2. Introduction
• Political science traditions.
– Institutionalism – focus on texts of constitutions, laws, and
other written statements of policies and the relationships
between formal government institutions.
– Behaviorism – focus on political motivations of individuals,
acting singly and in groups, often through polling, game
theory, and statistical techniques.
– Neo-institutionalism – focus on organizations and systems
in which individuals interact and achieve political and
policy goals through explicit or implicit rules and operating
procedures.
3. The Traditional View of Formal Institutions
• Automatically have power and authority
• Are relatively stable
• Have the final say in policy debate
• Their decisions are accepted
• Interests are in the role of petitioners
• This is the classic institutionalist approach
4. A More Realistic View
• Power and authority must be earned and reinforced
• Are broadly stable, but are not at all monolithic
• Do not issue the final word—decisions often lead to
countermobilization
• Countermobilization is proof that decisions aren’t
unquestioned
– Bureaucratic delay or shirking
– Disobedience
• Interests and members of formal institutions work
together, not apart.
• This looks more like the behaviorist approach
5. A Paradigm for Behavior
• Individuals, corporations, and government agencies make decisions to act
against a backdrop of the incessant, and often bitter debates concerning
the role and responsibility of governments that take place at a national,
provincial, and local level
• We must understand how governments operate
• how those employed in the legislative, administrative, and judicial
branches of the federal, provincial, and local governments reach
consensus and compromise about goals and individual, corporate,
and governmental behavior, and so create incentives for appropriate
actions and disincentives for inappropriate actions
• We must understand
• how individuals and corporations help create consensus and
compromise
• how individuals and corporations respond to incentives and
disincentives
6. •We, individually and
collectively – in various
formal and informal
groups – produce
public policy
•We – individually and
collectively consume
pubic policy
•We – individually and
collectively react to
public policy
9. Official and Unofficial Actors in Public Policy
• What are official actors?
• What are unofficial actors?
• What is the difference between official and unofficial
actors?
• Are one set of actors more “legitimate” than
another?
– The policy process involves the interaction of these actors
within the policy environment
– That policy environment is characterized by static
and dynamic features of our system
10. Actors
• Main categories of actors in the policy
process.
– Official actors – statutory or constitutional
responsibilities.
– Unofficial actors – participation with no explicit
legal authority.
14. Legislatures
• First listed branch in the federal constitution.
– Source of considerable research.
• Primary function is lawmaking. Number of
bills and resolutions gives some idea of how
busy legislatures are.
15. Legislative Organization
• What you see on TV does not represent the bulk of
legislative action on policy.
• Most of the critical work on public policy is done in
committees, which review legislation, propose and
vote on amendments, and, in the end, decide
whether a bill will die at the committee level or be
elevated for consideration by the full body.
• One of the most critical elements of legislative
organization is the organization on party lines.
16. Legislative Branch
• Make laws
– Lots of laws introduced, few pass
– Has a large staff to lighten workload
• Hold hearings
– For lawmaking
– For other reasons
• Perform oversight over the executive branch
– Approval of appointments (not in Pk)
– Oversight hearings
• Do casework for constituents.
• What are the power advantages and
disadvantages of the legislative branch?
17. The nature of legislation
• Symbolism
• Currying favor with constituents
• Multiple bill introductions
• How do we know what’s “on the agenda” just
from a count of bills?
– Why does it matter what’s on Parliament’s
agenda?
18. Organization of the Legislature
• Parties
– Elect the presiding officer or speaker
– Determine who sits on committees
• Committees
– Screen bills
– Set the legislative agenda
– Chairs are very powerful
• Is the Parliament centralized? Or
decentralized?
19. Legislatures
• Burden eased by staff (not in PK)
• Bills sifted by committee structure.
– Committee chairs wield significant power.
– Most bills fail to move past their first committee
hurdles because they are largely symbolic
gestures.
21. Legislature – Critiques
• Many people argue that legislatures are out of
touch with the people.
• Legislatures are to slow
• A localized constituency serving Institution
• To understand why legislatures work as they
do, you need to understand two elements of
the legislature: the nature of the members of
the body and the organization and nature of
the branch itself.
22. Legislature – Critiques
• The primary goal of the typical legislator is
reelection. Casework allows legislators to please
voters
• Legislatures are decentralized institutions.
– Committees and subcommittees.
– Decentralization and centralization of party leadership.
– Issue networks and policy subsystems.
23. Legislatures, Implications for Policy Making
• Decentralization and casework focus makes complex
and change-oriented legislation difficult to pass.
Gridlock,” or deliberation, is designed into the
legislative process.
• It’s unlikely that parliament will make big sweeping
policy changes without a social movement or a major
prod from the executive branch
• Parliament may focus on politically safe casework,
oversight, and distributive spending.
• In particular, may favour local interests over national
interests
24. The Executive Branch
• For the sake of discussion, the executive branch can
be considered in two parts: the administration, staff,
and appointees; and the bureaucracy.
• Advantages of an elected executive in the policy
process.
– Veto power.(not in PK)
– Media and public attention.
– Informational advantage over the legislature.
