Policy Formulation

8 Key excerpts on "Policy Formulation"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Public Policy Primer

  Managing the Policy Process

  • Xun Wu, M. Ramesh, Michael Howlett, Scott A. Fritzen(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3Policy Formulation

  The commitment of governments to tackling pressing policy problems such as corruption, environmental degradation, and poverty is often admirably strong. However, converting such commitment into measurable achievements requires that problems are defined correctly (see Chapter 2 ) and that appropriate measures are chosen and deployed to address them. In particular, the measures must be politically acceptable, administratively feasible, and technically sound, a tall order in the best of policy-making circumstances (Mukherjee and Howlett 2014).

  Policy Formulation refers to the process of generating a set of plausible policy choices capable of addressing problems identified during agenda-setting (Howlett et al. 2009). In this activity, a range of potential policy choices are identified and some preliminary assessments of their feasibil ity to resolve the identified problem are made. This can take place at the agenda-setting stage, as noted in Chapter 2 , or indeed even before that stage as think tanks and government agencies envision and plan for a variety of alternative future scenarios they might face.

  Policy Formulation as conceptualized here is thus somewhat different from what is described in more linear depictions of the policy process. These depictions tend to restrict formulation activities to those that start only after a policy problem has entered the formal policy agenda and end after a range of options have been identified. Policy Formulation, as we use the term here, extends throughout the policy process. The search for new policy options thus may precede the initiation of a policy problem in agenda-setting, but also may extend beyond the point where a decision is made and implemented to the evaluation of existing and future potential means to resolve public problems after a policy or program has been put into place (Sidney 2007).

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  Social Science and Policy Challenges

  • Sudha Menon, University of Kerala, India(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  These decision-makers are the representatives of several respective ministries. Policy Formulation is the difficult task and therefore the involvement of various people from different background having their common stake should be included for better decision-making and effective Policy Formulation. There is a budget set by the Government for many research-based activities and accordingly they divide themselves on the bases of many activities undertaken. This chapter is about discussion of policymaking and science policymaking and their respective differences. There are different thoughts going around the policymakers while they are preparing the polices and what sort of ideas might have stroke them to make such a policy, such as what ideas they have built up while designing the policies and framework for innovative techniques and technical change taken place. There are number of factors going about at the time of policymaking, such as internal factors and external factors. Both have to be considered for better policy decision. For the science policy changes and technological advancement, the Government has considered many new factors that proved to have the effect on the execution of such decision such as culture, economic system and form of government. The new approach to give the way priority to the social science in giving their opinion and suggestion for the setting up of the science policy agenda is the present scenario. With the changing time in terms of technological changes, preferences changes, innovation techniques and changes with respect to the people, diversification and culture, polices also tends to change and the factors which affect the Policy Formulation also tends to change accordingly. Such changes affect the environmental foundation and inculcate the decision-making concerning the economy important decisions.

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  eBook - ePub

  Studying Public Policy

  An International Approach

  • Hill, Michael, Michael Hill(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Policy Press

    (Publisher)

  This formulation or programming manifests itself in both the detail in the originating laws, in the material governments publish to explain and amplify those laws and in the briefings they provide for implementing agents. The actual form these things take obviously varies from country to country, however. Similarly, there is likely to be variation from country to country in respect of the origins of these aspects of policy.

  It is appropriate to digress a little here to identify a problem about how ‘policy’ is conceptualised. Definitions range between very simple notions of a stance determining future decisions (Friend et al, 1974) and complex ones, seeing it as ‘a set of interrelated decisions … concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation’ (Jenkins, 1978, p 15). In exploring Policy Formulation this part is obviously concerned with policy in the latter sense. But the point may be made that of course some goals are simpler than others. Many policy issues in the modern world concern very complex goals, to the extent that some of these are described as ‘wicked problems’ (Rittel and Webber, 1973). Many of the cases explored in this book involve complex policy issues (Anna Zachrisson and Katarina Eckerberg’s [Chapter 4.3 ] discussion of ecological restoration in this part provides a good illustration of this). It is in the context of complexity that formulation activities become particularly salient.

  There will be variations in the extent to which policy characteristics are the product of executive and/or legislative bodies, and then related variations in the roles played in their production by politicians, civil servants and pressure groups. While studies of ‘who’ actually does ‘what’ in Policy Formulation are rare, recognition of more than politician involvement in these processes is implicit in theoretical approaches that give attention to policy networks and in particular policy communities (Jordan and Richardson, 1987; Marsh and Rhodes, 1992a; Smith, 1993). Particularly relevant in this respect is Sabatier’s advocacy coalition theory identifying ‘actors from a variety of institutions who share a set of policy beliefs’ (1999, p 9).

