2—Understanding Public Policy. Theoretical Approaches Flashcards
What are the three characteristics of policy science, according to Lasswell?
Lasswell (1951) defined policy science as:
1—Multi-disciplinary
2—Problem-solving oriented
3—Explicitly normative (i.e. capable of selecting the preferred solution)
What are market failures?
Market failures are situations where the market encounters obstacles in its successful development. Specifically, these are:
1—Public goods
2—Natural monopolies
3—Negative Externalities
4—Imperfect information
5—Destructive competition
How did Ostrom classify goods and services?
Ostrom (2003) classified goods and services according to the criteria of exhaustiveness and exclusivity.
1—High exclusivity and exhaustiveness: private good (e.g. food)
2—High exclusivity and low exhaustiveness: toll good
3—Low exclusivity and high exhaustiveness: common-pool good (e.g fish in the ocean. Must be regulated due to the risk of being exploited by competitive market firms)
4—Low exclusivity and exhaustiveness: public good (e.g. street lighting. They do not generate profit so must be provided by the governments)
What is a natural monopoly?
A natural monopoly occurs when a company is entitled to supply a toll good in a poorly regulated market. In such a situation, the costs associated with the provisioning of the service make it difficult for other companies to compete
What is imperfect information?
Imperfect information describes a situation where consumers or producers lack the necessary information to make rational decisions on private or toll goods. This is the case of a pharmaceutical firm which has no incentives to reveal the adverse effects associated with their drugs nor do consumers have the necessary expertise to autonomously asset it. Governments should intervene to enforce the firm to disclose information
What are externalities?
Externalities describe a situation where the production costs are not sustained by producers (“internalised”) but by customers. A classic example is pollution caused by the company in an attempt to reduce the production costs
What is the tragedy of the commons?
The tragedy of the commons occurs when common-pool goods, such as fisheries, are exploited by companies to the point that they can’t renovate in the future
What is destructive competition?
Destructive competiton defines a situation where aggressive competition between firms produces negative effects on workers and society as a whole. In fact, unregulated aggressive competition might lead to the reduction of safety and working conditions to improve profits
What are government failures?
Government failures are market failures that the state can’t fix
What is principal-agent failure?
Principal-agent failure is an inevitable government failure which occurs when decision-makers delegate the responsibility for the implementation of measures to officials they can’t control
What is organisational displacement?
Organisational displacement defines a government failure that occurs when an administrative agency tasked to provide services or goods displaces public values with its own organisational ones. This might happen in the case of natural monopolies. Thus, some scholars retain that the existence of state-backed monopolies should only last for a short time, allowing the market to set the condition for the long term
What does rising costs define?
Rising costs define a government failure that occurs because governments do not have the market’s pressure to generate revenues, so they might just accumulate debt over time. Thus, governments should carefully consider whether to alter the market or not.
When should the government intervene to fix market failures?
Governments should only intervene to fix market failures when they cause social problems. Otherwise, government actions to fix market failures might, in turn, generate other social problems.
What is the role of arguments in post-positivist analysis?
Arguments shape the public debate, reflecting their proponent’s framing of political issues. However, the absence of strict criteria to evaluate those arguments promotes a “relativism in which a commitment to avoid the privileging of any one viewpoint becomes a tolerance of anything”
What is the public choice approach?
Public choice theory is a deductive approach to policy studies focused on the micro-level behaviour of individuals, retained to conform to the maximisation of their own interests in a market system. It wrongly supposes that governments will constantly increase their expenses to get more votes and that all policies are based on utility maximisation.