25. The PM
• The head of executive branch
• Considerable power shifted toward the
executive branch-
• Attracts a lot of media and public attention—
can “go public”
26. The Executive Branch
• Elected executive limitations.
– “Power to persuade”.
– The size of the Office of the President/PM.
– Inability to force action-Provinces and regulators
• Elected executive’s more focus on agenda-setting
than selecting alternative policies
• The permanent bureaucracy.
• The will of the other branches.
– Appointments
– Courts
27. Administrative Agencies and Bureaucrats
• Characteristics of bureaucracy.
– Fixed and official jurisdictional areas.
– Hierarchical organization.
– Written documentation.
– Expert training of staff.
– Career, full-time occupation.
– Standard operating procedures.
• Key complaints about bureaucracy.
– Size.
– Red tape.
28. • What is a civil servant?
• Selected on merit?
• What do you think motivates bureaucrats in
public service?
29. Administrative Agencies and Bureaucrats
• What Do Government Agencies Do?
– Government agencies provide services that are
uneconomical for the private sector
• What is public goods
• Public goods are indivisible and nonexclusive.
• Free-rider problem
– Provide services that people may not want
provided by the private sector
• Electricity, Phone, Water
– Complaints tend to focus on speed, efficiency, and
effectiveness of public service delivery.
30. Bureaucracy& Accountability
• Bureaucrats are not elected, yet they make
policy.
• Yet, bureaucrats are supposed to act in the
“public interest.”
• Bureaucrats are given more or less discretion
based on how sensitive an issue is.
31. Bureaucracy and problem of accountability.
– Most public employees are appointed on merit, not
accountable to elected officials.
• Early thinking focused on separation of politics and administration.
• Modern thinking: Agency decisions are political and in the realm of
administrative discretion.
– Problem: no single, agreed-upon definition of the public
interest.
– Administrative discretion: ability to make decisions with
minimal interference.
• The problem of agency “capture”
32. The Courts
• The courts are neither impotent nor all powerful.
• The Courts do make policy.
– Rely on judicial review
• Rely on enforcement by other actors—executive and
legislative branches, private actors
• The courts are undemocratic institutions
– How does one balance popular will with constitutional
limit?
33. The Courts
• The ability to interpret legislative and
executive actions: judicial review.
• Courts are the weakest because their
authority rests on the legitimacy of the law
and their ability to argue their case.
• Legislatures and executives initiate public
policy, while courts react to the practical
effects of such policies.
34. The essential idea (Hamilton)
• The Constitution and the laws are derived
from the will of the people; the courts serve
to ensure that the people’s will, not that of
the legislature, is preserved.
35. The courts thus have the power to
• Invalidate unconstitutional legislative or
executive actions
• Interpret the laws in such a way as to discern
legislative intent
• Act as a buffer, of sorts, between the
legislative branch and the people
• Of course, it doesn’t always happen this way
36. The major objections and concerns
about the judiciary
• It’s antidemocratic
– Govt Vs Supreme Court
– Just 7-8 votes can change the law
37. The major objections and concerns
about the judiciary
• The courts aren’t supposed to make policy—
only the elected branches
– This is a naïve comment in our case
• The courts operate on an explicitly ideological
basis
– Depends on who you are and who you talk to.
38. The judiciary and public policy
• Is the judiciary “imperial?” or too powerful
• The case against the imperial court:
– Most appellate courts affirm the lower courts
– Most higher level courts affirm lower courts,
although not at the same rate
– Most courts catch up with the dominant
ideological level
39. The Constrained Court…
• The Court does not have sufficient
independence from the legislative and
executive branches to affect significant social
reform
– This Constraint can be overcome by securing
support from substantial numbers in Parliament
and securing the support of the executive branch.
40. The Constrained court….
• Courts lack the power to develop and
implement policy
– This Constraint can be overcome either by
securing support of citizens, or at least not having
significant opposition from all citizens.
42. Unofficial Actors and Their Roles in Public
Policy
• Individual citizens.
– Low political participation.
• Voting.
• Other forms of participation: campaigning, contacting,
etc.
– Despite this, citizens can be mobilized:
– Generally speaking, individuals want the most
services while paying the least taxes for those
services.
43. Why are groups so important?
• Can individuals make change acting alone?
• Aggregation of resources
• Aggregation of members=power
• Forming “advocacy coalitions”
• Groups or “special interest groups” are
sometimes viewed as a bad thing. Why?
44. What Do Groups Do?
• Lobbying (providing information)
• Support candidates
– Money
– Votes
• Mobilize members to take action
• Sue in court
• Public protests and “direct action”
45. Interest Groups
– Interest groups have been part of the political
scene
– the number of groups has greatly expanded.
• Transportation, mass communication, expansion of
government.
– Few legal barriers to the creation of groups.
46. Interest groups
– The power of interest groups varies.
• Knowledge, money, information.
• Group size, peak associations.
• Intensity, direct economic interest, ideological
commitment.
• Social movements (combinations of interest groups).
47. Types of Membership Groups
• Economic (private interest).
– Are primarily interested in benefits for members.
– Do you think they will at least argue that, when
their members benefit, the public benefits?
• Public interest groups.
