Transcript Public Policy Course Session 4:

Public Policy Course
Session 8:
Policy Analysis, Policy
Development....
And Politics
March 12, 2010
Policy Analysis vs. Policy Development
• Thinking vs. doing
• Problematique/Critique vs. Solutions
• What’s wrong vs. What can be done
• What should be done ….and that’s Politics
2
Policy and Politics
Politics determines
• What issues will be analysed, and by whom
• What issues will be taken seriously, by whom
• What kinds of policy responses will be
favoured at a given moment in time
Politics = who is in office PLUS the zeitgeist
3
Political Influence
• Electoral politics
– Ex. Minority governments versus Majority
governments; frequency of elections
• Partisan politics
– Ex. Canadian or American style aggression?
(changes titres of feeling versus thinking,
emotion versus ideas, politics versus policy)
• Zeitgeist/public mood
– Ex. Buy into “government can only mess things
up”; “irrational exuberance”
4
Does policy analysis shape politics?
• Washington Consensus (all about what we
mean by development/progress)
– More market, less government
• Climate change studies
• Thus far nothing effective re substantially
offsetting increasing concentration of income,
wealth and power
– (men’s concerns and markets/growth trump
women’s concerns and economic security)
5
What shapes policy analysis?
• Manifest Need (individual or macro scale)
– Beveridge Report, UNHR, Marshall Plan
• Awareness of Emerging Trends
- long-term scientific/scholarly analysis
• Crisis (individual or macro scale)
– Shock Doctrine
What shapes policy development?
• Ethics
– 1945 to mid 1960s: “There but for the grace of God go I”
– What needs doing? What should modern life look like?
• Evidence
– Mid 1960s to mid 1990s: “Human development or
economic development first?”
– Evidence-based decision-making
• (Bi-polar) Storytelling
– Mid 1990s to date: hero/villain, good/bad stories about
governments, poor people, aid/military, climate
– Decision-based evidence-making
Thinking About Options
• Go big or go home
– Ex. Guaranteed Annual Income, 25% Debt to GDP
• Tweak what exists- Relentless Incrementalism
– Ex. Welfare rates, tax brackets/rates/credits
• Start something new
– Tax Free Savings Account, Pay Equity, Medicare
• Look at things a new way (framing)
– Gendered Budgeting, Proportional
Representation, Climate Debt
What Works –
Policy Analysis & Development
• Building on the known
– Enhancing existing programs and program
directions (grow or cut)
• Building on momentum
– Taste for social insurance/less risk after 1930s and
WWII; taste for less taxation today
• Building on a vision
– Safer places to live, the knowledge economy,
strong middle class, freedom to choose
There’s no such thing as starting from nothing
What Works Part II
Selling Policy Development
• Ideas that keep YOU at the centre of the frame
– (like ads – can you see yourself in this story?)
• Emotional engagement
– What’s getting fixed and why should I care?
• Keeping your audiences straight
– Difference balance of head/heart for different
groups
– Different lexicons (expert versus “just like you”)
– Different gimmicks (charts, pictures, jokes)
Getting It Right
• Is policy right or wrong? Or Right or Left?
• Right or Wrong
– Ex. Fed-prov fights re transfers for health care
– Small governments
• Right or Left
– Cutting social supports (Conservatives, Liberals & NDP)
– Cutting taxes (ditto)
– Stimulus versus no stimulus
Which is More Important?
Getting it Right or Spinning it Right?
• The best spinner wins the battle of the mind
• The most forward-looking plan (with the most
support) wins the war
• You need great policies and great spin to win
the short term and long term fight
P.S. There is nothing but the long haul