My online presentation to CEDA's Public Policy Dynamics course, 14th November 2023. My aim is to highlight the political side of the policy process that is rarely seen by public servants working in policy roles within government. The presentation draws on my experience as an academic and as a practitioner.

1. Public Policy
From the Hustings
Dr Michael de Percy FRSA FCILT
www.politicalscience.com.au
Dual bike lane to promote “active transport”
Efforts to fix drainage
Stray dogs attack pedestrians, ranger is 50km
away and too busy watching the cricket

2. Overview
• What is policy?
• Politics versus public administration
• Policy theory versus practice
• Engaging with academics and practitioners
• Recent policy work

3. What is policy?
• Two approaches (institutional and critical):
• Institutional: Public policy is a dynamic process that involves
various public policy players and the interplay of values,
interests and resources, working through the institutions of
the political process, aiming to achieve a particular policy
outcome (Davis, Wanna, Warhurst & Weller 1992)
• Critical: “Clarifications of public values and intentions,
commitments of money and services, or granting rights and
entitlements” (Considine 1992)

4. Politics versus public administration
• Politics – Media - Public Administration - Academia
• Different approaches based on the democratic/political
policy formulation process and the execution and
implementation of policy by the executive (public service)
• “[I]dentifiable patterns of interdependence between key
social actors such as parties, corporations, unions,
professions and citizens… [which] shape behaviours,
problems, and solutions” (Considine 1992)

5. The Policy Cycle
Policy theory versus practice 1

6. Policy theory versus
practice 2
• Stewardship
• Stewardship historically implied the exercise of
some inter-generational custodianship and
collective responsibility for an entity or a body
charged with such responsibility

7. Policy theory versus
practice 3
• Co-design and co-production
• Important differences in co-design and co-production relate to the stages of
policy formulation. Typically, co-design concerns policy-makers engaging
with stakeholders to design public policy which is then applied to the
stakeholders, whereas co-production (of public services, in particular) brings
stakeholders in to the delivery process – the foundations of which
stakeholders may or may not have been involved with.

8. Policy theory versus
practice 4
• Getting better outcomes
• Recognising that outcomes are shared
responsibilities and that other players will make
contributions is an essential aspect of adopting an
outcomes framework for policy-making and delivery

9. Engaging with academics and practitioners
• Universities
• Research centres
• ANZSOG
• IPAA
• Think tanks
• Media

10. Recent policy work

11. Recent policy work
De Percy, M.A., Campbell, L. and Reddy, N. (2022). Towards an Australian Digital Communications Strategy: Lessons from Cross-
Country Case Studies. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 10(4). DOI: 10.18080/jtde.v10n4.650.
Podger, A., de Percy, M.A., and Vincent, S. (Eds.) (2021). Politics, Policy and Public Administration in Theory and Practice: Essays in
honour of Professor John Wanna. Canberra: ANU Press. DOI: http://doi.org/10.22459/PPPATP.2021.
De Percy, M.A. (2021). Policy Legacies from Early Australian Telecommunications: A Private Sector Perspective. Journal of
Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 9(3). DOI: 10.18080/jtde.v9n3.431.
De Percy, M.A. and Batainah, H.S. (2021). Identifying historical policy regimes in the Canadian and Australian communications
industries using a model of path dependent, punctuated equilibrium, Policy Studies, 42(1), pp. 42-59. DOI:
10.1080/01442872.2019.1581161.
Madsen, A. and de Percy, M.A. (2020) Telecommunications Infrastructure in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 55(2),
pp. 218-238. DOI: 10.1002/ajs4.121.
De Percy, M.A. and Batainah, H.S. (2019). Government-Business Relations: Senior Version. In Chen, P. et al. Australian Politics and
Policy. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
De Percy, M.A. and Wanna, J. (Eds.) (2018). Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead. Canberra: ANU Press.
DOI: 10.22459/RPP.07.2018.
See also: https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/michael-de-percy/publications/