovernmental area and are then expanded sufficiently to reach, first, the public or informal agenda and then the formal or government agenda.

• Outside actors encounter more difficulty in seizing control of the agenda than their government counterparts but can do so through various kinds of public issue campaigns as well as insider lobbying. This can occur through a range of activities, from organizing letter-writing or media campaigns to picketing and civil disobedience.

• Government activities have an effect on the kinds of issues defined by the public as “problems,” providing a kind of “feedback” loop between government action and public problem perception and definition.

Agenda Setting: Framing

• the ways in which problems are defined and (re)framed dictates how they are treated in subsequent policy activities

• Urban transformation– Informality?– Aesthetics and health?– Disaster prevention?– Rent and economic dynamism?

Agenda Setting: Policy windows

• The concept of a “policy window” or“opportunity opening” through which an issuemay be placed onto a government agenda driveshome the point that the agenda-setting process is sometimes governed by fortuitous happeningsthat can force problems to the forefront.

• Four main types:1. routinized windows2. discretionary windows:3. random windows:4. spill-over windows:

Agenda Setting: Policy windows

routinized windows: in which routinized proceduralevents such as budget cycles dictate windowopenings;

http://bilinmeyenedair.blogspot.com.tr/

Agenda Setting: Policy windows

discretionary windows: where individual politicalbehavior on the part of decision-makers dictateswindow openings;

http://www.odatv.com/n.php?n=erdogan-idami-neden-gundeme-getirdi--1411121200

Agenda Setting: Policy windows

random windows: where unforeseenevents, such as disasters orscandals, openwindows; and

http://haber.gazetevatan.com/Kazayla_ortaya_cikan_garip_ihale_/221199/1/gundem

Agenda Setting: Policy windows

spill-over windows: where related issues are drawninto already opened windows in other sectors orissue areas, such as when rail - way safety issuesarise due to the increased attention paid toairline or automobile safety due to some crisis oraccident.

http://www.egitimekrani.com/?haber,15229

Agenda Setting: Challenges1. the policy agenda is often dominated by demands for responses to crises, but

due to the pressure and short timescale associated with them, governments areoften forced to take some easily available course of action, which can increasethe risks of making poor decisions leading to poor outcomes.

2. until a crisis breaks out, a public problem may struggle to be placed onto policyagendas.

3. agenda setting is sometimes used as a means for politicians to pay lip-service topolicy problems in order to score political points rather than make genuineefforts to address genuine problems

4. “overcrowding” of the policy agenda is a pervasive problem in agenda setting. At its root lies the reluctance of many politicians to say “no” to the inclusion of specific group problems on government agendas because of pressure from theirconstituencies and special interest groups

5. agenda setting may be hijacked by the media and/or special interest groups withlittle concern for overall government, social prior - ities, or the connections of specific problems to others.

Agenda Setting: Role of PMersStrength• professional status => sustaining

the attention• expertise and experience

=>identifing changing socialneeds

• reality check (or fact verifiers) both for policy ideas emergingfrom top or bottom

• access to information => channelto shape policy priorities

• various channels for policy issuesto coexist and complement eachother.

Challenges:• lack legitimacy in agenda setting

if their role is defined toonarrowly

• little room to maneuver if thereis tight control over their budgets, information, and activities

• lack the communication, persuasion, and negotiation skills

• may occupy a marginal positionwithin a policy community andexperience difficulty in reachingto other actors

• lack the analytical capacity—skills, resources, and necessaryinformation—required for theaccurate diagnosis of policyproblems

Agenda Setting: Alliances• Public managers can establish strategic alliances with

non-state actors through regular consultations withkey stakeholders in order to en hance theireffectiveness in agenda setting.

• Consultations strengthen their legitimacy and henceeffectiveness. Consultation with stakeholders may be organized so as to facilitate articulation andaggregation of public grievances.

• Encouraging public participation is a key method of state-led agenda setting that can trigger mobilization, stimulate “outside initiation,” or build support for andlegitimize an “inside-initiation” process