Analysis of the Public Policy Process - A Primer
Introduction
It is only appropriate to begin this article by providing a definition of what public policy is, thereby providing a basis for what government does and providing a foundation for understanding of the role that different elements, both governmental and non-governmental, in our society fulfill in influencing the development of public policy.
Public policy, in short, is what government officials, and by extension the citizens they serve, choose to do to address problems and issues facing our society that require public and governmental intervention (Kraft, 2010, p. 5). Policy, as a concept, relates to the course of action that an entity consistently uses to address problems. Public policy then relates to courses of action consistently followed by government to address problems within the public arena such as social issues like abortion and health care; economic issues such as fiscal, budgetary, and monetary policy; political issues of all types; and issues involving education, conservation, energy, and the environment. Anderson captured the essence of public policy when he stated that, "Good public policy is similar to inventing. You try to come up with something new, something different - or sometimes something old which is an improvement over the way things are now being done (Anderson, 2002)."
While formal policy is developed within government, there are many entities that have influence on how policy is developed. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are primarily involved in policy creation and implementation. However, public interest groups, political parties, the governmental bureaucracy, and citizens themselves also can have significant influence and impact on the policy creation process. In many cases, these different entities work against, or in favor of, different types of public policy. Alliances form among these groups that either work to support various policies or reject them. As issues shift, alliances change as well. Groups that supported each other on one issue will be vehemently against each other on another issue. Means of influence can be both overt and covert in nature. It sometimes seems quite amazing that public policy can be developed and implemented at all! It is the purpose of this article then to identify the groups that have a hand in the development of public policy and to provide an overview of how these groups utilize their personal and organizational influence.
Political Parties
While our Federal and State Constitutions have no provision for the creation and influence of political parties within our system of government, it is only natural that groups of like-minded people would assemble and organize for the purpose of sharing political concepts and ideas, and for the purpose of attempting to influence citizens and leaders to conduct their affairs in support of the group's stated goals and objectives. This political affiliation dates to the founding of our Republic, when the two dominant political groups were the Federalists, who believed in a stronger central government, and the Anti-Federalists, who believed in primary political power resting with the states. These political oppositions and competitions have continued through the modern period with the two primary political parties being the Democrats and the Republicans. There are also minor political parties that have their own political agendas as well.
Political parties at the national, state, and local level define their policy positions in their party platforms. In these platforms, the party leaders state what their party's positions are on a variety of political, economic, and social issues. The parties will then attempt to field candidates for political office who share many of those values. The parties will also engage in fund raising for the purpose of supporting their candidates and getting them elected to the offices that they are running for. The parties can then work to implement their platforms, thus affecting public policy, by obtaining to gain control of the majorities in the legislative houses at all levels of government, and gain control of the Presidency and other executive elected positions at the state and local level.
Executive
The chief executive of a political entity, be it the President, a Governor, a Mayor, or a City Manager has many different and effective tools available to him or her to influence the development of public policy. The first tool that a chief executive has is the use of the public power and prestige of the office he or she holds - the bully pulpit (Lorch, 2001, 124). Presidents are particularly effective in use of the bully pulpit. Presidents will often travel to different locations, and public give presentations as businesses, major corporations, universities, or groups and present new policy initiatives. For example, during the period that General Motors and Chrysler were going through bankruptcy, President Obama made appearance at automobile plants publicly discussing and promoting the use of federal funds to keep the corporations in business, and to promote innovation and new products. I recall one such visit where Obama was photographed driving a Chevrolet Volt to promote the purchasing of alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles. These public appearances are generally well attended by the media and are used to generate public support for a particular political or legislative initiative.
Chief executives also can be considered the "chief legislator" in several ways. First, a chief executive generally has a mechanism available to him or her to introduce legislation into the process of the legislative branch; if not through direct introduction of legislation, then by legislation being introduced by either political leadership or a member of the same political party as the executive. (Lorch, 2001, p. 123). The chief executive can also affect the legislative process by lobbying members of the legislature either directly, or through the use of staff or influence groups.
Another power that a chief executive possesses to influence legislation, thus influencing public policy, is the use of the legislative veto. The veto can be one of two types - a veto that nulls an entire piece of legislation, or a line-item veto that is used to strike down certain sections of a bill. Overturning a veto can often be an extremely difficult task for a legislature and will often provide an impetus for opposing sides in a legislative battle to find room to compromise on legislative revisions. Finally, a chief executive has a significant amount of power to create and implement public policy through the use of regulations. Many administrative and executive agencies, boards, and commissions have the legal authority to recreate regulations that are designed to implement broader policy objectives approved in legislation. Many of these administrative entities either are controlled by the chief executive or their leaders are appointed by the chief executive, thus ensuring that those administrative leaders will work to introduce regulations that support the executive's policy initiatives and agenda (Lorch, 2001, p. 122).
