Download or read book Policymaking as Power Building written by K. Sabeel Rahman and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of balancing power through institutional design -- always a central concern of constitutional theory -- has taken on even greater salience in current scholarship in light of contemporary concerns over economic inequality and failures of American democracy today. This paper extends these concerns into the realm of administrative law and the design of regulatory policy. I argue that in an era of increasing (and increasingly interrelated) economic and political inequality, we must design public policies not only with an eye towards their substantive merits, but also in ways that redress disparities of power. In particular, we can design policies to institutionalize the countervailing power of constituencies that are often the beneficiaries of egalitarian economic policies, yet lack the durable, long-term political influence to sustain and help implement these policies over time.This concept of “policymaking as power-building” rests on a descriptive and normative claim. Descriptively, the paper shows how historical and contemporary analyses of administrative governance indicates that regulatory institutions and policies are already involved in shaping and responding to the balance of power among civil society groups. Normatively, the paper argues that this reality should be harnessed to pro-actively design policies that mitigate power disparities, and in so doing promote greater democratic responsiveness through regulatory policy design. The paper develops this argument through case studies of power-balancing policy design in local regulatory bodies around economic development initiatives, and in federal regulation around the case of financial reform. The paper then theorizes a more general framework for designing similar power-shifting policies that are portable across substantive areas of law and policy and across federal, state, or local level administration. This framework should be of interest to policymakers, advocacy groups, and other practitioners designing regulatory policies and concerned about dangers of capture and disparate influence.This account of policymaking as power-building synthesizes literatures in law, social science, and political theory to offer a more institutionally-rich account of power and the interactions between constituencies on the one hand and policymaking institutions on the other. It also extends the current debates on power and public law, law and inequality, and administrative and local government law.
Download or read book Pathways of Power written by Timothy J. Conlan and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-05 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While textbooks often describe an idealized model of "how a bill becomes law" and journalists emphasize special interest lobbying and generous campaign contributions to Congress, these approaches fail to convey -- much less explain -- the tremendous diversity in political processes that shape specific policies in contemporary Washington. Pathways of Power provides a framework that integrates the roles of political interests and policy ideals in the contemporary policy process. This book argues that the policy process can be understood as a set of four distinctive pathways of policymaking -- pluralist, partisan, expert, and symbolic -- that draw upon different political resources, appeal to different political actors, and elicit unique strategies and styles of coalition building. The book's use of a wide universe of major policy decisions provides a useful foundation for students of the policy process as well as for policy practitioners eager to learn more about their craft.
Download or read book Democracy and Executive Power written by Susan Rose-Ackerman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A defense of regulatory agencies’ efforts to combine public consultation with bureaucratic expertise to serve the interest of all citizens The statutory delegation of rule-making authority to the executive has recently become a source of controversy. There are guiding models, but none, Susan Rose-Ackerman claims, is a good fit with the needs of regulating in the public interest. Using a cross-national comparison of public policy-making in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, she argues that public participation inside executive rule-making processes is necessary to preserve the legitimacy of regulatory policy-making.
Download or read book Civic Power written by K.Sabeel Rahman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-29 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What will it take to restore American democracy and rescue it from this moment of crisis? Civic Power argues that the current threat to US democracy is rooted not just in the outcome of the 2016 election, but in deeper, systemic forms of inequality that concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Drawing on historical and social science research and case studies of contemporary democratic innovations across the country, Civic Power calls for a broader approach to democracy reform focused on meaningfully redistributing power to citizens. It advocates for both reviving grassroots civil society and novel approaches to governance, policymaking, civic technology, and institutional design - aimed at dismantling structural disparities to build a more inclusive, empowered, bottom-up democracy, where communities and people have greater voice, power, and agency.
Download or read book Science for Policy Handbook written by Vladimir Sucha and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2020-07-29 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science for Policy Handbook provides advice on how to bring science to the attention of policymakers. This resource is dedicated to researchers and research organizations aiming to achieve policy impacts. The book includes lessons learned along the way, advice on new skills, practices for individual researchers, elements necessary for institutional change, and knowledge areas and processes in which to invest. It puts co-creation at the centre of Science for Policy 2.0, a more integrated model of knowledge-policy relationship. Covers the vital area of science for policymaking Includes contributions from leading practitioners from the Joint Research Centre/European Commission Provides key skills based on the science-policy interface needed for effective evidence-informed policymaking Presents processes of knowledge production relevant for a more holistic science-policy relationship, along with the types of knowledge that are useful in policymaking
Download or read book The Art of Policymaking written by George E. Shambaugh IV and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Art of Policymaking: Tools, Techniques and Processes in the Modern Executive Branch, Second Edition is a practical introduction to the specific tools, techniques, and processes used to create policy in the executive branch of the U.S. government. George E. Shambaugh, IV and Paul Weinstein, Jr. explain how government officials craft policy, manage the policymaking process, and communicate those policies to stakeholders and the public at large. The authors draw on both their academic and government experience to provide real-world advice on writing memos, preparing polling questions, and navigating the clearance process. An abundance of case studies show how actual policies are developed and how and why policies and processes differ across administrations. Practice scenarios allow students to apply the tools and techniques they have learned by working through both domestic and foreign policy situations.
