PUBLIC POLICY

POLI 367 ANALYSIS

 TOPIC ONE

NATURE AND SCOPE OF PUBLIC POLICY

ANALYSIS
DEFINING POLICY, DECISION AND PROGRAMME
Decision: the art of judgement.’ A conscious choice between
two or more alternatives
Policy: it involves more specific decisions in relation to a
matter of concern. A broad goals, objectives and means.
Programme: concrete actions to achieve the objectives of a
stated policy.
DEFINING PROJECT AND PLANNING

Project: a sequence of task, planned from the beginning to

end, bounded by time, resources and required results.
Planning: The process of making decisions for the future of
individuals and organizations.
DISTINCTION B/N POLICY AND DECISION
They are all about making a choice.
Policy is larger than decision; a policy is concerned with
issues of wider ramifications.
A policy takes long-term perspective of things.
Decision-maker can be one person or group of people.
Policy making involve interaction between multiple actors
and institutions.
DISTINCTION B/N POLICY AND PROGRAMME
Policy is a broad statement of goals, objectives and means
Programme consists of the actions taken to achieve the
ends of stated policy.
Programme is an action and policy is something on paper.
Variety of programmes may be developed in response to
the same policy goals.
 SOME DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC POLICY
Thomas Dye: ‘What government do, why they do it and what
difference it makes.’
David Easton: ‘The impact of government.’ activity.’
James Anderson: ‘A purposive course of action followed by
an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter
of concern.’
 FEATURES OF PUBLIC POLICY
It involves what government intend to do and what they actually
do.
It is a complex and dynamic process
It involves ideally all levels of government, and not restricted to
formal actors
It is action-oriented.
It promotes the public interest as opposed to sectional interest.
Public policy is pervasive.
Public policy is futuristic
 TYPOLOGY OF PUBLIC POLICIES
Theodore Lowi (1964)
•Distributive policy – Policies that seek to distribute, or cannot prevent distributing benefits to
everyone.
•Regulatory Policy - designed to limit the actions of persons or groups. Seek to control
behavior or taste and preferences. Fines for non-compliance.
•Redistributive Policy - Redistribution of benefits from the “better off” to the “less-well-
off”(agrarian). These policies are the most controversial and contentious. (e.g. NHIS, Land
forms)
Material and Symbolic Policies – material policies provide substantive or tangible benefits
to their beneficiaries. Symbolic policies provide no real tangible benefits. Rather appeal to the
values held in common by individuals (patriotism, social justice, equality).
Substantive and Procedural Policies (James Anderson)- substantive policies are what
government intends to do. Provide individuals with costs and benefits. Procedural policies are
how some things will be done or who will do it.
 IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING PUBLIC POLICY
•Practicalreasons: Better informed the citizens and prepares him/her to
understand issues to become a more responsible citizen in an age of
participatory democracy.
•Political reasons: the information generated will be good for
comparative analysis and best practices. It will also influence voters and
their preferences. It is also relevant for policy advocacy.
•Professional/problem solving perspective: Factual knowledge is a key to
prescribing for the ills of society.
•Scientific purpose: A better understanding of the causes and
consequences of public policies allow experts to make recommendations.
DEFINING PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
•Analysis is deconstructing an object of study–breaking it down into its elements to
understand it better.
Policy analysis is a process of multidisciplinary inquiry aiming at the creation, critical
assessment, and communication of policy-relevant knowledge ().
•Thomas Dye: The description and explanation of the causes and consequences of
government activity.
•Garry Brewer & Peter DeLeon: an attempt or effort to provide suggestions to policy
makers.
•There is a primary concern with explanation rather than prescription.
•It encourages deliberate critical thinking about the causes of public problems, the
way the actors act on them and which policy choices make the most sense.
•As a problem-solving discipline, it draws on social science methods, theories, and
substantive findings to solve practical problems.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
•Primary concern with explanation rather than prescription.

•A rigorous search for the causes and consequences of public policies.

