Samenvatting Public Policy – a new introduction - Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun
Lecture 1 - Introduction
Governance
● Basically about steering/ decision-making
● By possibly wide range of public and/or private actors
● Here focus on governmental actors (in interaction with environment)
● Various ideal-type modes of governance, e.g. hierarchy, market, networks
Public policy
● The ‘output’ of governance processes
● Not just about what’s on paper, also stages before and after that
● Compared with economics
Economics: assess effects of certain course of action, e.g. through modelling; public policy remains bit
of a black box.
Public policy (as discipline): open up black box, study processes that explain why certain decisions are
made, whether or not they result in changes, etc. Not so strong on impacts.
Positivist approach
● As different from post-positivist/ constructivist approaches
● Inspired by natural-science approach
● Development of generalizable theories
● Based on careful empirical observations
● Also dominant approach in Economics
Hoofdstuk 1 Variation and change
Policy variation refers to the explanation of differences between public policies across sectors and countries. to
what extent does policy-making differ in relation to say health policies compared to environmental or transport
policies, and how can these differences be explained?
The central focus of policy change is on the explanation of stability and change. often, public policies remain
highly stable over time, although their functionality and effectiveness have constantly been questioned, as has
been the case, for instance, for the CAP since the early ‘80s.
Polity, policy and politics
Policies are not made in a vacuum. Polity and politics play an
important role in explaining policy change as well as policy
preferences across countries. Polity = institutions involved,
politics = actors involved, policy = outputs of the system
Public policy
Public policy is about policy targeted to achieve public goals > not necessarily public actors. (car garage for
yearly check)
Knill and Tosun’s definition:
A Public policy can be defined as a course of action (or non-action) taken by a government or legislature
with regard to a particular issue. > Outputs of a political system, i.e. the decisions, measures,
programmes, strategies and courses of action adopted by the government or the legislature.
Policy cycle revisited (criticism):
- Criticized for suggesting linear sequence
- Instead: potential analytical lenses
- Allow focusing on distinctive questions and apply distinctive concepts / theories
Sectors, targets and instruments
The term ‘policy’ is used for activities of very different scope:
1. It is often used to cover a whole range of different measures in a certain sector, such as environmental
policy, so that it grasps more than one legal act or political programme.
2. It is also used to describe public activities is policy subfields. For example, with regard to environmental
policy, subsectors refer to clean air policy or climate change policy, or for social policy unemployment
policy or pension policy.
3. Even within policy subfields, distinctive policy issues or targets can be identified. For example within the
clean air policy, industrial discharges of different pollutants or urban air quality and car exhaust
emissions.
4. While policy targets refer to what a legal act regulates, policy instruments define how they are regulated.
For example a wall in the immigration policy of the USA.
, Samenvatting Public Policy – a new introduction - Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun
Stages of the policy process: (policy cycle)
1) Problem definition and agenda-setting
Why do perceptions and definitions of policy problems change over time/vary across countries? Why are
certain problems ignored while others are placed on the agenda?
2) Policy formulation and adoption (+ decision making)
How do policy decisions come about? How can policy outputs be explained?
3) Implementation
Why do certain policies fail? Which factors account for the variance in policy
implementation?
4) Evaluation
How can policy effects be measured? Which factors explain variation in policy
effects?
Lecture 2 Policy typologies
Lowi’s policy typology responds to long recognized differences among public policies and their making, leading to
the famous causal statement that ‘policies determine politics’. The categorization consists of
Type of policy Definition Example
regulatory policies Policies specifying conditions and Environmental protection; migration
constraints for individual or collective policy; consumer protection (no
behaviour (set new rules) smoking banner)
distributive policies Policies distributing new (state) resources Farm subsidies; local infrastructure
(resource is often money) such as highways and schools (cap)
redistributive policies Policies modifying the distribution of Welfare; land reform; progressive
existing resources (resource is often taxation
money) Taxes > taken and redistributed
constituent policies policies creating or modifying the state’s creation of new agencies; ABNA >
institutions. Changes of procedural rules state bank (super provincies)
of parliaments
Critique Lowi:
Regulatory policies have redistributive effects
Perception of redistributive/distributive may change over time
Typology not complete ( morality policy = regulation amongst social values like homosexual rights)
Wilson’s typology is about who rejects ambiguous policy types and distinguishes instead between policies on the
basis of whether the related costs and benefits are either widely distributed or narrowly concentrated. Each of the
four possible combinations yields different implications for policy-making.
