Policy tricks that make the process stick

Agenda setting: issue gets attention. Formulation: solutions designed. Adoption: officially approved. Implementation: agencies execute. Evaluation: effectiveness assessed. Cycle can repeat.

Congressional committee writes the law. Executive agency implements it. Interest group lobbies for it and provides expertise. Each benefits the others — a closed, self-reinforcing loop.

Introduced → committee → full chamber vote → other chamber repeats → conference committee if versions differ → President signs or vetoes → 2/3 override needed.

They make rules (legislative), enforce them (executive), and adjudicate disputes (judicial). Examples: EPA, SEC, FDA, FCC. Criticized for combining powers the Constitution separates.

Add up all expected benefits (in dollar terms), subtract all expected costs. If benefits > costs → implement. Criticized for difficulty of monetizing non-market goods (human life, environment). Required for major federal regulations.

Kingdon's streams model: problems stream (conditions become problems), policy stream (solutions exist), politics stream (political will) must converge to open a 'policy window.' Issue salience: media coverage → public attention → political pressure. Crises open windows: 9/11 → Homeland Security, financial crisis → Dodd-Frank.

Lindblom: policymakers lack information and time for comprehensive analysis → make small adjustments to existing policy (muddling through). Status quo bias: existing programs have organized beneficiaries who defend them. Sunk costs: previous investments make change harder. Path dependence: early choices constrain later options.

Stigler's capture theory: over time, regulated industries use resources and expertise to influence regulatory agencies. Revolving door: agency staff move to industry jobs and vice versa. Industry has more sustained interest in regulatory decisions than dispersed public. Result: regulations serve industry interests rather than public interest.

Brandeis called states 'laboratories of democracy.' Policy innovations often start in states before going national: Massachusetts healthcare → ACA, California auto emissions standards, state minimum wage experiments. Race to the bottom: states may cut regulations to attract business. Race to the top: states compete to attract talent with better services.

Non-excludable: can't prevent people from using it (national defense, clean air). Non-rival: one person's use doesn't reduce availability for others. Free rider problem: if can't exclude, people won't pay voluntarily → market won't produce enough → government must provide and fund through taxes.

Negative externality: cost borne by third parties not in the transaction. Market overproduces → Pigouvian tax, cap-and-trade, regulation to internalize cost. Positive externality: benefit flows to third parties. Market underproduces → subsidy, public provision. Education: benefits beyond the individual → subsidized.

Lipsky's street-level bureaucrats: teachers, police, social workers exercise significant discretion implementing policy. Implementation failure: unclear mandates, inadequate resources, multiple veto points, principal-agent problems. Top-down model: central control. Bottom-up: local actors adapt policy to context.

Effectiveness: did the program achieve its stated goals? Efficiency: at what cost per unit of outcome — could resources be better used? Equity: who benefits and who bears costs — are effects distributed fairly? Adequacy: even if effective, is the magnitude of change sufficient to solve the problem? Political feasibility is the real constraint on technically good policies.

Command-and-control: set standards and enforce with penalties — most common (Clean Air Act). Economic instruments: taxes on negative externalities (carbon tax), subsidies for positive externalities, tradeable permits (cap-and-trade). Information: require disclosure (nutrition labels, financial disclosures). Deregulation: markets more efficient where failures are minor.

Distributive: benefits spread widely, costs diffuse — low conflict, logrolling, pork barrel (farm subsidies, highway spending). Redistributive: take from one group to give to another — high conflict, class politics (welfare, progressive taxation, Medicaid). Regulatory: impose costs on specific groups to benefit public — interest group conflict. Constituent: organize government itself.

Congressional subcommittee: controls funding and oversight of agency. Interest group: funds campaigns, provides votes and information, lobbies committee. Agency: implements favorable policy, provides jobs via revolving door, provides information to committee. Each protects the others — president and public have difficulty breaking in. Issue networks: looser, more open modern version.