•Develop general theories that are reliable and apply to different agencies and
policy areas through case studies.
 TOPIC TWO

THE PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS

 THE POLICY PROCESS/CYCLE
•Public policy making is a conveyor belt
•The process of disaggregating the cycle into a series of
discrete phases/stages.
•Breaks the process making process into clear and identifiable
steps.
•No agreement on the phases or stages
•Six-stage model analytical device to study public policy
STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Policy
termination

Policy change Agenda setting

Policy process

Policy
Monitoring& Policy
Evaluation formulation

Policy
implementation
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 1: AGENDA SETTING
•The process by which problem comes to the attention government.
•List of problems to which some government officials are paying some
serious attention at any given time.
•Policy agenda arises from competition among voices seeking attention.
•Many of the problems are not acted upon at all, while others are
addressed only after long delays.
•Agenda is often set by influential elites in government or access to
decision makers.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 2: POLICY FORMULATION
•Exploration of the various options available for addressing a matter of
concern.
•Involves developing and evaluating proposed solutions and programmes.
•Courses of action for problem resolution.
•Some problems have a single solution, but most can be addressed in
variety of ways.
•Passage of legislation to remedy a past, current or anticipated future
problem.
•It also involves authorization or justifying policy action.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 2: POLICY FORMULATION cont.
Who makes policy proposals?
Key actors involved in policy formulation in Ghana include:
•Governmental agencies/career bureaucrats,
•Presidential staffers
•International actors and interests groups.
•However, political executive retains a dominance of
influence in the policy formulation.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
•The set of activities directed towards putting a programme into
effect.
•The factors that promote the realization or non-realization of
policy objectives.
•It entails three activities: organization(resources);
interpretation(translating the programme’s language, plans
directives) and application (routine provision of services, payments,
etc.)
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 3: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
As a process, it refers to a series of governmental decisions and
actions directed toward putting an already decided mandate into
effect.
As an output, it refers to the means by which goals are pursued
(expenditures to solve a problem).
As an outcome, it refers to the changes in the larger societal
problem that the programme is intended to rectify(have crime
rates been reduced?)
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION MODELS
•Two models:
TOP-DOWN
•Central actors in the design of public policy and the factors manipulated
from the centre.
•The capacity of implementers to put into practice problem areas
BOTTOM-UP
•Decentral-problem solving of local actors
•Focus on the motive and action of actors in carrying out the programme.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 3: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Who Implements Public Policy?
policy implementation falls within the domain of a complex array of
administrative agencies.
•bureaucracies or administrative agencies
•the legislature
•Judicial action/Courts
•Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 3: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Problems of Implementation
•Incomplete specification
•Inappropriate agency
•Poor incentive systems
•Limited competencies
•Inadequate administrative resources
•Communication failure
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 4: POLICY MONITORING AND EVALUATION
•What happens after a policy is implemented.
•The actual impacts of legislation or the extent of the policy achieving its
intended results or objectives.
Monitoring:
•It is the systematic process of collecting, analysing and using information to
track a programme’s progress toward reaching its objectives and to guide
management decisions.
•Monitoring is conducted after a programme has begun and continues
throughout the programme implementation period.
•Monitoring is sometimes referred to as process or formative evaluation.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 4: POLICY MONITORING AND EVALUATION cont.
Evaluation
•Evaluation involves the appraisal or assessment of a policy, its content, implementation, goal
attainment, and other effects (Anderson 2011).
•Evaluation refers to the production of information about the worth or value of policy
outcomes.
•It also seeks to identify factors that contributed to the success or failure of a policy.
•Information gained through evaluation feeds back into the ongoing policy process.
•Evaluation involves measuring outputs; comparing output performance against the desired
results; and correcting any deviations or inadequacies.
•Policy evaluators: policymakers; policy executors(inside government); and think tanks,
experts or consultants (outside government).
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 4: POLICY MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Criteria for Policy Evaluation
•Effectiveness
•Efficiency
•Adequacy
•Equity
•Responsiveness
•Impact
•Relevance
•Sustainability
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Activities of Policy Evaluation process
•Measuring output (performance measurement)
•Comparing output performance against desired results
•Correcting any deviation or inadequacies.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 5: POLICY CHANGE
•Redesigning or modification of the policy to begin afresh.
•The change could be moderate or extensive.
•It may represent a major departure from existing efforts.
Factors Necessitating Policy Change
•Changes in societal dynamics
•New policies may contradict or invalidate an existing policy
•The legality or constitutionality of a policy is challenged
•Technological changes alter the feasibility or relevance of a policy.
•Change in political administration/Power.
•New discoveries or revelations alter public support, changes in
economic and political conditions.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 6: POLICY TERMINATION
•Ending outdated or inadequate policies.
