Policymaking with Multiple Agencies

Authority over related policy issues is often dispersed among multiple government agencies. In this article, I study when Congress should delegate to multiple agencies, and how shared regulatory space complicates agency decision making. To do so, I develop a formal model of decentralized policymaking with two agencies that incorporates information acquisition and information sharing, delineating situations where legislators should and should not prefer multiple agencies. Greater divergence between the agencies' ideal points distorts information sharing and policy choices, but it may increase the amount of information acquisition. Congress achieves better policy outcomes by delegating authority to both agencies if the agencies have strong policy disagreements. If the agencies have similar policy preferences, however, then Congress may want to consolidate authority within one agency because this approach mitigates free-riding and takes advantage of returns to scale.     

Policymaking for Vexatious Problems

Idealized policymaking may aspire to solve problems, but the nature of vexatious problems is to resist solution. In these cases, coping and its variants, like accommodation, avoidance, ambiguity, indirection, and improvisation may be more suitable than the pursuit of solution. Two illustrations concerned with the problematic city of Jerusalem demonstrate the possibilities and the pitfalls that may be associated with coping: (1) negotiations involving Israelis and Palestinians; and (2) tensions between religious and secular Jews.     

Risk Assessment in Environmental Policymaking

A problem in policymaking for prevention of harm to persons and the environment concerns the probability of harm occurring—that is, the measure of risk involved. Policymakers have almost always sought to calculate the risk involved in proposed courses of action. Their methods have often been irrational and their estimates erroneous. Explicit analysis of risk to society and systematic methods for estimating it emerged with the advent of science as more reliable procedures for prediction and decision-making. However, as with many other forms of analysis, the assessment of risk has carried its own risk—namely an undue reliance on logical quantitative techniques which fail to address the root causes of public concern and apprehension. Common-sense assessments of risk tell us more what risks people regard as acceptable and risks arouse anxiety and protest. Carnage from accidents on the nation's highways arouse much less apprehension than nuclear accidents even though actual risk from automobiles is much greater than injury or death from nuclear reactors. The following paper makes the case that the art and science of risk assessment will fall short of social and political realities until the psychological and cultural aspects of risk receive more adequate attention.     

Policymaking by partnership: Reshaping youth employment policy

One of the common problems of advanced industrialized countries is that of youth unemployment. While the policies which a nation implements are culture-bound, deeply rooted in its history and institutions, at times nations have successfully borrowed from one another. An investigation of policymaking affecting youth unemployment in six advanced industrialized countries indicates differences and similarities. Policies and programs in this area seemed most successful in those countries in which business and labor departed from the familiar role of special interest group and instead cooperated actively on policy formulation and execution.     

Change and Decay

Books reviewed:
Tivey, Leonard (edited by Robert Hazell). Constitutional Futures: A History of the Next Ten Years
Seyd, Ben (edited by Robert Blackburn and Raymond Plant). The Politics of the British Constitution; Constitutional Reform: The Labour Government's Constitutional Reform Agenda
Klein, Rudolf (Bill Jordan). The New Politics of Welfare
O'Brien, David (edited by Dick Leonard). Crosland and New Labour
Parker, Noel (Maurice Keens-Soper). Europe in the World: The Persistence of Power Politics
Arnsel, Anja (Peter Gay). My German Question
Archard, David (edited by Richard Bellamy and Martin Hollis). Pluralism and Liberal Neutrality
Vosper, Susan Saunders (Robert Service). A History of Twentieth-century Russia
Garnett, Mark (Luisa Passerini). Europe in Love, Love in Europe: Imagination and Politics in Britain between the Wars
Jenkinson, Sally L (Bruce Hoffman). Inside Terrorism     

Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes: Opportunities and Challenges

Design thinking has the potential to improve problem definition and mechanism design in policymaking processes. By promoting greater understanding of how citizens experience government services, design thinking can support public managers who desire to enhance public value. In Australia, as elsewhere, design thinking currently remains separated from mainstream policymaking efforts. This article clarifies the essence of design thinking and its applicability to policy development. Five design thinking strategies are discussed, all of which have lengthy histories as social science methodologies. They are (1) environmental scanning, (2) participant observation, (3) open‐to‐learning conversations, (4) mapping, and (5) sensemaking. Recent examples from Australia and New Zealand are used to illustrate how these strategies have been incorporated into policymaking efforts. The article concludes by considering how design thinking might be more broadly applied in policymaking, and the training and resourcing requirements that would entail.     

Social science mandarins: Policymaking as a political formula

This article strongly suggests that the customary sequence of events starting with science and terminating with policy-making lacks empirical confirmation; that in fact, the actual sequence of events is primarily determined by policy stances and terminates with some form of scientific investigation, geared however to legitimation rather than explanation. Four empirical case studies are examined: Brown v. Board of Education; Project Clear; Project Camelot; and the Moynihan Report. In each case it is evident that the causal model most appropriate is one that recognizes the legitimation role of social science as dominant. The article concludes with an examination of key factors in the present structure of government and science that makes the teleological model central; it also points out that such a model is neither better nor worse than the customary ways of viewing the relationships; only different in implication and explication.     

