Public Policy and Program ImplementationIntroduction to Public Administration

Introduction

• The management of public programs affected by all the :• Expertise• Leadership• Organizational structure• Personnel• Politics• Law (courts)• Budget

• Individual programs are what is being used to implement public policy – Organizing framework of purposes and rationales for government programs that deal with specified societal problems (who gets what)• Foreign Policy• Trade Policy• Economic Policy• Health Policy• Civil Rights Policy• Environmental Policy• Defense Policy

Introduction

• Obviously public policy is highly shaped by politics and the political process• Policies often not rational• Often not well planned• Intent doesn’t match outcomes• Can originate from many sources• President• Congress• Interest groups• State/local government

• Policy best described as incremental• Some policies are nothing more than symbolic actions

Typology of Policies

• Distributive policies – deliver large scale services or benefits to certain individuals or groups in the population who do not bear the costs.• Examples:

• Tax breaks• Subsidy• Loans for college students

• Redistributive policies – effort by government to shift the allocation of valued goods from one group to another.• Examples:

• Affirmative action• Medicare• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families• Lottery

• Regulatory policies – promote restrictions on the freedom to act of those subject to regulation.• Sherman Antitrust Act (policy) program• Usually targeted at businesses

• Self-regulatory policies – policy change sought by those being regulated as a means of protecting or promoting their own economic interests.• Licensing of professions – law, medicine, hair stylists

The Policymaking Process

• Legislative stage (Congress/President)• Administrative stage• Create rules• Implement

• Review stage (courts or Congress)• Policies broken down into programs and projects, these are the focus of

management (example: Don’t Mess with Texas)• Thus we must recognize that administrators play a vital role with respect to public

policy• Discretion

Six Policy Concepts Discuss

• Planning and analysis• Implementation• Evaluation• Productivity and measurement of results• Rewarding employee participation and quality management• Meeting customer service standards

Program Evaluation

• Systematic evaluation of government policies, projects, or programs to determine their success or failure• Three steps:

• Specification• Collect data• Analysis

• Purposes• Gain knowledge about program impacts• Establish accountability• Help with determinations of continuation/termination• Help with planning/analysis for future projects

• All related to tailoring evaluations:• Formative – improve the program• Summative – summary judgment about the program

• Used to report to funders• Does it work?

• Knowledge generation• Most scientific• Learn about a specific concept

• Food stamps vs. cash vs. debit• General findings

• Political• Justify an action that will be taken either way

Program Evaluation: How Government Evaluates

• Broad:• Site visit• Hearings• Citizens

• More specific• Before versus after studies – evaluation and comparison of results before and after program to determine what results were

achieved.• Time-trend projection – focus on more data points

• Comparison• Compare with other jurisdictions with and without the program and compare differences• Compare with professional programs

• Controlled Experimentation – comparisons of two groups of similar people, one served by the program and the other not served• Not served called the control group• Most expensive and least used• Can be combined with other methods

• Methods try to establish causality – or that intervention A causes result B• But in order to demonstrate causality we have to eliminate changes caused by extraneous confounding factors• In order to conduct these evaluations we need data and thus the initial operationalization of goals becomes important

We Have Results, Now What?

• Make a determination of whether or not the program/policy/project works• Errors:

• Type I Error (false positive) – say it works when it does not• Type II Error (false negative) – say it does not work when it does

• Problems• Uncertainty about performance indicators• Data can be manipulated to produce different results• Goal differences between the official and that of implementers• Correct time frame in which to evaluate?

• Too early• Too late

• Justifying a program (internal evaluation, always good, external evaluation, always bad)• Seldom Terminate a Program

• Legislator and bureaucrat have a vested interest• Recipients lobby• Part of another program/policy• Success if:

• Program goals are well defined• Program goals are plausible• Intended use of info well defined (tailoring)

Government Productivity

• With limited resources/funding/use of tax dollars we want to ensure that we are producing maximum results • Productivity – measurable relationship between the results produced and the resources required for production• Hard to measure in the public sector• Not purely economic results

• Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA)• Shift from inputs to outputs• Requires managers to find new ways to measure results

• Set targets/define goals• Report actual performance

• Required for all federal agencies• Focus on productivity grows as resources become more limited, public expects results• Benchmarking – compare your performance to the performance of organizations considered the best at

performing the process/program and test it against your own performance

Other Issues

• Increased focus on business values/customer service focus• Privatization