introduction to governance, politics & policy, week 3: the process & its problems

8/8/2019 Introduction to Governance, Politics & Policy, Week 3: The Process & its Problems

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Introduction to Governance,Politics & Policy

Week 3: The Process & its Problems



Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Announcements

Requests to the

Examination Committee

will be processed today…




Announcements

• When would you like to have your

Econometrics exam?

• Option 1:– Exam on Monday, Jan 10

– Resit on Friday, Jan 28

• Option 2:

– Exam on Friday, Dec 17– Resit on Friday, Jan 21




Exam Prep: General information

• The exam will consist of 4 essayquestions, answerable in ~1 page

• You have 120 minutes to answer them

– Read the question

– Outline or draft your answer

– Write your answer




Exam Prep: Grading

• Factual correctness

– Many questions have more than 1 correct

answer

– There are wrong answers

• Usually, the majority of points is

awarded for reasoning…




Reminder: Questions? Problems?

• Use the courtesy phone

!!!!"• Dial 84712

• Or 043 388 47 12 from your mobile




Exam Prep: Sample Question 1

Do you agree with the statement “governance is all about government”?

Support your opinion with arguments.




Exam Prep: Sample Question 2

Some researchers argue that civil servants have asubstantial influence on the policy process.

Others maintain that this influence is limited tospecific tasks within the process.

Which side do you favor, and why? (Give considerationto all phases of the policy process.)




Exam Prep: More Questions

Two more samplequestions will be posted by Friday (this week)




Agenda

• Previous models of the policy process

– The garbage can model

• The influence of problems

• Surviving the “alternatives” phase




Previous models

• Understanding the process by findingits origin

• Understanding the process through themechanism of rational choice

• Understanding the process asincremental improvements to existing

foundations




Previous models: Origin

• Logic: The origin has an influence onthe chances of a policy

• Any idea has multiple parents

– Tracing is no simple task, either

• This is a group process, not ahierarchical process




Previous models: Rational Choice

• Decision makers can be understood asrational actors

• The expected outcome does not matchthe actual outcome

• Cognitive limitations

• Behavior does not match the model




Previous models: Incrementalism

• (Never?) a fresh start, iterativeimprovements to existing solutions

• Suitable, since it decreases effort,focuses on needed improvements

• Unrepresentative of agenda setting

• Does not explain large changes




Garbage cans

• Cohen, March & Olsen:

– Organized anarchy: no way to develop

coherent preferences

– Loose collection of ideas

– Action -> discovery of preferences

– Members don’t/can’t understand the

process– Membership is fluid




Garbage cans

• CMO see four streams:

– Problems

– Solutions

– Participants

– Choice opportunities

• Participants are self-propelled: self-

interests




Garbage cans

• Kingdon sees three other streams:

– Problem recognition

– Formation of policy proposals

– Politics

• Participants can be generalists or

specialists




Recognizing problems…

• New problems

– Indicators

– Symbols

• Existing programs

– Feedback

… and loosing attention again




Recognizing problems: indicators

• Basic check for the existence of problems

– Whole agencies are dedicated tomonitoring indicators

– Additionally, studies probe deeper or covernon-monitored items

• Indication of a problem requires that itbe “formulation”




Recognizing problems: symbols

• Symbols are powerful

– May still need an “interpreter”

• Often, they promote a “lingering” problem to the general attention

• Again: formulating the problem pre-forms the solutions




Recognizing problems: feedback

• Based on indicators, complaints,experience

• Leads to re-examine the definitions of problem and solution

– Others issues: costs, unintended

consequences




Disappearing problems

• Why do problems fall off the agenda?

– It’s been solved (perception)

– It’s no longer an issue (perception)

– Solutions are seen as unsustainable(perception)

– It’s unprofitable (perception)




Processing problems

• Policy communities

• “Soup” & Entrepreneurs

• Survival of the …? Fittest?

• Towards the choice:– Short-listing




Policy communities

• Members are specialists

– Shared focus

– Shared interaction (?)

– Shared interests (?)

• Fragmentation in community ->fragmentation in policy (proposals)




“Soup”: the need for entrepreneurs

• Fishing for problems and solutions

– Very broad range: “lots of good ideas

around”

• Entrepreneurs ! investors

– Calling attention to problems

– Promoting solutions

– Expecting a return




Managing the process

• Entrepreneurs work small policycommunities and larger publics

• This is done– to keep an issue alive

– in anticipation of a “window of

opportunity” (cf. trial balloons)




Sink or swim

• A usable solution has to be:

– Available

– Feasible

– Acceptable to the public

– Suitable for the medium to long term

• Which solution will get selected?

– Momentum




This is theory…

• Use task 7 to see how this couldhappen with a real example!

• The task raises a typical Dutchexample

– You don’t need to be familiar with it



Questions?

Phone 84712 !!!!

introduction to governance, politics & policy, week 3: the process & its problems

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