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  Understanding the Common Agricultural Policy

  • Berkeley Hill(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Just because the idea of an efficient policy is rather impractical does not invalidate it as a useful concept. It is especially helpful to focus on whether too little or too much is being spent on particular policy aims or on particular sectors. Sometimes circumstances change in ways that reduce the significance of a problems and governments can find themselves, for historical reasons, using too much funding in a given policy area. For example, a case can be made that support to agricultural producers is now too large when judged against the resulting benefits, and that other ways of tackling economic and social problems of rural areas should be given more resources (such as supporting village shops and rural transport schemes).

  Of course, people and firms that currently enjoy the private benefits of support (higher incomes and property prices) will not favour reallocations, and they may finance pressure groups and apply political pressure in order to try to prevent change. A clear distinction should be borne in mind, therefore, between the benefits and costs to society of actions, which lies behind the economic rationale for intervention, and the private benefits to, and costs borne by, individuals. Sometimes it is justifiable to provide compensation to individuals who suffer from changes in policy because of equity (they might be put in a position of unfairly low incomes) or to enable a greater benefit to society (reflected in, say, a rise in national income) to be secured; this is an example of the political economy rationale for action mentioned earlier.

  1.4 Policy Formulation

  The next stage is to decide on the type of action to be used to tackle the problems – Policy Formulation. The critical part of this stage is to decide on the objectives which public intervention is designed to achieve and which should lead to an alleviation of the underlying policy problems. Sometimes it may be decided that the best action is no action – that the problem cannot be adequately addressed given the resources that are available, or that the problem is not sufficiently serious to warrant a policy intervention, or that more problems, even more intractable, will be generated by trying to do something. The decision will involve forecasting what is likely to happen under the various scenarios of action or inaction. The responsibility for formulating objectives lies primarily with civil servants and politicians, in the case of EU agricultural policy the staff of the European Commission’s Directorate-General whose proposals are adopted by the ministers of agriculture of Member States and the European Parliament (see Chapter 3

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  Selected Papers Of Lawrence R Klein: Theoretical Reflections And Econometric Applications

  • Kanta Marwah(Author)
  • 1997(Publication Date)
  • World Scientific

    (Publisher)

  Many policy problems are long term. Energy availability, other natural resource supplies, social insurance reform, and international debt settlement are typical long-term problems that use econometric policy analysis at the present time. At the present time, the theory of economic policy serves as a background for development of policy but not for its actual implementation. There is too much uncertainty about the choice of loss function and about the constraint system to rely on this approach to policy formation in any mechanistic way. 19 Instead, economic policy is likely to be formulated, in part at least, through comparison of alternative simulations of econometric models. In the typical formulation of policy, the following steps are taken: (i) definition of a problem, usually to determine the effects of external events and of policy actions; (ii) carry out model simulations in the form of historical and future projections that take account of the problem through changes in exogenous variables, parameter values, or system specification; (iii) estimation of quantitative effects of policies as differences between simula-tions with and without the indicated changes; (iv) presentation of results to policy decision makers for consideration in com-petition with estimates from many different sources. Policy is rarely based on econometric information alone, but it is nearly always based on perusal of relevant econometric estimates together with other assessments of quantitative policy effects. Among econometric models, several will often be used as checking devices for confirmation or questioning of policy decisions. It is important in Policy Formulation to have a baseline projection. For the short run, this will be a forecast of up to three years' horizon. For the longer run, it will be a model projection that is based on plausible assumptions about inputs of exogenous variables and policy-related parameters.

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  Comparative Public Policy

  • Anneliese Dodds(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  8 Economic Policy Economic policy is often separated from broader discussions of public policy, due to disciplinary barriers between economists and policy analysts. Yet, in all devel-oped nations, ‘economics is married, if only at common law, to politics’ (Dahl and Lindblom, 1976 : xlv). This is, first, because of the continuing influence of states on economic activity, both within and beyond domestic borders. The extent to which competitive markets can arise, consolidate and grow in the absence of (pre-dominantly state) authority has preoccupied political economists for decades (see Hayek, 1988 ; and Polanyi, 2001 [ 1944 ], for contrasting views). Regardless of this, it remains indisputable that, even in those nations traditionally viewed as following a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to economic policy, governments and their bureaucracies play an essential role in funding, controlling, organizing and informing economic activity. As this chapter will show, this remains the case despite the influence of globalization. More than perhaps any other area of policy, economic policy decisions can have wide repercussions on other policy areas. This is because successful (or unsuccess-ful) economic policies can increase (or reduce) government capacity to finance other policies, by impacting on the ability to raise revenue through taxation or borrow-ing. Some have argued that economic policy also differs from other types of policy because its goals are almost universally accepted, as well as the means to achieve them. For these theorists, ‘full employment, stable prices, and steady levels of eco-nomic growth’ can be readily measured and are generally supported as policy aims (Heidenheimer et al., 1990 : 134). Others would suggest that whilst ‘[o]ther things being equal’ such goals are indeed ‘preferred’ by society, in practice, ‘these goals are not all positively related’ (Keech, 1980 : 345).

