The Policymaking Process (CAS PO331) Boston University Spring 2014 Last revised: January 14, 2014 Professor: Katherine Krimmel Email: kkrimmel@bu.edu Office location: 232 Bay State Road, PLS 210 Office hours: Thursdays, 11:30-1:30, and by appointment Teaching Fellow: Fatima Mustafa Email: fatima@bu.edu Class location: MET B02B Class time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-11:00 am Course Description This course will provide a broad overview of public policymaking in the United States. We will begin by discussing the need for public policy and theories of the process by which it develops. How and why does political change happen? What constrains change? Why do some issues make the agenda, while others don t? We will also discuss key players inside and outside government. What kinds of rules and norms govern their actions? What kinds of power can they use to influence policy? What are the limitations of their power? We will address these questions by reviewing classic works in public policy and American politics, and exploring data from Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones s Policy Agendas Project. We will spend the last few weeks analyzing specific policy areas. Who are the key players in these areas? How can we account for successes and failures? To what extent do we see theories of the policy process in action? To what extent do these cases expose the theories limitations? We will address these questions with reference to books and articles assigned in the last few weeks of class, and students will also analyze similar questions in their own research papers. Course Requirements While this is primarily a lecture- based class, it will also include discussions. Your contributions in class will account for 10% of your final grade. Since you cannot contribute if you are not present, frequent absence will affect your grade. Every student is required to write a 6-8 page paper (1 inch margins, 12 point font, double spaced) analyzing the trajectory of a particular policy or type of policy, due on the last day of class (May 1st). This assignment will account for 25% of your final grade. Students are encouraged, though not required, to take advantage of the 1
resources available through the Policy Agendas Project (www.policyagendas.org). Late papers will receive a penalty of 5 points for every day they are late (including weekend days). Papers turned in more than one week past the deadline will not be accepted. Students will also be responsible for one 15- minute group presentation on a particular policy area, drawing on resources available through the Policy Agendas Project (in addition to others, as students see fit). Groups, topics, and dates will be set during the first two weeks of class. Presentations will account for 10% of your final grade. There will be two exams: a midterm on March 6th, which will account for 25% of your grade, and a final during the exam period, which will account for 30%. The grade breakdown is summarized below. Class Participation: 10% Midterm Exam: 25% Policy Paper: 25% Group Presentation 10% Final Exam: 30% Reading Materials All articles and short book excerpts have been placed on e- reserve. The books listed below have been ordered through the bookstore and are on reserve at Mugar Library. Some are also available electronically through the library, as noted. Baumgartner, Frank, and Bryan D. Jones. 2005. The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Birkland, Thomas A. 2010. An Introduction to the Policy Process: Theories, Concepts, and Models of Public Policymaking. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Katznelson, Ira. 2006. When Affirmative Action was White. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Kingdon, John. 2011. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, Updated 2 nd Ed. New York: Longman. McCarty, Nolan, Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 2013. Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press (available electronically through library). 2
Morone, James. 2004. Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History. New Haven: Yale University Press (available electronically through library). Course Outline Part I: Introduction to the Policymaking Process Week 1 (Jan 16): Introduction Course overview; defining policy Birkland, Chapters 1 and 7. Week 2 (Jan 21, 23): Policy Basics Tues: Why we need policy; types of policy; environments Thurs: Levels of the agenda; introduction to the Policy Agendas Project Birkland, Chapters 2 and 3. Review the resources available through the Policy Agendas Project (http://www.policyagendas.org/), start thinking about paper topics, and form groups for presentations. Part II: Theories of Policy Development Week 3 (Jan 28, 30): Defining Problems, Alternatives; Early Theories of the Policy Process Tues: Overview of problems, alternatives Thurs: Elite theory and pluralism; early theories of the policy process (rational decisionmaking, incrementalism, the garbage can model) Kingdon, Chapters 4 and 5. Birkland, Chapter 10. Lindblom, Charles E. 1959. The Science of Muddling Through. Public Administration Review 14: 79-88. Cohen, Michael, James March, and Johan Olsen. 1972. A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly 17: 1-25. 3