Download or read book Power Knowledge and Politics written by John A. Hird and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If knowledge is power, then John Hird has opened the doors for anyone interested in public policymaking and policy analysis on the state level. A beginning question might be: does politics put gasoline or sugar in the tank? More specifically, in a highly partisan political environment, is nonpartisan expertise useful to policymaking? Do policy analysts play a meaningful role in decision making? Does policy expertise promote democratic decision making? Does it vest power in an unelected and unaccountable elite, or does it become co-opted by political actors and circumstances? Is it used to make substantive changes or just for window-dressing? In a unique comparative focus on state policy, Power, Knowledge, and Politics dissects the nature of the policy institutions that policymakers establish and analyzes the connection between policy research and how it is actually used in decision making. Hird probes the effects of politics and political institutions--parties, state political culture and dynamics, legislative and gubernatorial staffing, partisan think tanks, interest groups--on the nature and conduct of nonpartisan policy analysis. Through a comparative examination of institutions and testing theories of the use of policy analysis, Hird draws conclusions that are more useful than those derived from single cases. Hird examines nonpartisan policy research organizations established by and operating in U.S. state legislatures--one of the most intense of political environments--to determine whether and how nonpartisan policy research can survive in that harsh climate. By first detailing how nonpartisan policy analysis organizations came to be and what they do, and then determining what state legislators want from them, he presents a rigorous statistical analysis of those agencies in all 50 states and from a survey of 800 state legislators. This thoroughly comprehensive look at policymaking at the state level concludes that nonpartisan policy analysis institutions can play an important role--as long as they remain scrupulously nonpartisan.
Download or read book Public Policymaking in a Democratic Society written by Larry N. Gerston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While people profess a disdain for politics, in a democracy politics is the primary vehicle for citizens to influence the decisions and decision makers that shape public policy at every level. This widely acclaimed work provides an overview of public policymaking in all its aspects along with basic information, tools, and examples that will equip citizens to participate more effectively in the policymaking process. It is intended for use in internships and service-learning programs, but will serve equally as a resource for any organized effort to involve citizens in community service and the exercise of civic responsibility. This updated edition includes an all-new case study on the issue of immigration, and all other case studies have been revised.
Download or read book Arenas of Power written by Theodore J. Lowi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arenas of Power represents the first time that Theodore J. Lowi's model of policy analysis has been presented together with key applications and case studies drawn from his long history of scholarship-all in one place. Lowi's signature four-fold typology is shown as conceived and then as extended to include that most relevant of contemporary phenomena-"social regulatory policy." As Lowi says, when radicals add morality to the goals of public policy, the system may be turned on its head. This volume shows the evolution of the public policy arena over more than forty years of writing and thinking and presents some never before published material including helpful analytical introductions. The book concludes as Lowi looks ahead to an internationalizing U.S. political economy and the need for a global political science.
Download or read book Public Policy Making written by Larry N. Gerston and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 2015-05-18 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief text identifies the issues, resources, actors, and institutions involved in public policy making and traces the dynamics of the policymaking process, including the triggering of issue awareness, the emergence of an issue on the public agenda, the formation of a policy commitment, and the implementation process that translates policy into practice. Throughout the text, which has been revised and updated, Gerston brings his analysis to life with abundant examples from the most recent and emblematic cases of public policy making. At the same time, with well-chosen references, he places policy analysis in the context of political science and deftly orients readers to the classics of public policy studies. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.
Download or read book The Committee written by Bryan William Marshall and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deftly crafted insider account of how congressional committees really work, updated for 2021
Download or read book Power Without Persuasion written by William G. Howell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1960s, scholarly thinking on the power of U.S. presidents has rested on these words: "Presidential power is the power to persuade." Power, in this formulation, is strictly about bargaining and convincing other political actors to do things the president cannot accomplish alone. Power without Persuasion argues otherwise. Focusing on presidents' ability to act unilaterally, William Howell provides the most theoretically substantial and far-reaching reevaluation of presidential power in many years. He argues that presidents regularly set public policies over vocal objections by Congress, interest groups, and the bureaucracy. Throughout U.S. history, going back to the Louisiana Purchase and the Emancipation Proclamation, presidents have set landmark policies on their own. More recently, Roosevelt interned Japanese Americans during World War II, Kennedy established the Peace Corps, Johnson got affirmative action underway, Reagan greatly expanded the president's powers of regulatory review, and Clinton extended protections to millions of acres of public lands. Since September 11, Bush has created a new cabinet post and constructed a parallel judicial system to try suspected terrorists. Howell not only presents numerous new empirical findings but goes well beyond the theoretical scope of previous studies. Drawing richly on game theory and the new institutionalism, he examines the political conditions under which presidents can change policy without congressional or judicial consent. Clearly written, Power without Persuasion asserts a compelling new formulation of presidential power, one whose implications will resound.
