Making Policies

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Making Policies
Legislative Structures The Quiz is not today..
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• Previous class illustrated the importance of
  Executive (FDR) Legislative (Dem Congress) and
  Judicial (SC) Branches.
• Todays Making Policies Important to
  understanding the inter-relations of the New Deal
  and for (next 3) future classes on knowledge and
  interests influencing (sociological) social
  welfare policy.

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Question

• What factors make it difficult (or easy) to pass
  social welfare legislation?

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• What does passing legislation entail?

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• Perception/definition What is the problem?
• Agenda Setting How is agenda status achieved?
• Formulation What is the Proposed Solution? Who
  supports it and how is support maintained?
• Budgeting How Much Money is Provided? Is it
  Enough?
• Implementation Who administers the program? Do
  they command Support?
• Evaluation/Adjustment/termination What changes
  need to be implemented?

Source Rahm 200435
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• Who are the major players?
• Official (this class)
• vs
• Informal (future classes)

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(No Transcript)
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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

• EXECUTIVE BRANCH
• Headed by President and Vice President
• Elected by popular vote (through electoral
  college)
• Four-year term
• Limit of two terms
• President has a personal staff
• President chooses Cabinet Secretaries
• Executive agencies under President
• Mix of political appointees and career executives

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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

• JUDICIAL BRANCH (COURTS)
• Supreme Court
• 9 justices
• Serve without limit
• U.S. Court of Appeals
• 12 regional courts
• Hear appeals from district courts and federal
  agencies
• District Courts
• 94 trial courts for civil and criminal matters
• Federal justices and judges appointed by
  President with senate approval

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Court Decisions

• Judicial review
• Since Marbury vs. Madison 1803
• Supreme courts authority to review acts of other
  branches of government and invalidate them if
  they are determined to be unconstitutional
• Initial New Deal acts struck down

• Source Rahm 200443

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Court Decisions

• Restrictions on judicial policy involvement
• Courts do not set their own agendas
• Cases are brought to them, but Supreme Court can
  choose which to hear
• Test cases- policy advocates carefully select
  what case to try in hope that court will rule in
  their favor
• Venue shopping- litigants attempt to gain a
  hearing in a sympathetic court
• Courts Have No Power over implementation
• Must rely on others to implement the decision.

• Source Rahm 200443

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NATIONAL STRUCTURE

• LEGISLATIVE BRANCH (CONGRESS)
• House of Representatives
• members allocated by population
• 435
• 2-year terms
• Senate
• 2 members per state
• 6-year terms (1/3 elected every 2 years)
• Organized by committee
• Party control (currently Republican)

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http//frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi
?dbname2002_government_manualdocid189864tx_xxx-
3.pdf
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http//frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi
?dbname2002_government_manualdocid189864tx_xxx-
3.pdf
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• http//www.senate.gov/
• http//www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/e_one_s
  ection_no_teasers/org_chart.htm
• http//www.house.gov/
• http//www.house.gov/house/orgs_pub_hse_ldr_www.ht
  ml

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

• A bill is the form in which most legislation is
  introduced. In short, a bill must be approved by
  both the House and the Senate and signed by the
  President.
• Once signed, it is a law.
• Bills may originate in the House or Senate, and
  are numbered consecutively throughout a Congress.
• In each chamber, the bill goes through
  approximately the same stages. In some cases,
  the bill may be introduced in both chambers at
  the same time. Each will have a different bill
  number. However, eventually the same bill will
  have to pass both chambers.

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

• 1. A bill is introduced in the House and/or
  Senate.
• 2. The bill is assigned to a committee.
• 3. The committee usually refers the bill to a
  subcommittee for study, hearings, revision, and/
  or approval.
• 4. The subcommittee sends the bill back to the
  full committee, which may amend or rewrite the
  bill.
• 5. The full committee decides whether to "kill"
  the bill or send it to the floor of its chamber
  for approval. (In the House, the bill usually
  goes to the Rules Committee to grant a "rule"
  governing debate.)