•It is one of the policy changes that might be considered,
although it is rare.
•Termination can be sudden–“big bang” or along one as a
result of declining resources to run a programme or policy.
 STAGES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
Stage 6: POLICY TERMINATION cont.
•Reasons for Policy Termination
Public policies are sometimes terminated for the following reasons:
when the policy is no longer effective.
 when the need for the programme no longer exists, a policy may be terminated.
budgetary requirements which are sometimes considered as prohibitive may force
the end of the policy or programme.
It also happens that an evaluation study makes the case that if the policy is
unsatisfactory in impact or outcome, it must be terminated.
Also the political environment may no longer support the goals of a policy and
finally, some policies or programmes are terminated purely for ideological
reasons.
 STRENGTHS OF THE POLICY CYCLE
•It disaggregates complex phenomena into manageable steps
•It allows some synthesis of existing knowledge.
•It helps see policymaking as a process rather than just a set of
institutions–a process which transcends particular institutions or
policy designs.
•It serves as a description of policy-making to assist in making
sense of policy development.
•It is normative in suggesting and defending the view that a
particular sequence is an appropriate way to approach the
policy task.
 WEAKNESSES OF THE POLICY CYCLE
•It is presented as if the policy making is a linear activity.
•The cycle lacks the notion of causation.
•The interplay of politics, policy and administration is
complex game.
•The policy cycle is a normative model, there is a risk that it
may impose too great a neatness on policy making which is
renowned for complexity and discontinuity.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
•Public policy is not made in vacuum.
•Policy elites work within several interlocking contexts which shape the
type of problems they will have to address.
•Public policy is influenced by the context within which it is made.
•The environment refers to the setting or context in which policy making
takes place.
•The actors, institutions and factors that shape public policies and
programmes.
•Actors/Players two types: Primary/Official and secondary/unofficial
•The environment is divided into two aspects: internal and external.
•The factors may be positive or negative.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
The Executive
•The most important in the executive branch is the head of state
(President/Prime Ministers).
•The other decision makers are Cabinet members, head of state-owned
corporations and advisers.
•Executive possess a range of resources that strengthen it position in policy
matters:
1. Information which it withhold, releases and manipulate.
2. Control over fiscal resources.
3. Access to the media in publicizing it position and undermine its
opponents.
4. Power to control the timing and introduction of law in the legislature.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
The Legislature
•The debating and scrutinizing chamber.
•The legislature make laws that becomes public policy.
•Taxation, social welfare, environmental protection and consumer protection are
shaped by legislatures.
•Approve government bills and budgets.
•Simply, legitimation of decisions made.
Challenges in Policy making
1. The nature of problem considered.
2. Lack of logistics and lower level of education
3. The dominant position of the executive
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
The Judiciary
•Influence content of public policy through Judicial Review.
•Judicial Review is the right given to the judiciary to declare all acts of
either the executive/legislature null and void if they are found to be
in conflict with the constitution.
•Interpret and decide the meaning of statutory provisions with
conflicting interpretation.
•Verdicts/judgement of the courts decisions contributes to public
policy.
•Judicial review depends on the independence of the judiciary
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
The Bureaucracy
•A collection of agencies designed to carry out relatively specific tasks.
•The role of the state has expanded in the 20th century
•Technicality and complexity of many public policies and programmes.
•Lobbying and exertion of pressure
•Possession of range of skills and expertise
•Repository of information and formulation of public policies through
policy memoranda and policy issue papers.
•The link between past and present government.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
Societal Organizations
Religions bodies, student movements, labour unions, military,
media, Individual citizens.
Interest Groups
Sent memoranda on issues to legislative committees.
Influence public policy through advocacy and militancy
Activities depends on the nature/type of political administration
Media – setting of agenda
Religious groups – discussion of non religious issues (e.g. birth
control).
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
Societal Organizations cont.
Traditional Authorities influence public policy through sending of
delegation, lobbying and celebration of festivals.
Office of the First Lady through the setting up of NGOs for
advocacy.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
International Organizations
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
World Bank
World Trade Organization (WTO)
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
Administrative Capacity
The administrative capacity determines what policies can be initiated and pursued with
effectiveness and efficiency.
Availability of requisite human resources, skills and experiences as well as how efficient the
public service.
The administrative capacity of the state of Ghana is weak and this impact adversely on its
capacity to formulate and implement public policies and programmes.
Economic Conditions
The level of economic development impose limits on what government can do in providing
public goods and services to the society.
the performance of public enterprises, levels of inflation and industrial activities have the
potential of hindering any effort of initiating a policy change.
 THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT
Political Culture
•Political culture refers to those widely held values, beliefs and attitudes concerning what
government should try to do.
•Military intervention in Ghanaian politics literally turned the citizens into very passive
actors in the policy making process.
Historical Context

