Government Institutions and Policy Actors

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Government Institutions and Policy Actors
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Outline

• Growth of government
• Structure of policymaking
• federalism
• separation of powers
• subgovernments/policy subsystems
• Public opinion and public policy
• Interest groups
• Policy stalemate and improving policy capacity

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Growth of Government

• Growth of nation and population
• Increased complexity of society
• Regulation of business
• Protection of social welfare
• Role of U.S. in the world
• Citizen demands

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Government Institutions and Policy Capacity

• Complexity and fragmentation
• Federalism
• State variation and policy capacity
• Separation of Powers
• Legislative
• Executive
• Judiciary
• Informal Actors
• Public opinion
• Interest groups
• Subgovernments

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Federalism

• Evolution of federalism
• dual federalism
• cooperative federalism
• Continuing controversies, especially over federal
  dollars and state expectations
  
• State variation in policy capacity
• The pros and cons of devolution of authority to
  the states

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Separation of Powers

• Power is shared among three branches
• legislature, executive, and judiciary
• Founders were concerned with possibility of
  government tyranny
  
• Has added to the complexity of governing
• Has added to the challenge of building consensus
  for policy action, especially between the
  legislature and executive

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Separation of Powers Policymakers

• Legislature lawmaking
• bicameral system
• committee system (division specialization of
  labor)
  
• Executive law enforcing
• president/bureaucracy involved in policy
  development
  
• bureaucratic structure
• Judicial law interpreting
• reactive rather than proactive
• judicial review

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Organizational Formats

• Legislative organizations (e.g., committees,
  individual members, party leadership)
  
• Executive Office of the President (EOP)
• executive departments (cabinet-level
  departments)
  
• subagencies
• independent executive agencies (e.g., EPA)
• independent regulatory commissions

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Informal Actors Public Opinion

• Public opinion
• is important in a democratic system
• is fleeting
• many people are inattentive to politics and
  policy
  
• can be voiced in numerous ways
• can have an impact, if people willing to take the
  time/effort
  
• can lead to interest group formation and activity

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Informal Actors Interest Groups

• Important in politics, governance, and
  policymaking
  
• Lobbying all branches, both for/against
  policies
  
• money for elections
• use of media
• information (substantive and political)
• litigation
• direct contact w/policymakers

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Interest Groups (cont)

• Increase in number of groups claiming broad based
  representation public interest
  
• Outnumbered by business type groups
• Economic groups easier to form
• Free Rider problem

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Interest Group Power

• Size of membership
• Distribution of membership
• Resources
• Ability to form coalitions
• Legitmacy
• Ability to obtain access
• Important (famous) members

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Informal Actors Policy Subsystems

• Informal settings in which policies are made
• Have been called many different things
• subgovernments
• issue networks
• iron triangles

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Iron Triangles
Bureaucratic Agency
Policy Support
Budget Programs
POLICY
Interest Group
Congressional Committee/Sub
Support Money
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Policy Stalemate and Capacity

• Why does stalemate occur?
• Constitutional design and divided govt
• Complex problems
• Public opinion and consensus
• Organized interests
• Ineffective political leadership
• Improving capacity