Public Policy Course Session 8:

Policy Analysis, Policy Development....

And PoliticsMarch 12, 2010

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Policy Analysis vs. Policy Development

• Thinking vs. doing

• Problematique/Critique vs. Solutions

• What’s wrong vs. What can be done

• What should be done ….and that’s Politics

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Politics determines

• What issues will be analysed, and by whom• What issues will be taken seriously, by whom• What kinds of policy responses will be

favoured at a given moment in time

Politics = who is in office PLUS the zeitgeist

Policy and Politics

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Political Influence

• Electoral politics– Ex. Minority governments versus Majority

governments; frequency of elections• Partisan politics– Ex. Canadian or American style aggression?

(changes titres of feeling versus thinking, emotion versus ideas, politics versus policy)

• Zeitgeist/public mood– Ex. Buy into “government can only mess things

up”; “irrational exuberance”

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Does policy analysis shape politics?

• Washington Consensus (all about what we mean by development/progress)– More market, less government

• Climate change studies

• Thus far nothing effective re substantially offsetting increasing concentration of income, wealth and power – (men’s concerns and markets/growth trump women’s

concerns and economic security)

What shapes policy analysis?

• Manifest Need (individual or macro scale)– Beveridge Report, UNHR, Marshall Plan

• Awareness of Emerging Trends- long-term scientific/scholarly analysis

• Crisis (individual or macro scale) – Shock Doctrine

What shapes policy development?• Ethics – 1945 to mid 1960s: “There but for the grace of God go I”– What needs doing? What should modern life look like?

• Evidence– Mid 1960s to mid 1990s: “Human development or

economic development first?”– Evidence-based decision-making

• (Bi-polar) Storytelling– Mid 1990s to date: hero/villain, good/bad stories about

governments, poor people, aid/military, climate– Decision-based evidence-making

Thinking About Options

• Go big or go home– Ex. Guaranteed Annual Income, 25% Debt to GDP

• Tweak what exists- Relentless Incrementalism– Ex. Welfare rates, tax brackets/rates/credits

• Start something new– Tax Free Savings Account, Pay Equity, Medicare

• Look at things a new way (framing)– Gendered Budgeting, Proportional

Representation, Climate Debt

What Works – Policy Analysis & Development

• Building on the known – Enhancing existing programs and program

directions (grow or cut)• Building on momentum – Taste for social insurance/less risk after 1930s and

WWII; taste for less taxation today• Building on a vision– Safer places to live, the knowledge economy,

strong middle class, freedom to chooseThere’s no such thing as starting from nothing

What Works Part IISelling Policy Development

• Ideas that keep YOU at the centre of the frame– (like ads – can you see yourself in this story?)

• Emotional engagement – What’s getting fixed and why should I care?

• Keeping your audiences straight – Difference balance of head/heart for different

groups– Different lexicons (expert versus “just like you”)– Different gimmicks (charts, pictures, jokes)

Getting It Right

• Is policy right or wrong? Or Right or Left? • Right or Wrong– Ex. Fed-prov fights re transfers for health care– Small governments

• Right or Left– Cutting social supports (Conservatives, Liberals & NDP)– Cutting taxes (ditto)– Stimulus versus no stimulus

Which is More Important? Getting it Right or Spinning it Right?

• The best spinner wins the battle of the mind• The most forward-looking plan (with the most

support) wins the war• You need great policies and great spin to win

the short term and long term fight

P.S. There is nothing but the long haul