Policy-Making Process

Wilson 17A

Objective Questions

Who Governs?• Does some political elite

dominate American politics?

• Do powerful interest groups decide what policies our government should adopt?

To What Ends?• Why are Social Security

payments popular but welfare payments to unwed mothers unpopular?

• Why were government regulations on certain industries repealed over the objection of those industries?

Theory of policy-making

• Policies not made the same way• Many issues• Political agenda – issues that people believe require government

action• Four types• Majoritarian: distributed benefits, distributed costs• Interest Groups: concentrated benefits, concentrated costs• Client Politics: concentrated benefits, distributed costs• Entrepreneurial: distributed benefits, concentrated costs

Growth of Agenda

• Until 1930 the national political agenda small• Determining what is legitimate• Shared political values• Custom and tradition• Impact of events• Political elites

• Big Government• Nonpartisan examples

Legitimacy

• Impact of events• Public demand grows with event• War• Depression• Disaster

• New issues without public demand• Behavior of groups• Workings of institutions• Opinions of elites• Action of state governments

Setting Agenda

• Relative deprivation – when people start to become better off and realize that they are worse off than they ought to be

• Institutions – use courts, bureaucracy, and the Senate to influence political agenda• Professionalism of reform – government went from reacting to

becoming the source• Media – must decide what proposals get reported, not easy to

decide cause and effect

Making Decisions

• Starting in the states• Pioneering legislation• Working through the courts

• Which groups will be active?• Cost – burden that people believe they must pay• Benefit – satisfaction they believe they will enjoy• Influenced by perception and legitimacy• Who will benefit or pay?• Who ought to benefit or pay?

• Form political coalitions