Congress and Administrative Policymaking: Identifying Congressional Veto Power

The ability of presidents to unilaterally shape administrative policymaking challenges a foundation of congressional power: Rarely can Congress statutorily veto administrative actions over presidential opposition. Consequently, Congress has turned to other means of influence, including the appropriations and oversight processes, although questions remain about the degree to which they have been effective. To investigate, I study a spatial model of administrative policymaking that assumes Congress can execute a legislative veto, as well as a baseline model in which congressional influence requires a coalition with the president. I compare the two models and develop empirical tests that exploit instances when their implications differ. Applying the tests to data on federal regulatory policymaking shows consistent evidence that Congress exerts veto power over administrative activity, even over those actions endorsed by the president. I conclude by discussing some broader implications, including the extent to which existing studies understate the constraints on presidential power.     

中国政治改革的政策过程分析

实践中的中国政治改革一直是在“摸着石头过河”的方法论指导下循序向前推进的。政治改革是否应该采取渐进的方式一直是政治学理论界争论的中心之一,此外,理论界在政治改革的目的、路径和进程等方面也进行了激烈的争论。过于宏大的理论由于过于局限于规范伦理判断而缺乏对中国政治改革实践的有效解释力和指导性。中国政治改革研究应采取事实陈述—价值判断的方法。在这种方法论下,对中国政治改革作一个政策过程分析有益于经验性的考察改革的方式、目的并发现改革的不足。     

Rules, Discretion, and Accountability in Macroeconomic Policymaking

Arguments for rules rather than discretion in macroeconomic policymaking facilitate the understanding of some fundamental issues of democratic theory. This article reviews four such arguments, and relates them to issues of delegation and accountability in representative government.     

Policymaking for emerging technology: the case of earthquake prediction

How does a nation formulate policy for a technology not yet quite “ready” but which may nevertheless have to be used? Earthquake prediction illustrates some of the policy issues relevant to this question. Earthquake prediction is a technology that is still in the research and development (R & D) stage. Yet predictions have been made and can be expected in the future. The question for policymakers is, are the predictions “ready enough” to use - do the risks of doing nothing in response to a scientific prediction exceed those of a false alarm? As earthquake prediction represents an emerging technology, it calls for a developing policy framework. What is the nature of “present” developing policy? How did this policy come to be? How adequate is it? What needs to be done? This article attempts to answer such questions, dealing primarily with U.S. policy, but also drawing on the experience of other nations, particularly Japan.     

西方公共政策决策模式评价

决策理论是公共政策研究中的一个重要组成部分。在对决策理论的发展进行历史回顾的基础上 ,对理性决策模式、渐进决策模式、组织过程决策模式、政府政治决策模式、感知过程决策模式进行了批判性的分析 ,并试图从决策主体、决策类型、决策过程三方面揭示出这些模式的内在联系。一项政策的形成是复杂的动态过程 ,公共政策决策受着多种因素的影响 ,其决策模式的运用也因时代背景、政治体制、领导人性格、问题的性质而相应地变化。     

Policymaking and technology transfer: The need for national thinking laboratories

The objectives of this paper are to understand what is meant by better policymaking and more efficient technology transfer, to explore what is needed for their achievement, and to suggest an operational mechanism for improving the two processes.The author introduces a few new terms: (1) Inter-context information is defined, and its importance in decisionmaking, policymaking, technology transfer and education is pointed out; (2) a distinction is drawn between incidental technology transfer—initiated by the donor—and organized technology transfer—initiated by the recipient.The author suggests that National Thinking Laboratories should be established to promote organized technology transfer and to act as catalysts to organized policymaking. Their charter should be to match needs in one context to capabilities in another context. This charter is outlined in operational terms by five general objectives listed by the author. The National Thinking Laboratories are most urgently needed, particularly in the developing countries.     

Policymaking and policy analysis in Latin America—A return journey

This paper reviews and updates the conceptual approaches of the author's Journeys Towards Progress (1963). It focuses first on distinctions explaining differences in the path of policymaking and in its effectiveness. Distinctions are made between pressing and autonomously chosen policy problems, between privileged problems and neglected ones that must manage to “ride the coattails” of the former to receive attention, and between policy tasks that are tackled with more motivation than understanding and those with the opposite characteristic. Addressing then similarities in experience with policymaking, the paper first comments on fracasomania (the failure complex) and on the incapacity ever to be surprised at both consequences and determinants of under-development. Indirect and unanticipated effects of policies are illustrated through a Colombian example. A Concluding Lament suggests that the watch for side-effects must be unusually wide-angled in today's Latin America.     

Salience and Complexity in Supranational Policymaking: The Case of Subnational Interests

This study examined whether Gormley's insights about the effects of public salience and technical complexity on the patterns of participation in the regulatory process have explanatory power in an international setting. Specifically, I tracked 60 legislative proposals initiated by the European Commission and estimated the change made by the supranational technocrats in response to the requests of subnational politicians. I found support for the theoretical propositions about the differentiated effect of salience and complexity on political and administrative actors. Consistent with the notion of bureaucratic expertise, the Commission is less responsive when the policy issues require expertise to be tackled efficiently. Although the European Union has been pursuing various mechanisms to democratize its policy process, the technical character of supranational regulation precludes the broader public and elected politicians from assuming a larger role and bureaucracy will continue to be a major player in the international arena.     

Impacts of Intergovernmental Financial Incentives on State Welfare Policymaking and Interstate Equity

Welfare policy in the United States is strongly influenced byintergovernmental factors. This analysis traces the effectsof federal financial incentives on state welfare policy decisionsacross programs and examines how changes in federal incentivesaffect state policy choices over time. The data indicate thathigher levels of federal participation are associated with substantialreductions in variance of welfare grants among the states andwith higher levels of interstate equity. These findings implythat significant shifts in welfare outputs would result froma devolution of responsibility for welfare to the states.