This document discusses subsystem politics in public policymaking. It describes how policymaking is divided among specialized committees and subcommittees in Congress and within government agencies. Bureaucracies are divided into smaller subunits that focus on specific policy areas, while interest groups also work to influence policies within their issue areas. One influential arrangement is the "iron triangle" between relevant committees, agencies, and interest groups who benefit each other. The document also categorizes types of public policy according to Theodore Lowi's typology, including regulatory, redistributive, distributive, and constituent policies, and how they differ in their structures, discretion levels, and relationships with outside groups.

1. Public Policy and
Subsystem Politics
Bureaucratic Politics

2. Subsystem Politics
• The Actors
• The Bureaucracy
• Congress (committees/subcommittees)
• Interest Groups

5. Subsystem Politics: The Actors
• The Bureaucracy
• Larger units divided into smaller units (cabinets divided into
agencies).
• Subunits are more specialized which allows for more
influence.
• Within the organization: those at the top are more
generalists, while those at the bottom are more specialized.
• They are interested in a more specific policy area.
• So the real detailed policymaking occurs at the lower levels.

6. Subsystem Politics: The Actors
House Standing Committees
• Committee on Agriculture
• Committee on Appropriations
• Committee on Armed Services
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Education and the Workforce
• Committee on Energy and Commerce
• Committee on Ethics
• Committee on Financial Services
• Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Committee on Homeland Security
• Committee on House Administration
• Committee on the Judiciary
• Committee on Natural Resources
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
• Committee on Rules
• Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
• Committee on Small Business
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
• Committee on Veterans' Affairs
• Committee on Ways and Means
• House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Senate Standing Committees
• Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
• Appropriations
• Armed Services
• Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
• Budget
• Commerce, Science, and Transportation
• Energy and Natural Resources
• Environment and Public Works
• Finance
• Foreign Relations
• Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
• Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
• Judiciary
• Rules and Administration
• Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Veterans' Affairs

7. Subsystem Politics: The Actors
House Committee on Education &
the Workforce
• Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and
Secondary Education
• Subcommittee on Workforce
Protections
• Subcommittee on Higher
Education and Workforce
Training
• Subcommittee on Health,
Employment, Labor, and
Pensions
Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
• Subcommittee on
Children and Families
• Subcommittee on
Employment and
Workplace Safety
• Subcommittee on Primary
Health and Aging

8. Subsystem Politics
• Congress (committees/subcommittees)
• Policymaking in Congress is divided into
committees/subcommittees.
• Legislators pick their assignments based on their policy area
of interest.
• This is usually related to a member’s ability to help their
constituents and ultimately get reelected.

9. Subsystem Politics: The Actors
• Interest Groups
• Logic of Collective Action
• Resources ($)
• Resources (staff)
• Resources (jobs)

10. IRON TRIANGLE
Agency
Oversight Committees
Dominant Interests

11. The Iron Triangle

12. The Iron Triangle
• One type of subsystem is called an iron triangle
• Combines everyone’s input on a policy area.
• Each actor receives benefits from the other two actors.
• The subsystem can dominate the entire policy area.
• Why iron?
• Hard for other actors to get into the subsystem.
• Competing interests will often find another iron triangle
leading to conflicting policies.

13. Ways to Alleviate the
Problem of the Iron Triangle
• Multiple referral
• Types of Multiple Referral:
• Concurrent (same time, same bill)
• Sequential (same bill, different time, multiple comm.)
• Split (split the bill among committees)
• Partisanship
• Respond to party pressure/party leaders and not the
committee leader
• Weakens the power of committees/subcommittees and thus
the triangle’s mutually beneficial relationship.

14. Subsystem Politics
• Issue Networks
• Issue Network – open and
fluid groupings of various
political actors (in and out of
government) attempting to
influence policy.
• Shared knowledge
• Temporary (actors drop in and
out of the network)
• Exist when a policy question
develops that crosses over
multiple policy areas.
• May not agree on how to solve
the problem (no shared action)
• Different characteristics than
an iron triangle

15. Public Policy
• Policy – purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors,
usually affiliated with the government, in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern.
• Foreign Policy
• Trade Policy
• Economic Policy
• Health Policy
• Civil Rights Policy
• Environmental Policy
• Defense Policy
• Typology Developed by Theodore Lowi:
• Regulatory Policy
• Distributive Policy
• Redistributive Policy
• Constituent Policy

16. Regulatory Policy
• Regulatory Policy – government restrictions of individual choice to keep conduct from transcending
acceptable bounds.
• Scope:
• Restriction of criminal activity
• FBI, USCIS, DEA, ATF
• Regulate American business to make sure it is fair and equitable.
• Regulation of railroads (ICC)
• Banks (FDIC and Federal Reserve)
• Securities (SEC)
• Limiting access to public goods (air, water, communication spectrum)
• Public Broadcasters (FCC)
• Health and safety
• Regulations of food (FDA)
• Workplace conditions (OSHA)
• Airlines (FAA)
• Policymaking:
• This is where rulemaking comes in, as a means of creating regulations.
• Adjudication and enforcement come in here too as a means of ensuring that actors follow regulations.
• Structure:
• Independent regulatory board or commission
• Created to break ties with organized and regulated interests.
• Department regulatory agency
• Created to aid the regulated
• Department law enforcement agency
• Self-regulatory policies – policy change sought by those being regulated as a means of protecting or
promoting their own economic interests.
• Licensing of professions – law, medicine, hair stylists

