Public Policy
What is public policy?
- Political decisions to implement programs to achieve societal goals
- Focuses on choices by individuals and by governments
- Exists as laws, regulations, budgets, and practices applicable to government and society
Key concepts in public policy
- Choices have opportunity costs - lost resources, goods, and services resulting from choice
- Choices involve tradeoffs of benefits, direct costs, and opportunity costs
- Rational self-interest is a basis for choice - optimize costs and benefits
- Public policy includes coercion to constrain individuals when necessary.
- Promotion
- Regulation
- Redistribution
- Public goods: benefits to many such as a safe street, park, or clean river
- Private goods: benefits a single consumer, such as a shirt or a house.
- Private goods can have secondary public benefits, such as a child's education
- Individual self-interest may not achieve collective self-interest - tragedy of commons / free riders
- Externalities: effects of production of goods and services on third parties (cars and air pollution)
What is Policy Analysis?
- Synthesizing, evaluating, and interpreting information
- Describing choices and decisions to policy makers
- Assessing and predicting consequences and outcomes
- Mediating political conflict
- Relating policies to goals
- Defining and describing governmental means to achieve societal goals
Approaches to Policy Analysis
- Positive: Describe the processes as they are, identify options and effects
- Normative: Identify what policy should be.
- Public interest theory: optimize general welfare
- Capture theory: government maximizes the welfare of special interests
Techniques of Policy Analysis
- Written and oral presentation
- Surveys
- Cost-benefit Analysis
- Decision Analysis
- Simulation
- Modeling
- Experments
- Forecasting
- Risk Analysis
- Game Theory
The Policy Process
- Problem Identification
- Policy Proposal
- Policy Adoption
- Program Implementation
- Program and Policy Evaluation
Public Policy Web Sites