Legislative
The legislative branch of government, at all levels, has an important role in the creation of public policy and significant power toward establishing and achieving public policy goals and objectives. The first two powers possessed by the legislative branch that are obvious in their relationship to public policy are the powers to pass laws and the power to appropriate money. Public policy often cannot be put into effect if there is no enabling legislation and if money is not appropriated to pay for the operations and services provided for in policy, then the policy cannot be made to work or be made to be effective. However, the legislative branch is intimately involved in public policy development using the committee and subcommittee system in the legislature.
Remember that the purpose of public policy is to address problems and issues that are occurring in our society. Generally, the greatest influence on legislators comes from the people that they are most responsible to - the citizens that elect them (Magleby, 2012, p. 103). This is particularly true at the local level of government. As legislators require the continuing support of the citizens in their districts to get re-elected, legislators tend to listen to complaints and problems that citizens present to them. In cases where a public concern is widespread, legislators will take notice and identify areas where public policy may need to be developed through the introduction of legislation to address those concerns.
When legislation is introduced in a legislative house, it is often then assigned to a legislative committee or subcommittee that has jurisdiction over that topic area for study. Committees often have members who have either expertise or significant interest in a particular policy area, and they have access to legislative staff and services who have policy expertise as well. The committees or subcommittees will hold hearings on the issue at hand and will hear testimony from any number of individuals or groups that have an interest in that particular policy issue. Those testifying may include executive branch officials, other elected or appointed officials, academic experts, representatives of partisan, non-partisan, or issueoriented think tanks, special interest groups, or even regular citizens (Kraft, 2010, p. 45).
After receiving testimony from all these individuals and officials, members of the committee will begin the process of revising the bill that was introduced or crafting new legislation. Members will work with each other and the committee staff to determine if there are differing points of view among the committee members and attempt to find areas of compromise. If a compromise bill can be fashioned in a way that meets the satisfaction of the committee and the bill's original sponsor, or if new legislation can be created, then the bill will be voted on and reported out of the committee to be voted on by the legislative house. In cases of a bicameral legislature, the policy and legislation creation process can become even more convoluted as the other house will often use its own committee to hold hearings and create its own legislation, which must then be reconciled with the other house's bill. Sometimes it becomes impossible to pass legislation to address a policy issue due to disagreements between the two houses (particularly if each house is controlled by a different political party) and between the legislature and the executive.
Judiciary
The judiciary at all levels of government play an important role in not only the development of public policy, but also an important role in determining whether particular tools that are used to implement public policy pass constitutional muster. One must understand that the judiciary is reactive in nature and not proactive (Kraft, 2010, p. 50). The courts can only act on cases that have been brought before it, but many of those cases, such as Roe v. Wade, and Miranda v. Arizona, have had an enormous impact on our way of life.
The courts play three main roles in the area of public policy. First, the courts will often serve as an arbiter between the other two branches of government. They will address complaints by one branch that the other branch exceeded its constitutional authority or that it refused to carry out its legal responsibility. For example, there were congressional claims made that President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority by using executive orders to grant Affordable Care Act waivers that contravene requirements defined in the law. Another example is that President Obama, and many other citizens, have complained that the Congress has failed to live up to its statutory responsibility by failing to pass a Federal budget until recent years. The second role that the courts play is ensuring that laws and regulations passed by the other branches of government meet Federal and state constitutional standards by interpreting those constitutions in a consistent manner. This is done through the development of case law and the application of previously adjudicated case law as case precedents. This is the legal doctrine of stare decisis (Lorch, 2001, p. 208). The third role the courts play that affects public policy is in determining who has standing to sue in a case (Kraft, 2010, p. 51).
The Bureaucracy
The bureaucracy is often referred to informally as the 4th branch of government. The bureaucracy consists of those leaders and workers who are a part of the civil service of government. The bureaucracy, while not elected, does play several important roles in the realm of public policy.
First, those who work in the bureaucracy are those who must implement and work on a day-to-day basis with the public policy tool created by those who have the power to do so. They are going to be the people who make public policy work for the citizens that public policy is designed to serve. For public policy to work as planned, the political leaders need to ensure that the buy-in and support of the bureaucracy exists and that the bureaucracy does nothing to undermine the policy goals.
The second function that the bureaucracy serves is to potentially slow down the policy implementation process where it is being introduced too fast and in too haphazard of a manner. The bureaucracy can find hidden flaws in the policy processes and can serve as a vocal opponent of bad policy.