Costs Benefits
Concentrated Diffuse
Interest group politics Entrepreneurial politics
Concentrated Decisions affected by position of Policy change requires a political
(small group, high incentive to organise relevant interest group, high entrepreneur who will put through
the group) level of conflict (hormone political proposals despite strong
treated beef) (‘zero sum game’) societal resistance
Clientelistic politics Majoritarian politics
Diffuse Most politically feasible Policy makers closely follow outcome
(large group, less incentive to organise assistance for identifiable group of electorates, minor opposition,
the group) while diffusing costs among interest groups are involved (universal
taxpayers (subsidy for farmers) healthcare)
Compared to lowi: Wilson is more precise and allows shifts between politics (environmental policy from
entrepreneurial to majoritarian)
, Samenvatting Public Policy – a new introduction - Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun
Policy classifications by governance principles: Hood’s NATO model
Governance Nodality Authority Treasure Organization
principe
Basic resource Information Law Money Structures and capacity
Governance logic Indirect stimulation of Direct prescription Indirect stimulation of Provision of public good or
behavioural change of behavioural rules behavioural change service by the state or
through information through financial public enterprise
and persuasion incentives
Typical Information Prohibitions Taxes Public companies
instruments campaigns Bans User charges
Suasion Permits Grants
Research
Standards Tax deductions
Inquiries
Substantive Advice, training, Regulation, Self- Grants, user Administration, public
reporting, registration regulation, licences, charges, loans, tax enterprises, policing,
General purpose census-taking credits, polling consultants, record-
of instrument use (taxes) keeping (paspoort
aanvragen)
Procedural Information provision / Treaties, advisory, Interest group funding Conferences,
withdrawal committees/ / creation commissions of inquiry,
(informatie avond) commissions government
(Grondwet) reorganizations
+/- + low cost +high predictability +high political +direct provision of public
- uncertain effectivene +quick acceptance goods by state
- rarely combined with - high control/ - affects public budge +no long processes
other tools monitor costs when distributive - leads to ineffective (cbr)
-no innovate stim -hard to calculate -monopolistic so
level of incentive inefficiency goes to
consumer
Substantive = directly influence behaviour / experience the instrument procedural
= functioning of government (new ministry/interest group)
Example: The Netherlands prefers Nodality. A big government is not popular, more is regulated by the private
sector. The Netherlands uses generally softer instruments, like voluntary agreements with private actors and
information campaigns.
Key points of policy typologies
- Policy typologies vary with the respective analytical criteria used for their classification, such as the
effects of public policies on policy-making or the governance principles which motivate them.
- Typologies of policy effects have in common a basing of their expectations about whether the
policy-making process will be adversarial or consensual on the characteristics of the policy measure in
question.
- Typologies of governance principles refer to specific groups of policy instruments and shed light on how
they might bring about changes in the behaviour of the target group.
Policy dimensions
Policy outputs are the direct result of the decision-making process which usually involves the adoption of a
certain programme, law or regulation.
Policy outcomes are closely related to the stages of policy implementation and evaluations.
Policy impacts focus on the extent to which a policy decision and its subsequent implementation have actually
brought about the expected results, indicating that they are mainly assessed at the evaluation stage.
Hall’s content dimensions distinguishes between three components of policy outputs:
1. Paradigm > goals of the policy, what is the policy for? (Third-order, radical) (overarching goal)
2. Instruments > how to achieve these goals? (Second- order) (instruments) (means to achieve goals)
3. Calibration of instruments > the precise setting of these instruments, how large should they be? (First-
order, incremental > change in small steps)
Key points of policy dimensions
Public policies can be assessed on the basis of policy outputs, outcomes and impacts.
