Domestic Policy

•Last time: Get Out the Vote campaigning

•Today: the politics of domestic policy

GOTV and Nathan Henderson-James

• What did we learn from Nathan’s presentation?– Project Vote’s labor-intensive approach seems

to work quite well, at an estimated cost of ~$15-$20 per voter turned out

– personal contact and personalized telephone contacts are effective; depersonalized contacts are not

– Are these voters “permanently” mobilized?

Domestic policy

• the text refers to several types of policy:– distributive: benefit allocations from a common

pool of (renewable) “found” resources– regulatory: command-and-control policies

governing economic and social interactions, using the police powers of the government to shape incentives

– redistributive: transfers of wealth or income from members of one group to members of another group

Presidents and domestic policy• distributive policies: prez can help MCs

negotiate logrolls; reversion pts usually are remote (annual bills)

• regulatory policies: to what degree can the prez manage the bureaucracy and the courts?

• redistributive policies: reversionary policies usually are not remote (permanent authorizations/appropriations; entitlements)

Presidents and bureaucrats• What do bureaucrats want?• What do prez & Congress want vis-à-vis bureaucrats?

– If prez and Congress have different interests, MCs may abdicate control over parts of the bureaucracy

– can MCs be held collectively responsible for macro-economic or social outcomes? Not easily. But prez can be.

– blame game: MCs may prefer to position-take rather than actually try to control policy outcomes

• Delegation problems: hidden info, hidden action; Madison’s dilemma

• Managing delegations: – screening and selection mechanisms– contract design– monitoring and reporting requirements– institutional checks

Prez management tools• Signing statements: rhetorical device to

interpret legislative intent– why should anyone treat as credible statements

made by the prez at this stage?

• Appointment powers

• Executive orders: quasi-legislative statements about leg. intent or decree-like, policy-making devices– under what conditions should bureaucrat action

be shaped by E.O.s?