– Seek to create broad benefits for everyone.
– Hard to define a single “public” interest.
• Other types of groups.
– Religious groups.
48. Political Parties
• Political parties.
• They aggregate preferences into broad coalitions
• They organize the legislative branch
• They provide opportunities for participation
• They help integrate national and provincial politics
• Functions.
• Voting cues.
• Transmission of political preferences.
• Creation of packages of policy ideas.
49. Media
• Communications media.
– The news media are important actors in the policy process.
• Newspapers – National versus regional versus local.
• TV is the central news medium. Older population, News networks;
younger population, cable .
– Entertainment programming can be equally important.
» Movies, t.v., videogames.
– Media’s primary function in policy process is agenda-
setting. Media coverage correlates with institutional
attention.
50. Media
• Communications media.
– News media are not just passive actors.
• Interests try to arouse media focus.
• Time and space constraints require discretion.
• Profit-driven businesses.
• Competitive biases of news gathering: dramatic and
narrative qualities of the story.
51. What does the news emphasize?
• Personalized news
• Dramatized news
• Fragmented news
• Normalized news
• How do news biases influence public policy?
– Distorted agendas
– Distorted “facts”
– This is not about ideological bias
52. How Effective Are the Media As
Watch Dogs?
• Very little news (<1%) is the result of investigative
journalism.
• Most news in an average news paper is wire service
copy, press releases, etc.
• Much of what is printed or aired is because of the
personal relationships with sources.
• Is the internet going to be a “better” alternative
source of news?
53. Other Actors
• Subgovernments, issue networks, and domains.
– Policy domain is the substantive area of policy over which
participants in policy-making compete and compromise.
– The political culture and legal environment influence the
domains.
– Policy community inside the domain consists of the actors
actively involved in policy making in that domain.
• Iron triangles one way of organizing the policy community.
• Issue networks may be more accurate description.
54. Other Actors
• Sub governments, issue networks, and domains.
– Prying open policy networks (major corporate interests
usually dominate).
– But, policy change is possible by prying open a domain.
• Focusing events.
• Social movements and mobilization.
• Exploiting the decentralization of government.
• Going public.
55. Iron Triangles
• Public policy seems to work for the benefit of
established interests.
• "One cannot live in Washington without being
conscious that it has whirlpools ... the relationship
among these men --legislators, administrators,
lobbyists, scholars --who are interested in a common
problem is a much more real relationship. Instead of
studying the formal institutions, one may possibly
obtain a better picture of policy if he would study
these "whirlpools.“ Dr. Ernest Griffith, US
Congressional Researcher
56. • Douglas Cater (White House Aide) referred to these
networks as Iron Triangles and sub governments.
(1964): “ powers are waged by alliances cutting across
the two branches of government and including key
operatives from outside. In effect, they constitute
subgovernments of Washington . They define the
institutional agenda carefully, keep off items which
might upset, seek to maintain control and stability,
possess technical knowledge, and discourage intruders
such as investigative journalists and good-government
groups.
57. He documented alliances among three groups:
• Administrative staff are skillful, and well placed to influence
both the agenda and the scope of the policy debate.
(Secretary, Head of Organization)
• Interest group leaders, have a stake in the outcomes of public
policy. Have access to technical information, maintain trade
organizations, and influence elected officials with money.
They are the clients of the policy (Sugar, Oil, Bahria Town, LPG
etc)
• Congressional committees elected representatives and their
administrative staff, technical and political. (Foreign, trade,
commerce)
58. • CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES HAVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH
THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH WHOM THEY APPROPRIATE MONEY.
THE COMMITTEES AND THE BUREAUCRATS HAVE CLOSE
RELATIONSHIPS WITH INTEREST GROUPS OF POLICY
• THE IRON TRIANGLES ARE LARGELY AUTONOMOUS AND
CLOSED; OUTSIDERS HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFICULTY
PENETRATING THEM.
• IRON TRIANGLES HAVE WORKED BECAUSE PARTICIPANTS
SHARE SIMILAR POLICY VIEWS
• AN INDIVIDUAL WHO LEFT ONE COMPONENT OF THE
TRIANGLE OFTEN WOULD MOVE TO ANOTHER.
59. Think Tanks
• Their goals.
– To influence public policy, often in a way consistent with their
ideological perspective.
• To serve the public interest with sound research and
information for policy makers.
• Their numbers have grown—why?
– Desire for influence in politics
– ideological sponsorship
– The proliferation of particular interests
• What’s the difference between think tanks and interest
groups
– Organization
– Goals
– Techniques for asserting influence
60. NGOs
• Publicity for draft laws and other instruments
• Involvement of representatives of the community and of the concerned
parties in the procedure of developing the draft of a new act and their
participation in joint working groups, public discussions and other forms
• On-line consultations or other ways in which the concerned community
may express opinions.
• Guaranteed Internet public access to the proposals and opinions and the
reasons for their non-acceptance by the respective institution
• Organization of public discussions on the financial, economic, social and
other important effects of the adoption of acts.
61. CLERGY
• Ideological base- Pakistan
• Multiple interpretations
• Political interest
• Business interests
• Obscurantism