Lecture 1 - Introduction
Governance
● Basically about steering/ decision-making
● By possibly wide range of public and/or private actors
● Here focus on governmental actors (in interaction with environment)
● Various ideal-type modes of governance, e.g. hierarchy, market, networks
Public policy
● The ‘output’ of governance processes
● Not just about what’s on paper, also stages before and after that
● Compared with economics
Economics: assess effects of certain course of action, e.g. through modelling; public policy remains bit
of a black box.
Public policy (as discipline): open up black box, study processes that explain why certain decisions are
made, whether or not they result in changes, etc. Not so strong on impacts.
Positivist approach
● As different from post-positivist/ constructivist approaches
● Inspired by natural-science approach
● Development of generalizable theories
● Based on careful empirical observations
● Also dominant approach in Economics
Hoofdstuk 1 Variation and change
Policy variation refers to the explanation of differences between public policies across sectors and countries. to
what extent does policy-making differ in relation to say health policies compared to environmental or transport
policies, and how can these differences be explained?
The central focus of policy change is on the explanation of stability and change. often, public policies remain
highly stable over time, although their functionality and effectiveness have constantly been questioned, as has
been the case, for instance, for the CAP since the early ‘80s.
Polity, policy and politics
Policies are not made in a vacuum. Polity and politics play an
important role in explaining policy change as well as policy
preferences across countries. Polity = institutions involved,
politics = actors involved, policy = outputs of the system
Public policy
Public policy is about policy targeted to achieve public goals > not necessarily public actors. (car garage for
yearly check)
Knill and Tosun’s definition:
A Public policy can be defined as a course of action (or non-action) taken by a government or legislature
with regard to a particular issue. > Outputs of a political system, i.e. the decisions, measures,
programmes, strategies and courses of action adopted by the government or the legislature.
Policy cycle revisited (criticism):
- Criticized for suggesting linear sequence
- Instead: potential analytical lenses
- Allow focusing on distinctive questions and apply distinctive concepts / theories
Sectors, targets and instruments
The term ‘policy’ is used for activities of very different scope:
1. It is often used to cover a whole range of different measures in a certain sector, such as environmental
policy, so that it grasps more than one legal act or political programme.
2. It is also used to describe public activities is policy subfields. For example, with regard to environmental
policy, subsectors refer to clean air policy or climate change policy, or for social policy unemployment
policy or pension policy.
3. Even within policy subfields, distinctive policy issues or targets can be identified. For example within the
clean air policy, industrial discharges of different pollutants or urban air quality and car exhaust
emissions.
4. While policy targets refer to what a legal act regulates, policy instruments define how they are regulated.
For example a wall in the immigration policy of the USA.
, Samenvatting Public Policy – a new introduction - Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun
Stages of the policy process: (policy cycle)
1) Problem definition and agenda-setting
Why do perceptions and definitions of policy problems change over time/vary across countries? Why are
certain problems ignored while others are placed on the agenda?
2) Policy formulation and adoption (+ decision making)
How do policy decisions come about? How can policy outputs be explained?
3) Implementation
Why do certain policies fail? Which factors account for the variance in policy
implementation?
4) Evaluation
How can policy effects be measured? Which factors explain variation in policy
effects?
Lecture 2 Policy typologies
Lowi’s policy typology responds to long recognized differences among public policies and their making, leading to
the famous causal statement that ‘policies determine politics’. The categorization consists of
Type of policy Definition Example
regulatory policies Policies specifying conditions and Environmental protection; migration
constraints for individual or collective policy; consumer protection (no
behaviour (set new rules) smoking banner)
distributive policies Policies distributing new (state) resources Farm subsidies; local infrastructure
(resource is often money) such as highways and schools (cap)
redistributive policies Policies modifying the distribution of Welfare; land reform; progressive
existing resources (resource is often taxation
money) Taxes > taken and redistributed
constituent policies policies creating or modifying the state’s creation of new agencies; ABNA >
institutions. Changes of procedural rules state bank (super provincies)
of parliaments
Critique Lowi:
Regulatory policies have redistributive effects
Perception of redistributive/distributive may change over time
Typology not complete ( morality policy = regulation amongst social values like homosexual rights)
Wilson’s typology is about who rejects ambiguous policy types and distinguishes instead between policies on the
basis of whether the related costs and benefits are either widely distributed or narrowly concentrated. Each of the
four possible combinations yields different implications for policy-making.