International Context
 APPROACHES OF PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
Descriptive Models
•Concerned with the way the participants in the public policy making behave.
•Recognition of the factors involved in the public policy making process.
•The actual process of policy making
Institutional Model: policy as institutional output.
Elite-Mass Theory; policy as elite preferences.
Group Theory: policy as group equilibrium.
Networks Model: fragmentation of policy making.
Process Model: policy as political activity.
Systems Theory: policy as systems input and output.
 DESCRIPTIVE MODELS
Elite Model
•Public policy is seen as reflecting the values and preferences of the governing elite.
•The masses do not determine public policy through their demands and actions.
•Policies are determined by the elite and implemented by the public officials and agencies.
•The people are apathetic and ill-informed about public policy
Characteristics of Elite Model
•Society is divided into the few who have power and the many who do not. Only a small
number of persons decide allocate values for society
•The few who govern are not typical of the masses who are governed. The elite are drawn
disproportionately from the upper socio-economic strata of society.
•The movement of the non-elite to the elite status/position must be slow and continuous to
maintain stability and avoid revolution.
 DESCRIPTIVE MODELS
Characteristics of Elite Model
•The elite share consensus on the basic values of the social system and the
preservation of the system.
•Public policy does not reflect demands of the masses but rather the
prevailing preferences of the elite. Change in public policy will be
incremental rather than revolutionary.
•Active elites are subject to relatively little direct influence from the apathetic
masses.
It identifies the contribution of specific group involved in policy formulation
and implementation.
 the elite model gives a false impression that the elites have consensus of
opinion on policy and that the perspective of the masses are secondary to
the interest of the elite.
 DESCRIPTIVE MODELS
Group Model

Characteristics of the Group Model

•Group model rests on the contention that the interaction and struggle among groups are the central
fact of political life.
•Public policy at any given time, will reflect the interest of dominant groups.
•Public policy at any given point in time is the equilibrium reached in the group struggle.
•Public policy moves in the direction desired by the group gaining influence and away from the
desires of groups losing influence
•The influence of groups is determined by their numbers, wealth, organizational strengths,
leadership, access to decision makers and internal cohesion.
 DESCRIPTIVE MODELS
System Model
•Developed by David Easton in 1965.
•Inputs into the political system from the environment consist of demands and
supports.
•Demands are the claims made by individuals and groups on the political system
for action to satisfy their interest.
•Support is rendered when groups and individual abide by election results,
payment of taxes, obey laws etc.
•The political system responds to demands and support in the process of
policymaking and produce outputs (decisions, law and policies) that overtime
may create real changes (policy outcomes).
 DESCRIPTIVE MODELS
System Model
•Conversion box: institutions/structures. Sometimes refers to as the “black box”
•Feedback from outputs and outcomes can alter the environment and create
new demands or support. Feedback loop is for learning.
•Environment refers to both domestic and international environment.
•The political system is stable when demands and support are met and when
there are gatekeepers to mediate in terms of overload of demands.
Simple way to portray how governments respond to society’s demands.
It emphasizes the larger socio-economic and cultural context in which decisions
and policy choices are made (preference for low taxes).