Week 4 (Feb 4, 6): Kingdon s Policy Streams Tues: Theory overview Thurs: Application to health policy Kingdon, Chapters 1, 6-10, Epilogue. Week 5 (Feb 11, 13): Punctuated Equilibrium; Disproportionate Information; Path Dependence Tues: Punctuated equilibrium; disproportionate information Thurs: Disproportionate information (cont.); path dependence Baumgartner and Jones, The Politics of Attention. Chapters 1-7, 11. Pierson, Paul. Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics. The American Political Science Review 94(2): 251-267. Part III: Key Players Week 6 (Feb 18, 20): Congress Tues: Congress overview Thurs: Polarization Cox, Gary W. and Mathew D. McCubbins. 2005. Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1 and 2. Wawro, Gregory J. and Eric Schickler. Legislative Obstructionism. Annual Review of Political Science 13: 297-319. Layman, Geoffrey C., Thomas M. Carsey, and Juliana Menasche Horowitz. 2006. Party Polarization in American Politics: Characteristics, Causes, and Consequences. Annual Review of Political Science 9: 83-110. Week 7 (Feb 25, 27): Other Official Actors Tues: President Thurs: Bureaucracy; courts 4
Birkland, Chapter 4. Neustadt, Richard E. 1990. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. New York: The Free Press. Chapters 1-3. Kernell, Samuel. 2007. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Chapters 1 and 5. Rosenberg, Gerald. 2004. Substituting Symbol for Substance: What Did Brown Really Accomplish? PS: Political Science and Politics 37(2): 205-209. Week 8 (March 4, 6): Review and Midterm Tues: Midterm review Thurs: Midterm exam No assigned readings this week Week 9 (March 11, 13): NO CLASS (Spring Recess) Week 10 (March 18, 20): Public Opinion Tues: The power of public opinion Thurs: Limits of opinion Miller, Warren E. and Donald E. Stokes. 1962. Constituency Influence in Congress. American Political Science Review 57(1): 45-56. Page, Benjamin and Robert Shapiro. The Effects of Public Opinion on Policy. American Political Science Review 77(1): 175-190. Stimson, James A., Michael B. Mackuen and Robert S. Erikson. 1995. Dyamic Representation. American Political Science Review 89(3): 543-565. Gilens, Martin. 2009. Preference Gaps and Inequality in Representation. PS: Political Science and Politics 42(2): 335-341. Mettler, Suzanne. Our Hidden Government Benefits. Op- Ed in The New York Times, September 19, 2011. Week 11 (March 25, 27): Special Interest Groups; Media Tues: Special interest groups Thurs: Media 5
Birkland, Chapter 5 and 6. Hall, Richard L. and Frank W. Wayman. 1990. Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees. American Political Science Review 84(3): 797-820. Part IV: Special Topics Week 12 (April 1, 3): The New Deal I - Problems, Alternatives, and Changes in Processes Tues: Problems, alternatives, and decisions Thurs: NO CLASS Lowi, Theodore J. 1990. "The Roosevelt Administration and the New American State," in Comparative Theory and Political Experience: Mario Einaudi and the Liberal Tradition, Ed. Peter Katzenstein, Theodore Lowi, and Sidney Tarrow. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 188-211. Clinton L. Rossiter. 1948. Constitutional Dictatorship: Crisis Government in Modern Democracies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 3-14. Dennis, Lawrence. 1935. Fascism for America. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 180: 62-73. Gruchy, Allan G. 1939. The Economics of the National Resources Committee. American Economic Review 29: 60-73. Kent, Frank R. 1933. White House Technique. Virginia Quarterly Review 9: 372-379. Week 13 (April 8, 10): The New Deal II Exclusions Based on Gender and Race Tues: Exclusions based on gender and race Thurs: Presentations (Groups 1, 2, and 3) Katznelson, Ira. 2006. When Affirmative Action was White. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Chapters 1-5. Mettler, Suzanne. 1994. Federalism, Gender & the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Polity 26(4): 635-654. 6
Week 14 (April 15, 17): Social Welfare Policy Tues: Health and welfare policy (Group 4) Thurs: Presentations (Groups 5, 6, and 7) : Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Introduction, Chapters 5-9. Hacker, Jacob. 2010. The Road to Somewhere: Why Health Reform Happened: Or Why Political Scientists Who Write about Public Policy Shouldn t Assume They Know How to Shape It. Perspectives on Politics 8(3): 861-876. Week 15 (April 22): Fiscal Policy Tues: The 2008 financial crisis (Group 8) Thurs: NO CLASS (Monday schedule) McCarty, Nolan, Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 2013. Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Week 16 (April 29, May 1): Morality Policy Tues: Morality policy (Group 9) Thurs: Final exam review (Group 10) Morone, James. 2004. Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History. New Haven: Yale University Press. Introduction, Chapters 8-15. Paper due. 7