Costs Benefits
Concentrated Diffuse
Interest group politics Entrepreneurial politics
Concentrated Decisions affected by position of Policy change requires a political
(small group, high incentive to organise relevant interest group, high entrepreneur who will put through
the group) level of conflict (hormone political proposals despite strong
treated beef) (‘zero sum game’) societal resistance
Clientelistic politics Majoritarian politics
Diffuse Most politically feasible Policy makers closely follow outcome
(large group, less incentive to organise assistance for identifiable group of electorates, minor opposition,
the group) while diffusing costs among interest groups are involved (universal
taxpayers (subsidy for farmers) healthcare)
Compared to lowi: Wilson is more precise and allows shifts between politics (environmental policy from
entrepreneurial to majoritarian)
, Samenvatting Public Policy – a new introduction - Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun
Policy classifications by governance principles: Hood’s NATO model
Governance Nodality Authority Treasure Organization
principe
Basic resource Information Law Money Structures and capacity
Governance logic Indirect stimulation of Direct prescription Indirect stimulation of Provision of public good or
behavioural change of behavioural rules behavioural change service by the state or
through information through financial public enterprise
and persuasion incentives
Typical Information Prohibitions Taxes Public companies
instruments campaigns Bans User charges
Suasion Permits Grants
Research
Standards Tax deductions
Inquiries
Substantive Advice, training, Regulation, Self- Grants, user Administration, public
reporting, registration regulation, licences, charges, loans, tax enterprises, policing,
General purpose census-taking credits, polling consultants, record-
of instrument use (taxes) keeping (paspoort
aanvragen)
Procedural Information provision / Treaties, advisory, Interest group funding Conferences,
withdrawal committees/ / creation commissions of inquiry,
(informatie avond) commissions government
(Grondwet) reorganizations
+/- + low cost +high predictability +high political +direct provision of public
- uncertain effectivene +quick acceptance goods by state
- rarely combined with - high control/ - affects public budge +no long processes
other tools monitor costs when distributive - leads to ineffective (cbr)
-no innovate stim -hard to calculate -monopolistic so
level of incentive inefficiency goes to
consumer
Substantive = directly influence behaviour / experience the instrument procedural
= functioning of government (new ministry/interest group)
Example: The Netherlands prefers Nodality. A big government is not popular, more is regulated by the private
sector. The Netherlands uses generally softer instruments, like voluntary agreements with private actors and
information campaigns.
Key points of policy typologies
- Policy typologies vary with the respective analytical criteria used for their classification, such as the
effects of public policies on policy-making or the governance principles which motivate them.
- Typologies of policy effects have in common a basing of their expectations about whether the
policy-making process will be adversarial or consensual on the characteristics of the policy measure in
question.
- Typologies of governance principles refer to specific groups of policy instruments and shed light on how
they might bring about changes in the behaviour of the target group.
Policy dimensions
Policy outputs are the direct result of the decision-making process which usually involves the adoption of a
certain programme, law or regulation.
Policy outcomes are closely related to the stages of policy implementation and evaluations.
Policy impacts focus on the extent to which a policy decision and its subsequent implementation have actually
brought about the expected results, indicating that they are mainly assessed at the evaluation stage.
Hall’s content dimensions distinguishes between three components of policy outputs:
1. Paradigm > goals of the policy, what is the policy for? (Third-order, radical) (overarching goal)
2. Instruments > how to achieve these goals? (Second- order) (instruments) (means to achieve goals)
3. Calibration of instruments > the precise setting of these instruments, how large should they be? (First-
order, incremental > change in small steps)
Key points of policy dimensions
Public policies can be assessed on the basis of policy outputs, outcomes and impacts.