Download or read book The Policy making Process written by Charles Edward Lindblom and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 1980 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making written by Muers, Stephen and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2020-07-08 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do so many government policies fail to achieve their objectives? Why are our political leaders not held to account for policy failures? Drawing on his years of experience as a senior government policy maker, as well as on global research, Stephen Muers uses examples ranging from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Cold War Germany, the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum to expose the crucial impact culture and values have on policy success and political accountability. This illuminating study sets out why policy makers need to take culture seriously, how culture and values shape the political system and presents essential, practical recommendations for what governments should do differently.
Download or read book Hijacking the Agenda written by Christopher Witko and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are the economic interests and priorities of lower- and middle-class Americans so often ignored by the U.S. Congress, while the economic interests of the wealthiest are prioritized, often resulting in policies favorable to their interests? In Hijacking the Agenda, political scientists Christopher Witko, Jana Morgan, Nathan J. Kelly, and Peter K. Enns examine why Congress privileges the concerns of businesses and the wealthy over those of average Americans. They go beyond demonstrating that such economic bias exists to illuminate precisely how and why economic policy is so often skewed in favor of the rich. The authors analyze over 20 years of floor speeches by several hundred members of Congress to examine the influence of campaign contributions on how the national economic agenda is set in Congress. They find that legislators who received more money from business and professional associations were more likely to discuss the deficit and other upper-class priorities, while those who received more money from unions were more likely to discuss issues important to lower- and middle-class constituents, such as economic inequality and wages. This attention imbalance matters because issues discussed in Congress receive more direct legislative action, such as bill introductions and committee hearings. While unions use campaign contributions to push back against wealthy interests, spending by the wealthy dwarfs that of unions. The authors use case studies analyzing financial regulation and the minimum wage to demonstrate how the financial influence of the wealthy enables them to advance their economic agenda. In each case, the authors examine the balance of structural power, or the power that comes from a person or company’s position in the economy, and kinetic power, the power that comes from the ability to mobilize organizational and financial resources in the policy process. The authors show how big business uses its structural power and resources to effect policy change in Congress, as when the financial industry sought deregulation in the late 1990s, resulting in the passage of a bill eviscerating New Deal financial regulations. Likewise, when business interests want to preserve the policy status quo, it uses its power to keep issues off of the agenda, as when inflation eats into the minimum wage and its declining purchasing power leaves low-wage workers in poverty. Although groups representing lower- and middle-class interests, particularly unions, can use their resources to shape policy responses if conditions are right, they lack structural power and suffer significant resource disadvantages. As a result, wealthy interests have the upper hand in shaping the policy process, simply due to their pivotal position in the economy and the resulting perception that policies beneficial to business are beneficial for everyone. Hijacking the Agenda is an illuminating account of the way economic power operates through the congressional agenda and policy process to privilege the interests of the wealthy and marks a major step forward in our understanding of the politics of inequality.
Download or read book Energy Policy Making in the EU written by Jale Tosun and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-01-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book adopts an innovative analytical approach to agenda setting by not only presenting successful cases in which energy issues were addressed by means of public policy, but by also analyzing failed attempts to make issues part of the European policy agenda. Another outstanding feature of the book is its use of the latest empirical data on a broad range of energy issues. When are energy issues likely to find their way to the agenda of European policymakers? This is the key research question guiding this collection of empirical studies, which will shed light on both successful and unsuccessful attempts to include energy issues in the European agenda. The multi-level political system of the European Union represents a particularly fruitful setting for addressing this question due to the multiple institutional access points it provides for different groups of actors. The book has three key benefits. First, it provides a theory-informed analysis of agenda setting processes in general and in the European Union in particular. Second, it presents an overview of the most important and emerging dimensions on European energy policy, and third, it helps to develop a research agenda for future research in the field.
Download or read book The Practice of American Public Policymaking written by Selden Biggs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for upper-level and professional courses, this text is an introduction to the public policymaking process that gives equal attention to issues of policy implementation and public governance. It provides a comprehensive framework for policy design and analysis.
