Chapter Seven Public Policy Comparative Politics Today, 9/e Almond, Powell, Dalton & Strøm Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman 2008
Government and Policymaking Government and Policymaking Public policy consists of all those authoritative public decisions that governments make. The outputs of the political system
Government and What It Does Government and What It Does Governments do many things. Timeless: defense Production of goods and services Varies from country to country How much involvement And in what sectors
Public Policies Public Policies Governments engage in various forms of public policy Many are directed at the major challenges facing contemporary states: Building community Fostering development Securing democracy and rights
Public Policies Public Policies Public policies may be summarized and compared according to outputs classified into four headings: Distribution Extraction Regulation Symbolic outputs
From the Night Watchman State to the Welfare State Night Watchman State: a Lockean state, which primarily sought to regulate just enough to preserve law, order, a good business climate, and the basic security of its citizens Police State: regulates much more intrusively and extracts resources more severely than the night watchman state Regulatory State: evolved in all advanced industrial societies as they face the complexities of modern life Welfare State: found particularly in more prosperous and democratic societies, distributes resources extensively to provide for the health, education, employment, housing, and income support of its citizens
Welfare State Welfare State First modern welfare state programs introduced in Germany in the 1880s Bismarck: social insurance programs that protected workers 1930s to 1970s most industrialized states have adopted and expanded welfare policies 1980s and 1990s the welfare states in advanced capitalist countries continued to grow albeit at a somewhat slower rate Mixture between social insurance and social redistribution In part paternalistic and in part Robin Hood
Welfare State Welfare State Welfare benefits can be expensive and governments often have limited funds. There are three principles that govern most welfare state provisions: Need help and services are provided to those that need them most Contribution benefits should go to those that have contributed to the program Entitlement/Universalism everyone should have the benefit, regardless of specific circumstances Often applied to primary education or to treatment for life threatening diseases U.S. model in education equality of opportunity U.S. and charitable organizations/individuals
Challenges to the Welfare State Challenges to the Welfare State Ability of future generations to pay Growth of senior citizens/dependency ratios Some welfare states give citizens few incentives to work. Norway and Sweden
Distribution Of money, goods, and services to citizens, residents and clients of the state Laswell who gets what, when, and how Distributive policy profiles Health, education, and national defense consume the largest proportion of government spending across the world. Developed countries: generally allocate from one half to two thirds of their central government expenditures to education, health, and welfare
Extraction Direct extraction of services Compulsory military service, jury duty, or compulsory labor imposed on those convicted of crime Direct resource extraction Taxation Direct taxes Indirect taxes Progressive tax structure Regressive tax structure The tax profiles of different countries vary both in their overall tax burdens and in their reliance on different types of taxes. Differ in how they collect their revenues
Regulation Regulation is the exercise of political control over the behavior of individuals and groups in society. Most contemporary governments are both welfare states and regulatory states. Government regulate: By legal means By offering material or financial inducements By persuasion or moral exhortation
Regulation How do we describe and explain the differences between political systems in the area of regulation? We ask: What aspects of human behavior and interaction are regulated and to what degree? What social groups are regulated, with what procedural limitations on enforcement and what rights? What sanctions are used to compel or induce citizens to comply? One aspect of regulation is particularly important politically: government control over political participation and communication Political rights and civil liberties
Community Building and Symbolic Policies Intended to enhance people s national identity, civil pride, or trust in government Enhance other areas of performance: Make people pay their taxes more readily and honestly Comply with law more faithfully Accept sacrifice, danger, and hardship
Outcomes: Domestic Welfare Outcomes: Domestic Welfare How do extractive, distributive, regulative, and symbolic policies affect the lives of citizens? Sometimes policies have unintended and undesirable consequences. To estimate the effectiveness of public policy, we have to examine actual welfare outcomes as well as governmental policies and their implementation. Measures of economic well being Nigeria and India severe problems Income distribution tends to be most unequal in medium income developing societies, such as Brazil, and more equal in advanced market societies as well as in low income developing societies, such as India. Kuznets Curve Health outcomes Education and information technologies
Domestic Security Outcomes Domestic Security Outcomes Crime rates have been on the increase in many advanced industrial societies until recently as well as the developing world. Russia, Brazil and Mexico high rates of crimes England, France (has had an increase), and Germany have a small fraction of the U.S. s crime numbers China has low murder rates; Japan even lower. Much crime found in urban areas. Causes are complex. Migration increases diversity and conflict. Pace of urbanization explosive; severe problems of poverty and infrastructure Inequality of income and wealth, unemployment, drug abuse, hopelessness of big city life Crime rates have come down in the U.S. Stronger economy; increased incarceration time; decrease in youth
International Outputs and Outcomes International activities: economic, diplomatic, military and informational Most common outcome of the interaction among nations is warfare Deadly costs of international warfare have gradually escalated 90 percent of the war deaths since 1700 have occurred in the 20th century. In the last decades of the 20th century, more than three quarters of the war deaths were civilian. People of USSR Russian have been the greatest victims of the tormented history of the 20th century. Germany suffered the second largest number of deaths. Followed by China and Japan, France and Great Britain
International Outputs and Outcomes After WWI the most devastating conflicts have occurred in the Third World. Partition of British India into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh associated with numerous deadly conflicts. Conflicts in Africa Many newly independent from about 1960 Borders drawn by colonial powers Serious problems of national cohesion/chronic civil war End of Cold War Wave of instability and conflict Uppsala Conflict Data Project Role of the United Nations Economic costs of national security
Political Goods and Values Political Goods and Values If we are to compare and evaluate public policy in different political systems, we need to consider the political goods that motivate different policies. System goods: Citizens are most free and most able to act purposefully when their environment is stable, transparent, and predictable. Process goods: citizen participation and free political participation; democratic procedures and various rights of due process Policy goods: economic welfare, quality of life, freedom and personal security
Political Goods and Values Political Goods and Values There are two important criteria that most of us would agree that government policy should meet: Fairness Promotion and preservation of freedom
Trade offs and Opportunity Costs Hard fact about political goods: We cannot always have them all simultaneously. A political system often has to trade off one value to obtain another. Opportunity costs are what you lose in one area by committing your resources to a different good. One of the important tasks of social science is to discover the conditions under which positive and negative trade offs occur.