Lecture 2 (Political Discourse, Agendasetting, and Regulatory Capture)

Question 1

Characteristics (3) of one-dimensional power (Lukes) / pluralism

Answer 1

1. The power to choose from listed choices for parties
2. One party prevails over another party in decision-making processes over one of the listed choices in observable conflict
3. The power of the prevailing party lies in the fact that it makes the inferior party do something it was not planning on (e.g. accepting a policy)

Question 2

Characteristics (3) of two-dimensional power / agendasetting (Lukes)

Answer 2

1. Power can be expressed through controlling what issues are discussed and which are not (non-decision making is also a form of power)
2. Involves supression of potential conflict by preventing them from being discussed (creating barriers)
3. Mobilisation bias (= being able to prevent issues from being brought up)

Question 3

Characteristics of three-dimensional power / ideological hegemony (Lukes)

Answer 3

1. Power is used to shape people’s preferences and perceptions / wishes and desires (propaganda)
2. Can make people want things against their own interest (e.g. working to live) –> latent conflict (= conflict between those in power and real interests over which they hold power)
3. People accept status quo due to absence of salient alternatives
4. Can prevent conflict

Question 4

Lukes’s first dimension of power and pluralism

Answer 4

Pluralists emphasize power as observable in decision-making processes in WHOM (which group) makes the decision about a listed choice. They believe the majority rules in group competition.

Question 5

Fear to manipulate preferences

Answer 5

Can be done via the third dimension of power. Propagate consequences of climate change, pandemics, wars, etc.

Question 6

Realist/objectivist and constructivist perspectives on enacting and implementing

Answer 6

1. Realist/objectivist: public policies are enacted and implemented if the issue is severe enough (if it affects majority of people)
2. Constructivist: public policies are enacted only once powerful actors make it happen (think about issue entrepreneurs).

Question 7

Realists/constructivists both agree on:

Answer 7

1. Concrete decisions on the enactment and implementation of public policies are made by politicians (1st and 2nd dimension of power –> prevailing over the other party and agendasetting)
2. Civil service actors are responsible for implementing the decision to enact and implement policies (e.g. judges, law enforcement, etc.)

Question 8

Three reasons to NOT enact or implement a social policy

Answer 8

1. The problem is an inevitable part of life (e.g. because of fate, nature, or a divine phenomenon)
2. The problem is an individual problem (e.g. considered your own fault, consequences of your decisions)
3. The problem is one that cannot be solved because it is too expensive or morally not acceptable (e.g. overpopulation)

Question 9

Rhetorical tricks (Hirschmann) - who uses them, and why?

Answer 9

Used by conservatives to object progressive public policies and government interventions

Question 10

Three rhetorical tricks (Hirschmann)

Answer 10

1. Perverse argument: the intervention/policy will worsen the problem due to unintended effects (e.g. base income makes people lazy –> scarcity of motivation)
2. Futile argument: the intervention/policy is useless because society itself could already solve it without assistance –> undermines ability of society to solve its own problems (e.g. via the family, church, etc.)
3. Jeopardy argument: the intervention/policy is harmful for the current system (e.g. too expensive)

Question 11

Regulatory capture (Saltelli)

Answer 11

When private industry professionals and lobbyists overtake regulatory agencies that were supposed to regulate them in order to protect the consumer/citizen –> the regulated becomes its own regulator

Question 12

Cause of regulatory capture

Answer 12

The neoliberal agenda wanted to move away from the central agenda in which the government controlled private industries, wanting less government intervention in markets. Therefore regulatory agencies received less government support (e.g. funding).

Question 13

Recent perspectives on regulatory capture: two variants

Answer 13

1. Cultural regulatory capture
2. Cognitive regulatory capture

Question 14

Cultural regulatory capture

Answer 14

Occurs when the regulators identify with the industry because they believe that the interests of the industry benefit those of the consumers/citizens (e.g. not reducing size of Schiphol).

Question 15

Cognitive regulatory capture

Answer 15

Refers to a more internalised situation in which regulators start to believe in the interests, beliefs, etc. of the industry - assuming the industry also wants the best for the consumers/citizens. This often results from a lack of expertise on the side of the regulator, and thus the regulator becomes dependent on the expertise of the private industry.

Question 16

Extended regulatory capture

Answer 16

When the private industry also starts to shape knowledge via science (by funding uni research), social media, journalism, etc. (“Science becomes a self-service shop for financially well endowed customers in need of arguments” - Beck)

Question 17

The irreproducibility crisis of modern science

Answer 17

Refers to a large number of scientific papers being unable to replicate because their methods and results were influenced by the private industry (Loanidis)

Question 18

The irreproducibility crisis of modern science as fodder for political and corporate lobbyists (Saltelli)

Answer 18

Refers to lobbyists and private professionals being able to recruit law firms, which recruit scientific (influenced) services for their customer –> scientific results are moulded to legitimise

Question 19

Argument in The Guardians of Reason

Answer 19

Well-meaning scientific educators, bloggers, and associations are hijacked by lobbyists and industry professionals to defend industrial positions (science becomes a slave to the industry)

Question 20

Astroturfing

Answer 20

Refers to the misleasing practise in which the private industry/lobbyists create the illusion that there is genuine support for their argument (such as sound scientific studies), whilst that support is influenced (e.g. cherrypicking data or Type I errors).

Question 21

Two-pronged acton applied by the private industry

Answer 21

1. Removing separation between regulators and the regulated
2. Reframing the values and vision on the relationship between science, society, and politics via cultural capture

Question 21

The strategies on the epistemic ladder to regulatory capture (Saltelli)

Answer 21

Bottom: epistemic strategy
Middle: institutional strategy
Top: political strategy

Question 22

The epistemic strategy (epistemic ladder to regulatory capture)

Answer 22

Private industry invalidates evidence and influences research methods used to produce evidence –> becomes a merchant of doubt about scientific quality criteria

Question 23

The institutional strategy (epistemic ladder to regulatory capture)

Answer 23

The private industry delegitimises, or colonises, regulatory agents resulting into regulatory failure.

Question 24

The political strategy (epistemic ladder to regulatory capture)

Answer 24

The private industry redefines the foundational assumptions and values determining the necessity for its regulation (e.g. industry has captured science with extended regulatory capture, and tries to conflate the idea of progress with scientific progress - you do not want to regulate that)