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HOW FEDERAL LAWS ARE MADE

• 6. The leaders of the chamber then schedule the
  bill for debate and vote.
• 7. The bill is debated, amendments offered and
  voted on, and a final vote is taken. If
  different versions of the bill are passed in each
  chamber, a conference committee, composed of
  members of each chamber, will work out the
  differences. The bill is returned to each
  chamber for a vote on the revised bill.
• 8. The President signs or vetoes the bill. If
  signed, the bill becomes a law if vetoed, each
  chamber must approve the bill by a two-thirds
  majority for it to become law.

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(No Transcript)
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http//www.cbp.org/2003/HR4.TANF.pdf
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• School House Rock
• Im Just a Bill

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Conference Committee

• The Leadership of the House and Senate appoint
  Committee members. The rule for Conference
  Committee is
• a majority of the members representing the House
  and
• a majority of the members representing the Senate
  must agree to the bill before it can be reported
  out of Conference
• After Conference Committee reports out its
  legislation, then the bill must be approved by
  both the Chambers again before being sent to the
  President.

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Downs "Issue-Attention Cycle"

• a systematic cycle" influences public attitudes
  and behavior concerning most key domestic
  problems.
• Each of these problems suddenly leaps into
  prominence, remains there for a short time, and
  then - -though still largely unresolved -
  gradually fades from the center of public
  attention.
• rooted both in the nature of certain domestic
  problems and in the way major communications
  media interact with the public

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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Downs "Issue-Attention Cycle"

• Why Useful?
• provides in-sights into whether public attention
  is likely to remain sufficiently focused upon any
  given issue to generate enough political pressure
  to cause effective change.

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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5 Stages

• 1. The pre-problem stage.
• some highly undesirable social condition exists
  but has not yet captured much public attention.
• I.e. racism, poverty, and malnutrition in the
  United States.
• 2. Alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm.
• public suddenly becomes both aware of and alarmed
  about the evils of a particular problem.
• enthusiasm about society's ability to "solve this
  problem" or "do something effective" within a
  relatively short time.
• outlook is rooted in the great American tradition
  of optimistically viewing most obstacles to
  social progress as external to the structure of
  society itself.

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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5 Stages

• 3. Realizing the cost of significant progress.
• gradually spreading realization that the cost of
  "solving" the problem is very high indeed.
• a great deal of money and major sacrifices by
  large groups in the population.
• part of the problem results from arrangements
  that are providing significant benefits to
  someone - often to millions.
• Ex. most upper-middle-class whites value
  geographic separation from poor people and
  blacks. Hence any equality of access to the
  advantages of suburban living for the poor and
  for blacks cannot be achieved without some
  sacrifice by middle-class whites of the
  "benefits" of separation.

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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5 Stages

• 4. Gradual decline of intense public interest.
• As more and more people realize how difficult,
  and how costly to themselves, a solution to the
  problem would be
• a. just get discouraged.
• b. feel positively threatened by thinking about
  the problem so suppress such thoughts.
• c. become bored by the issue.
• some combination of these feelings.

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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5 Stages

• 5. The post-problem stage.
• issue that has been replaced at the center of
  public concern moves into a prolonged limbo - a
  twilight realm of lesser attention or sporadic
  recurrences of interest.
• Ex. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) created
  during the "War on Poverty." Though poverty has
  now faded somewhat as a central public issue,
  many of these programs have experienced
  significant success, even though funded at a far
  lower level than would be necessary to reduce
  poverty decisively.

Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention
Cycle. The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer
1972), pp. 38-50. It was most recently
republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory
and Public Choice (Northampton, Mass. Edward
Elgar, 1998), pp. 100-112. http//www.anthonydowns
.com/upanddown.htm
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Role of the Media

• Why does Media Shift to new problem? (Page 4 )
• American Public looses interest (Boring to
  audience)
• Need audience for Ratings ? advertisements
• Advertisements ? profit the bottom line
• Therefore
• American Public ? forces media to shift?

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• Wed
• Values and Helping Conundrums