KAY 386: Public Policy

Lecture 5Reading: Parsons, 110-131.

AGENDA

The first installment of the Journal Assignment due next week.

The e-mail list is still incomplete. Reminding the selected readings

for After-Midterm Period Today’s Subject

Parsons, 1995: 110-131.

READINGS AFTER MIDTERM (Five Subjects for Five Weeks)

Future of EU Radical Islam in Europe Right to Die Russia and the Soviets Stopping Genocide

Public Opinion & Public Policy

Observations on the character and importance of the public voice from ancient times: “Vox populi, vox dei” (Alcuin) “Publica Voce” (Machiavelli)

What is Public Opinion?

Although it is an old concept, it is first defined in the 18th Century Britain as:

An identifiable body of views held by a defined group to whose opinions government attached a standing and significance.

Public Opinion & Public Policy

Which comes first? Public policy or public opinion?

Policy agenda is set by the interplay of public opinion and public power How is public opinion shaped by power? Shaping of public concerns, priorities

and attitudes

Interplay between the Media and Agenda (Mayer)

Which comes first? (Chicken-egg?) Unidirectional

Media influencing the public agenda Multidirectional

The policy agenda of the government influencing media coverage and public opinion

Public Opinion & Public Policy

In a democracy, public policy is a function of public opinion. Policy demand determines policy

supply Public opinion is to the political

market what consumer demand is to the economic market

What is Public Opinion?

In the Post-Second World War Era, the introduction of techniques to make empirical, quasi-scientific measurements of public opinion on issues... led to the analysis of the impact of opinion on the political agenda.

Agenda Setting (McCombs & Shaw)

The media has a key role in agenda setting, that is, in the power to determine what topics are discussed.

The more attention that is given to an issue, the more does the public regard it as being a high agenda item.

Media attention on issues

High

Low

Source: Parsons, 1995: 113.

Issues considered more important by the public

Issues considered less important by the public

The Impact of Media Attention on the Public Agenda

Factors Determining Response

Policy makers’ response to new stories/media coverage is influenced by: The relationship of journalists to policy-

making elites and vice versa The timing of the publication Interest group pressures Costs and benefits of problems and

solutions, etc.

3. Realizing costs of significant progress

4. Gradual decline of public interest

5. Post-problem stage

1. Pre-problem stage

2. Alarmed Discovery Euphoric Enthusiasm

Downs’ Issue Attention CycleSource: Parsons, 1995: 115

Issues as having highs and lows, ons and offs...

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

1.Pre-Problem Stage:Experts and policy-makers may be

aware of the problem, and knowledge may have been produced, but there is negligible public interest.

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

2. Alarmed Discovery and Euphoric (Joyful) Enthusiasm Stage:

The issue is recognized as a problem, prompted by a disaster and event, which focuses concern and leads to demands for government action

Downs’ Issue Attention Cycle

3.Counting the Costs and Benefits Stage:Policy makers and the public become

aware of what progress will cost.

4.Decline of public interest in issue

5.Post-Problem Stage:The issue slips down the public agenda.

New issues replace the environment in public opinion and policy agendas.

Types of Policy Agendas (Rogers and Dearing)

Agenda-setting is an interactive process

It may be intentional or unintentional

The basic types are: Media agenda Public agenda Policy Agenda

Systemic and Institutional Agenda (Cobb & Elder)

Transformation of an issue into an (institutional) agenda item

Expansion of an issue from a specifically concerned attention group to a wider interested or attentive public

Systemic and Institutional Agenda (Cobb & Elder)

Systemic Agenda All issues

commonly perceived by members of a political community as meriting public attention of public authorities

Shared concern of a sizeable portion of the public

Institutional Agenda Explicitly up for

active and serious consideration by decision-makers

May be an old item which is up for regular review or is of periodic concern; or it may be a new item.

Factors that Affect Transfer Degree of specificity (-)

The more ambiguous the issue, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

Scope of social significance (+) Temporal relevance (+)

The higher the long-term relevance, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

Degree of complexity (-) The more non-technical the issue, the easier it will be

exposed to a larger population Categorical precedence (-)

The more an issue lacks a clear precedence, the easier it will be exposed to a larger population

Issues & Institutions

The key to understand agenda formation is the relationship between issues and institutions.

An issue only begins to become important when an institution within the political system becomes associated with it.

Policy Marketing & Policy Making

The worlds of advertising & public opinion research overlap in theory & practice. Issues & policies are increasingly

approached from a marketing point of view. Policy actors are interested in what the

voter thinks and wants. The idea of analyzing the policy agenda as

if the voter was a consumer and policies are products.

Theories of Agenda Control The pluralist perspective:

Definition of problems & setting of policy agendas is essentially the outcome of a process of competition between different groups.

Critics: Power and influence are not equally distributed The policy-making process is not open and

neutral The dominant players establish their own

priorities.

Theories of Agenda Control

The definition of issues is a fundamental form of political power.

The definition of the alternatives is the supreme instrument of power.

Issue Triggers (Cobb & Elder) Internal Triggers

Natural catastrophes

Unanticipated human events

Technological changes

Imbalance or bias in the distribution of resources

Ecological change

External Triggers Act of war Innovations in

weapons technology

International conflict

Patterns of world alignment

Summary

The politics of agenda setting is a process in which issues and priorities are defined through the regulation of conflict.