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  Social and Economic Policies in Korea

  Ideas, Networks and Linkages

  • Dong-Myeon Shin(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 A theoretical frameworkfor analysing the processof policy formation andchange

  Not only policy diversity across nations but also policy change within the same country has drawn a great deal of academic interest, mainly in the discipline of economics and politics. These are generally concerned with either highlighting the role of the state in the market or advocating the desirable role of the state. Despite numerous studies, however, there has been very little discussion about how the policy linkages between economic policy and social policy take place. Given the close linkages between economic policy and social policy, the policy choice made in one policy area subsequently has an important effect on shaping the content and scope of reform efforts in the other area. In other words, the role of the state in the economy should be reflected in the role of the state in social affairs.

  The object of this chapter is to provide a conceptual framework to analyse the process of policy formation and change. In the first section, I will critically review the existing theories or approaches explaining the role of the state in the process of policy-making, and demonstrate the problems with each of them. Building on the insights of this discussion, in the next section I will attempt to develop a conceptual framework for analysing the process of policy formation and change, paying particular attention to the linkages between economic policy and social policy.

  Theories on the role of the state in policy-making

  I will begin by dealing with two contending theories concerning the role of the state in policy-making that initially became prominent from the 1950s to the 1970s: pluralism and neo-Marxism. I will then move on to two other approaches, the state-centred approach and rational choice theory, which both gained a lot of support during the 1980s. Each of these four perspectives is significantly distinctive in important analytical respects, and thus in their own way each one provides many useful insights for understanding the role of the state in the policy-making process. However, they all have important limitations in providing a comprehensive account of the state’s role. From this criticism, I finally turn to historical institutionalism (or ‘new institutionalism’1

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  Economic Growth and Development Policy

  • Panagiotis E. Petrakis, Dionysis G. Valsamis, Kyriaki I. Kafka(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  © The Author(s) 2020 P. E. Petrakis et al. Economic Growth and Development Policy https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43181-5_5

  Begin Abstract

  5. The Determinants of Economic Policy Formation

  Panagiotis E. Petrakis

  1   

  ,

  Dionysis G. Valsamis

  1   

  and

  Kyriaki I. Kafka

  1   

  (1) Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

   

   

  Panagiotis E. Petrakis  (Corresponding author)

  Email: [email protected]

    Dionysis G. Valsamis

  Email: [email protected]

    Kyriaki I. Kafka

  Email: [email protected]

  End Abstract

  5.1 Introduction

  Economic science may formulate the determinants of economic growth, but it is the political system and the policy-makers who influence the outcome of the development process through their decisions. Shaping economic policy is a complex process that hinges on several determining factors.

  The area where economic policy-making occurs and where most decisions are made is politics (Sect. 5.2 ). So, we need to analyse the importance of the political function in economic Policy Formulation (Sect. 5.2.1 ), the role of pressure groups and elites (Sect. 5.2.2 ), the importance of multi-level governance (Sect. 5.2.3 ), networks, partnerships and agency theory (Sect. 5.2.4 ). Learning theories, diffusion and punctuated equilibrium (Sect. 5.3 ) are concepts that underlie economic policy theories, while disruptive innovations also play an essential role (Sect. 5.4 ).

  Institutions and cultural background (Sect. 5.5 ) have their share of responsibility and are therefore discussed in more detail later in the book (Chap. 7 ). Finally, we consider the behavioural approach to policy-making (Sect. 5.6 ).

  5.2 Political Systems and the Formation of Economic Policy

  Political institutions are a way of allowing for the expression of individual preferences while balancing the collective conflicts that exist in society. They include the processes by which decisions are made and the control of administrators (governments, administrations, etc.) through the systems of electing representatives. They influence to a very large degree the way in which the social decision-making system is organized. Also, they create the right conditions for reducing the pressure from various interest groups that cause problems both in the smooth functioning of the economy and in the distribution of income and thus in economic growth

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