Policy Types.docx

Policy types Policy types are interesting for various reasons Typologies: System for categorizing things by similar or different characteristics Different types of politics that go with different types of policies Ex: We chose to classify mammals by making milk To know what things mean, focus...

Policy types Policy types are interesting for various reasons Typologies: System for categorizing things by similar or different characteristics Different types of politics that go with different types of policies Ex: We chose to classify mammals by making milk To know what things mean, focus on the roots of the words Categorize based on usefulness Generalizable Mutually exclusive Collectively exhaustive Aids in explanation and prediction Note: An executive order is not policy because it is not making public policy It is difficult to make these public policies Think about categorizing in different ways Policy domains: What area of policy are the policies dealing with Substantive bs Procedural Do we have to change everything? The change doesn’t have to be substantive, as in it doesn’t actually change anything but just adds substance Material vs Symbolic Simply saying that you want people to know that you care about an issue rather than actually implementing it Ex: Stating that it will be illegal for people to purchase combustion engine cars Is this implementable Note: At the federal level, house bills are house resolution At the state level, however, resolutions are not very important Ted Lowl has 3 types of policy Distributive Allocate cost and benefits (distribute) to specific groups or individuals Ex: Farm subsidies, EV tax credit Pork barrel spending Specifying where and how the money would be distributed despite the fact that the money should be spead evenly amongst all Earmarks (Form of pork barrel spending) When something that should be general becomes specific Note: Logroll – Legislators will trade favors Vote for this and Ill vote for this Can be targeted at different groups of people or those exhibiting a specific behavior Regulatory Policy to influence behavior through sanctions and incentives Ripley and Franklin’s 2 definitions of regulatory policy Protective Focuses on protecting public from negative externalities but through rules Deals with market failures Externalities: Effects to the community created by businesses that aren’t reflected in the market value of the product Water bottle pollution is a negative externalities Subsidies to Dartmouth is a positive externality b/c Dartmouth is a public good Ex: Clean air act, speed limits, advertising laws Competitive Focused on who can provide something Limits the provision of goods and services to designated parties Ex: Not everyone can legally sell food or alcohol. They have to be inspected to do so Ex: Broadcast licenses; Business License; (In NH, barbers must be licensed) Some groups (Lawers and Doctors) can require themselves to be license, and others (Barbers) are licensed by the state To choose what group should be licensed, an interest group should try to convince public that their field is so important that it should be licensed Redistrubitive Takes respources that are grouped together and give it to other groups Key words: Equality, Equity Usually the most controversial type of policy Determines the haves and have nots Examples: Progressive income tax, Supplemental Nutirition Assistance Program (Food stamps), Affirmative Action, Student loan forgivenets Practice Public library is a distributive policy Head starts (Low income prescole education) is a redistributive policy Note: Cobra Effect – British pays Indians to kill cobras, which incentivied people to breed cobras and kill them for money, increasing the number of cobras Note: When law makers brag about the good they’ve done, they usually talk about redistributive policies they got from log rolling Note: Competitive Regulatory Policy is kind of hidden Note: Redistributive Policy is highly visible James Q Wilson’s cost benefit typology Who receives the most benefits or bears the most cost? Are they concentrated among a broad group of fingers This system predicts what groups are going to mobilize and which groups are not IF benefits are distributed, like social security, no one will be worked up about it However, if they are not (Pork barrel spending projects), groups may be upset about this Accordign to this theory, people may support an idea more if the cost of doing so does not affect them in any way People become concerned with policies that are redistributive and deal with low-income persons b/c of the threat to their finances Once again, however, most people don’t care Thus, polcies that even have backlash usually get enacted anyway