Comparative public policy

1. „WHAT IS
COMPARATIVE
POLITICS
ANALYSIS ABOUT?“
by
Ahmad Rashid Jamal
in
„Comparative Politics“ of
Dr. Jale Tosun

2. STRUCTURE
 1. Characteristics and patterns of public policies
 2. Problem Definition
 3. Agenda Setting
 4. Decision Making
 5. Implementation
 6. Conclusion
 7. Discussion

3. 1. Characteristics and patterns of
public
policies
 1.1 What is policy analysis?
 Policy analysis is finding out what governments do, why
they do it and what difference it makes.
 I.2 What is public policy?
 An attempt by the government to address a public issue
which should change the behaviour of the target groups.

4.  I.3 The three major analytical dimensions of political science
 Polities: Institutional arrangements which characterise a
political system
 Politics: Patterns of the decision making process
 Policies: Concret output of a political system
 1.4 The three dimensions of public policies
 Policy Output: Formalised contents of a public policy as defined
by legal acts
 Policy Outcome: Effects of a public policy in terms of the changes
in the behaviour of the target groups
 Policy Impact: Effects of a public policy in terms of problem
resolution

5. 1.4 Lowi’s policy typology
Type of policy Definition Examples
Distributive policies Policies distributing new
(state) resources
Farm subsidies; local
infrastructure such as
highways and schools
Redistributive policies Policies modifying the
distribution of existing
resources
Welfare; land reform;
progressive taxation
Regulatory policies Policies specifying
conditions and
constraints for
individual and collective
behaviour
Environmental
protection; migration
policy; consumer
protection
Constituent policies Policies creating or
modifying the states’
institutions
Changes of procedural
rules of parliaments;
creation of new
agencies
Source: Knill, Tosun (2012), p.
11

6. 1.5 Policy classification by governance principles (by Hood)
Governance
principle
Nodality Authority Treasure Organisation
Basic resource Information Law Money Structures and
Capacity
Governance
logic
Indirect
stimulation of
behavioural
change
through
information.
Direct
prescription of
behavioural
rules.
Indirect
stimulation of
behavioural
change
through
financial
incentives.
Provision of
public good or
service by the
state or public
enterprise
Typical
instruments
Information
campaigns
Research
inquiries
Prohibitions
Bans
Taxes
Grants
Tax deductions
Provision of
goods and
services
Source: Knill, Tosun (2012),
p.18

7. The Policy Cycle
Agenda
setting
Decision
making
Impleme
ntation
Evaluation
Problem
definition
Source: Own illustration based on Knill and Tosun
(2012).

8. 2. Problem Definition
 Problem definition sets the stage for the other
components of the decision process,. It is a key aspect
of decision making.
 The way in which a problem is first defined is
consequential for all subsequent policy stages.
 “A problem is a problem only if something can be done
about it“.
 Public attention can be increased or decreased by
framing, which can refer to the causality, severity,
proximity, crises, incidence, novelty, and problem
populations for any particular policy problem.

9. 3. Agenda Setting
 It is a selection process, because not every political
problem can make it on the agenda.
 Four different agenda types:
 Systemic agenda: All societal problems that demand public
attention where a precise definition is still missing.
 Institutional agenda: A set of problems that are up for the
serious consideration of decision makers.
 Drafting agenda: Is a list of subjects that are getting
attention within government.
 Decision agenda: Is based on those issues for which the
government has agreed on a draft proposal.

10.  Actors in the agenda setting process
 Elected public officials and judges
 Bureaucracy
 Mass Media
 Interest Groups
 International Organisations

12. 4. Decision Making
Decision making
Drafting of a piece
of legislation
Formal adoption
Both of these phases are characterized by:
1.Procedural Restrictions: Emerge from countries’ respective polities
2.Substantial Restrictions: Refer to the policy problems that need to
resolved

13. Decision making/ Policy formulation
Policy formulation
Central to policy formulation
Executive Actors Ministerial Bureaucracy
1.External expertise
2. International Organization
3. Interest groups
4.Partisan Ideology
1. Involvement of IOs in policy drafting can be also a coercive character.
When governments turn to IOs Such as IMF and WB for financial help
these organizations make very specific recommendations

