Policy Cycle

Public Policy: An evolutionary

Approach
Stewart, Hedge & Lester (2008)

What does mean Public

Policy?
Thomas R. Dye, for example, defines public
policy as what governments do, why
they do it, and what difference it
makes.
Harold Lasswell defines public policy as a
projected program of goals, values,
and practices.
James Anderson defines the term as a
purposive course of action followed by
an actor or set of actors in dealing
with a problem or matter of concern.

What does mean Policy

Analysis?
Thomas Dye defines policy analysis as
the description and explanation of
the causes and consequences of
government activity .
Explanation rather than prescription.
Analysts should attempt to develop and
test general propositions about the causes
and consequences of public policy and to
accumulate reliable research findings of
general relevance.

What does mean Policy

Analysis?
Grover Starling: policy analysis
should be an interdisciplinary effort
to facilitate the reaching of sound
policy decisions .
Weimer and Vining (day-to-day notion)
policy analysis is client-oriented
advice relevant to public decisions
and informed by social values.

Purpose of Policy Analysis

(OF x FOR)
The result is two kinds of policy analysis
SCIENTIFIC: Produces knowledge of the
policy process
PRACTICAL: Produces knowledge for the
policy process.

Dye
Scientif
c

Starling

Weimer &
Vining
Practica
l

Purpose of Policy Analysis

Producing research that policy makers
can use to assess and improve public
policies.
Process of governing (policy making or
implementation, for example) unfolds.
Purpose of Policy Analysis
Producing Research

Process of Governing

Social scientists
Political scientists
Sociologists and Economists

Administrators and
Legislators

Purpose of Policy Analysis

Evaluation and conclusion of change or
termination.
Public policies are always subject to change on the
basis of new (or better) information about their
effects.
Change

EVALUATIO
N

OR
Termination

Types of Public Policies*

Distributive
Redistributive
Regulatory Policies
Liberal (Social Changes)
Conservative (Keep Status Quo)
Conservative
Keep status
quo
* (Lowi, 1964).

Liberal
Social
changes

Types of Public Policies*

Substantive and Material
Public Service Delivery and Works
(Highways)

Procedural and Symbolic

Legislations
Guidelines and Principles.

Collective x Private
* (Lowi, 1964).

Cycle of Public Policies

Cycle of Public Policy

Agenda Setting
Policy Formulation
Policy Implementation
Policy Evaluation
Policy Change
Policy Termination

Agenda Setting
John Kingdon the list of subjects or
problems to which government
officials that are paying some serious
attention at any given time .
a set of political controversies that will be
viewed as falling within the range of
legitimate concerns meriting the attention
of the polity, and it included both
systemic agendas and institutional
agendas.

Agenda Setting
Three Streams of Agenda Setting:
Problem Stream
Problem definition
Public attention

Policy Stream
Technical Feasibility of Work
Public Acceptance
Political Stream
National mood
Public opinion
Electoral politics

Policy Formulation
Result of a multiple number of forces
that affect policy outputs
Historical/Geographic conditions
Socioeconomic conditions
Mass political behavior (including public
opinion, interest groups, and political
parties)
Governmental institutions (including
legislatures, courts, and the bureaucracy)
Elite perceptions and behavior.

Policy Implementation
Most important part of the Policy Cycle.
Law must be translated into specific guidelines.
Described as a:
Process
Output
Outcome

Defined as a series of governmental decisions

and actions directed toward putting an
already decided mandate into effect.
Programmatic goals are pursued to address
outcomes or changes in the larger societal problem
that the program is intended to rectify (e.g., have
crime rates been reduced?).

Policy Evaluation
Concerned with the actual impacts of
legislation or the extent to which the
policy actually achieves its intended
results.
Does increasing the level of per pupil
educational expenditures bring about
an increase in student performance or
learning?

Policy Change
Absorbs several stages of the policy
cycle, including policy formulation,
policy implementation, policy
evaluation, and policy termination.
Evaluate after 1 decade (long
period).

Policy Termination
Several meanings:
Agency Termination
Policy Redirection
Project Elimination
Partial Elimination
Fiscal Retrenchment.

Via Big Bang or Long whimper

The Evolution of Policy

Studies

Tensions on the Sub-Field*

(1) policy studies are a fad that will eventually
wither away;
(2) policy studies are too practical or too
theoretical;
(3) policy studies are too multidisciplinary or too
narrowly focused on political science;
(4) policy studies are too quantitative or too
nonscientific in method;
(5) policy studies are too little used or over utilized;
(6) policy studies are too liberal or too
conservative.
* Stuart
Nagel