Finally, the bureaucracy will serve as an entity that engages in policy input through its unions and through the unions' ability to act as a significant part of the political and election process. This can be either a good influence or a bad influence, depending upon the issue and the unions' vested interest in a policy issue. In line with this, it is understood that public policy models tend to de-emphasize the influence on government performance of implementation through administrative processes and systems (Robichau, 2009). The bureaucracy can provide elected officials and public administrators the feedback necessary to properly evaluate and modify the process and systems created by public policy.
Public Interest and Lobby Groups
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Any number of public interest groups, or lobbying groups representing organizations, businesses, industries, think tanks, and labor unions are involved in working to affect policy concerning an almost indefinite number of public policy issues. These groups will be very involved in policy issues that have a political impact on the positions of its members, or that directly influence their members well-being.
These groups can get their message out in many ways. They may directly lobby legislators or financially support candidates; they may also utilize various forms of mass media or social media in order to broadcast their message to gain direct citizen support. They may use insider influence to gain access to the chief executive or to members of the cabinet or government agencies that have control in the areas. They may testify before legislative committees, provide subject matter expert reports to government, or file amicus briefs in court cases where the case deals with an area of their interest, or may be the plaintiffs in civil cases of their own (Kraft, 2010, p. 56).
A few examples of these organizations are as follows:
National Rifle Foundation - represents gun owners and pro-2nd Amendment issues.
Citizens
It is said by some that citizens do not have a place in public policy because the average citizen lacks the sophistication and level on knowledge necessary to create and take rational positions on issues. Further, many public administrators do not wish to have the average citizen more involved in the development of public policy, as they believe that this takes away from their ability to perform their duties and requires them to interact with the public in ways that they are not used to and do not feel comfortable with (Walters, 2006). Many citizens believe that the average citizen has very little power and influence and can do little to affect public policy and change; Burstein even suggests that because of citizen apathy, citizens lose their influence to special interests but that they do not win at the public's expense (Burstein, 2006). I believe quite the opposite is, in fact, the case. Citizens possess the ability to have a significant impact on public policy, particularly at the local level.
To begin, all of these organizations consist of people. Citizens have the right of free association and are afforded the right to redress government for grievances, according to our Federal charters. Citizens can contact their elected officials, write letters, protest, support candidates and issues, and become a part of the government by serving as a local elected or appointed official. Citizens can send letters to the editor, speak on issues at city council meetings, blog on issues, and engage in activities to create public awareness on issues that are important to them.
Citizens can work to create change on a larger scale by working on referendum and local petition issues. They can serve with, and financially support, interest groups and organizations. However, what is of the greatest importance is that citizens be informed and utilize the most effective tool they have at their disposal to affect public policy, and that is voting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are numerous people involved in the area of public policy and they have a wide range and number of public policy tools available to them to serve them in working to achieve their public policy agendas. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government at all levels are the primary entities involved in the development of public policy; however, numerous other special interest groups, think tanks, lobbyists, and even average citizens are involved in the development of public policy as well.
Given the number of people and groups that are involved in public policy development and implementation, it is amazing that we as a nation and society can accomplish anything. While we don't always agree and while we sometimes are unable to achieve out policy goals, often we are able to compromise and find common ground to create public policy that properly serves our citizens.
Finally, with all the number of officials, organizations, and entities that are involved in public policy, we must not lose sight of the fact that the most important person in public policy development is the average citizen. The citizen who is informed on policy issues and actively engages with those issues can have a significant, positive impact in any number of ways.
Author's Note
Deano L. McNeil, MPA, CLEE, is a retired Assistant Chief of Police, who has served in public safety and emergency management positions for over 35 years, with over 30 years in public safety leadership and management. Asst. Chief McNeil also serves as the commander of the 4th Civil Sustainment and Support Brigade, Ohio Military Reserve, where he holds the rank of Colonel. This article was originally published on September 22, 2015.
References
Anderson, M. (2002). Do the right thing: Politics and public policy. Vital Speeches of the Day, 68(24), 798-200. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/221471629?accountid=8289
Burstein, P. (2006). Why estimates of the impact of public opinion on public policy are too high: Empirical and theoretical implications. Social Forces, 84(4), 2273-2289. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/229862968?accountid=8289
Kraft, M. (2010). Public policy - politics, analysis, and alternatives. 3rd Edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Lorch, R. (2001). State and local politics - the great entanglement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Magleby, D. (2012). State and local politics - government by the people. 15th Edition. Boston, MA: Longman.
Robichau, R. W., & Lynn, L. E. (2009). The implementation of public policy: Still the missing link. Policy Studies Journal, 37(1), 21-36. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/210546393?accountid=8289
Walters, L. C., Aydelotte, J., & Miller, J. (2000). Putting more public in policy analysis. Public Administration Review, 60(4), 349-359. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/197173330?accountid=8289
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