14. Policy Formulation
 Interest groups are able to supply valuable information
concerning the effects of a policy.
1. Interest groups engage in a two-way information mediation
process, which means that they also supply information to their
members. They can frame policy proposal in a way to achieve
either more or less acceptance.
2. Political preferences stemming from partisan ideology

15. Determinants of policy formulation
In Both system of
governments
1. In parliamentary system by Executive
2. In presidential system by Legislative Committees
1.Expertise: Is the most important criteria of policy proposal for ministerial bureaucracy,
like professional trainings.
2. Information: Bureaucrats cannot provide themselves with all the relevant information
about certain social problem, like what are the long-term effects of genetically
manipulated crops on public health and the environment?

16. Determinants of policy formulation
3. Experts and Ideas:
 They can give advice about likely results of different courses of
actions
 They might help decision makers to grasp complex interlinkages
between issues
 They can be helpful for developing profound policy principles
such as “ workfare”
 They might provide support to choose among policy alternatives
through framing them in accordance with certain norms.

17. Institutional and procedural Dimensions of
decision making
 How policy preferences are transformed into actual polices?
1. Institutional and procedural arrangements (Veto Points)
Veto points refer to the fact that policy decisions need the
agreement of several, constitutionally generated, institutional
points in a chain of decision.
 The more veto points in a given political system, the more
difficult it is to gain approval for policy adoption
 Veto players are defined as “individual or collective actors whose
agreement is necessary for a change of status quo and they are
two types:
1. Institutional players 2. Partisan veto players.

18. 5. Policy Implementation
 Is the stage in the policy making process where a policy is put into
effect by the responsible bureaucracies or it is a connection between
policy makers on the one side and policy addresses on the other side,
mediated by implementers.
 Implementation is the “missing link” between policy making and
evaluation.
A. Actors B. Different concepts and analytical perspectives
C. Implementation Effectiveness
A. Who is involved in policy implementation?
 A policy is carried out by different levels of bureaucracy.
1. Various National Ministries and autonomous agencies
2. Public entities in local level 3. Local Employment agencies
4. Policies that are implemented by multiple organizations or collaborative
efforts

19. Analytical perspectives in Policy Implementation
 The very basic level in implementation is about conversion of new
public policy.
 Implementation is complex as it encompasses various action by
public and private actors.
1. Traditional approach (Top-down): Concentrates on policy
outputs and investigates the extent to which, the intended
objectives were achieved over time and why.
2. Bottom-up models usually stress the strong interlinkages
between the stages of policy formulation, implementation and re-
formulation.
3. More recently, Hybrid Models of policy implementation have
been advanced, which seeks to overcome the divide between the
other two models by incorporating elements of top-down and
bottom-up.

20. Criteria of Implementation Success
 The Criteria that are applied to measure “successful” or “perfect”
implementation based on the logic of top-down models, we
suggest distinguishing between:
1. Formal Transposition: Focuses on entirety of concrete provisions
of a given public policy and incorporation into existing legal and
administrative system.
2. Practical Application: This dimension gives a better
understanding of the more substantive aspects of public policy
that go beyond what is written in law book.
A. Determinants of Implementation Success
1. Characteristics of Policy 2. Institutional Factors
 Choice of policy instrument, control structure, Institutional design
and social acceptance.

21. 6. Conclusion
 The relationship between the executive and the legislature is
central to understanding decision making. Yet, this relationship
changes substantially from one country to another.
 Ministerial bureaucracies are heavily involved in policy drafting;
depending on the political system in which they act.
 For effectively assessing implementation success, both Formal
Transposition and Practical application can be employed.
 Implementation is a complex and it encompasses various action
by Public and Private actors.

22. 7. Discussion
 1. Group discussion on recent decision of some of the UK
parliament member regarding joining of UK to EU….
 Do mass media act as a policy taker or as a policy maker?
 Why are the chances of a specific policy proposal being
adopted are higher than for another one?
 Why policy implementation is multi-faceted and demanding
both empirical and theoretical research?

23. References
 Knill, C. and J. Tosun (2012). Public Policy: A New
Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (chapters 2,
5, 6 and 7).