17. Redistributive Policy
• Redistributive Policy – taxes one group of people to provide benefits for another group.
• Agencies provide direct money payments to beneficiaries.
• Scope:
• Income stabilization - smooth out major fluctuations in a person’s income resulting from:
• Unemployment
• Retirement (Social Security Administration)
• Welfare (TANF)
• Healthcare
• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Housing
• Public housing – HUD
• Federal Housing Administration
• Farmers Home Administration
• Income distribution
• IRS
• Policymaking
• Rulemaking
• Adjudication
• Can influence policymaking by setting precedent.
• Determines who is eligible for benefits.
• Structure
• Many of these programs simply transfer payments to private or state run programs that make their own policies.
• Discretion:
• Administrators tend to have less discretion as statutes will automatically adjust for environmental changes in
payment transfers.
• Example: unemployment benefits

18. Distributive Policy
• Distributive Policy – policies that use general tax revenue or other nonuser taxes to provide benefits
directly to individuals.
• There are many distributive programs (too many to list)
• Scope:
• Subsidies (grants and subsidies)
• Farm subsidies
• Lure states to take actions
• Highway funding
• Grants
• Mass transit
• Urban development
• Government Sponsored Research
• Agricultural Research Service
• Environmental Protection Agency
• National Science Foundation
• Collection and dissemination of information
• Agricultural Research Service
• U.S. Geological Survey – provides information to organizations
• United States Census Bureau
• Creation and distribution of public goods
• Here people can decide whether or not they want to use public goods.
• Difference between distributive and constituent policy
• Public parks (National Parks Service)
• National highways (Federal Highway Administration)
• Government insurance
• Crop insurance
• Flood insurance
• FDIC (also has a regulatory function)

19. Distributive Policy
• Structure:
• Tend to be smaller in size as they only distribute goods to a small portion of the public.
• Discretion:
• Discretion is very high:
• Statutes are very brief and general
• Located away from Washington, D.C.
• Policy Influence:
• Likely to have high policy influence given the vague statutes.
• Adjudication and rulemaking are not major activities.
• Program implementation, given the vague nature of the statute, provides room for policy
influence.
• With support of interest groups, they can also influence policy initiation.
• Other points:
• Most likely to be involved in iron triangle.
• Discussed below.
• Most favorable political environment
• Strong clientele
• Expert knowledge
• Political elite connections
• Can change if the public becomes aware of the issue.

20. Constituent Policy
• Constituent Policy – a residual category where policies are intended to benefit government in general or
the nation as a whole.
• Policies are not related in this category often times.
• Scope:
• National Security
• Department of Defense
• National Security Agency
• Department of Homeland Security
• Government service bureaus
• Office of Personnel Management
• General Services Administration (operates the physical resources of government)
• Structure:
• Tend to be large in size because they are providing services to the entire nation or to the government as a whole.
• Policymaking:
• Can affect policy through implementation
• Can offer new policy proposals (policy initiation)
• Bureaucratic routines can shape policy.
• Other points
• Lack of clientele weakens the agency
• Clientele is usually political elites which makes it sensitive to the political environment.
• Make be used to justify neutral competence.
• Knowledge does create independence
• Decline over time.

21. Major Points
• How does knowing this typology help us in understanding the
agencies we study?
• Helps determines the type of structure often times
• Helps determines the types of people and the culture of the
organization
• Helps determines the relationships (power) with outside actors
• The type of policy and the coalitions that formed during the creation
of policy, in this case a law that creates an agency, will determine the
type of politics that surround the agency.
• This helps us answer to questions:
• Is the agency part of an iron triangle?
• Is the agency captured by its clientele or the industry it is
supposed to regulate?

22. Distribution of Costs and
Benefits
• The distribution of costs and benefits helps determines coalitions surrounding an
agency:
• Majoritarian politics – both costs and benefits are widely distributed.
• No interests will typically form around the issue because they can’t gain a majority of the
benefits or avoid paying a majority of the costs.
• Occurs most often with clientele policies.
• Agency capture and iron triangles unlikely.
• Example:
• Department of Defense – national defense
• Interest group politics – both costs and benefits are narrowly distributed.
• Strong incentive for both sides to organize and exercise political influence agency
outcomes.
• If there is an imbalance and one side can dominate, then agency capture or iron triangle
might be likely. Loser seeks favorable policy elsewhere.
• Example:
• National Labor Relations Board (Wagner Act)

23. Distribution of Costs and
Benefits
• Client politics – benefits are concentrated but costs are widely
distributed.
• Recipients organize, but those who bear costs do not because costs are low
per capita.
• Agency capture and iron triangles very likely.
• Most likely under distributive policy.
• Example:
• Farm Services Agency (USDA) – farm subsidies
• Supplemental Security Income
• Entrepreneurial politics – general benefits where cost is borne by a
small segment of society (most likely redistributive policy).
• Hard to pass this policy
• Example:
• Environmental Protection Agency

24. Types of Agency Politics
Costs
Benefits Narrowly Distributed Widely Distributed
Narrowly
Distributed
Interest Group
Politics
Client Politics
Widely
Distributed
Entrepreneurial
Politics
Majoritarian
Politics