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POLI 348 Flashcards

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1
Q

Policy-making is a political process because it involves…

A

Value conflicts
Power inequality
Strategic action between competitors

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2
Q

Policymaking involves judgement by…

A

Connecting empirical evidence with values

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3
Q

Dewey’s “Public” Definition

A

The public consists of all those who are affected by the
indirect consequences of transactions, to such an
extent that it is deemed necessary to have those
consequences systematically cared for…

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4
Q

Important Points on Dewey’s Public

A

When affected people become aware of a shared problem, they can then try to understand and act on it. In doing so they can constitute a “public.”
A public is a social entity that enables collective problem-solving…. and for Dewey, THAT is the soul of democracy

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5
Q

Dewey’s Shoemaker / Citizen Expertise

A

Those who are wearing the shoes know where it pinches and doesn’t fit best, even if the expert shoemaker knows how to best remedy the situation.

  • Although problems are complicated, Dewey says that citizens are actually very intelligent with things they engage with and have the capacity to learn about these issues
  • People become knowledgeable when they use, test, modify and discuss insights
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6
Q

Dewey’s Democratic Communication

A
  • For this expertise of citizens to develop and be mobilize and contribute they need opportunities for good communication
    Micro-level: deliberation through discussion between citizens or politicians
    Macro-level: mass media and systematic opportunities for deliberation
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7
Q

Three Overarching Questions in the Course

A
  1. How are problems identified that require policy
    solutions? Who belongs to the issue publics that
    mobilize – or should mobilize – to address them?
  2. Who creates knowledge? How can this be done best?
  3. How can processes be designed to leverage the insights of different members of publics? How can citizens be involved in larger social deliberation?
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8
Q

Asbestos in Canada

A

Industry develope din late 19th century
Problems known for decades but were hidden, such as with industry paying McGill scientists to not expose the truth
Beginning in 80s especially, affected people started speaking up - which ultimately caused the shift
Was still imported and stuff during Harper era
Banned fully in 2018 with a few exceptions
Different publics were created and different value conflicts were at play
Concept of ‘affectedness’

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9
Q

Clemons and McBeth’s Three Components of PP

A

Technical - relevant knowledge
Normative - value conflict
Political - managing conflict/mobilizing power

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10
Q

Affectedness

A

The extent to which a policy (or lack of
policy) impacts the interests of individuals or groups
- Can be affected without being aware of it
- “Interests” can be material, symbolic, status
- Those people affected have perspectives and often
insights that should be engaged to understand and
solve an issue

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11
Q

Intensity of Affectedness

A
  1. Life or death affected
  2. Well-being affected
  3. Economy, status, or other abstract thing affected
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12
Q

Polity

A

A political community

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13
Q

Two Conceptualizations of Polities/Publics

A

Polity as a collection of publics

Polity as unitary and governed

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14
Q

Advantages of Polity of Publics (as opposed to unitary, governed polity)

A

Harness insights and problem-solving of those most
affected rather than distant government / citizens
Opportunity to deliberate or negotiate to maximize interests of those most affected

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15
Q

Advantages of Unitary Public Model (as opposed to polity of publics)

A

Coordinated action and enforcement

Manage conflict across publics

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16
Q

Dewey Public Policy-making v Clemons + McBeth

A

Dewey public as mobilized, self-aware community with shared interests means public policymaking is surrounding that.
Clemons + McBeth focus more on centralized public where government makes policies for them

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17
Q

What is a public problem that requires a solution?

A

When the problem threatens public values resulting in a value conflict

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18
Q

For a government to give attention to a problem, it must meet at least one of the following criteria:

A
  1. Threaten the values and interests of the most
    powerful in the society
  2. Threaten the values and interests of a significantly large number of citizens
  3. Seem like a serious threat to a small but favourably
    perceived group or to a group that has traditionally
    received protection from the government
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19
Q
  1. Provide three values or valued goods that are central to policy around _______
  2. Sketch a bullseye diagram of intense and diffuse
    affectedness for each of these valued goods.
A

Go!

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20
Q

Three Types of Values or Valued Goods

A
  1. Interests – material, status, symbolic
  2. Principles – safety, equality, freedom, justice
  3. Visions of future – Usually combine interests and principled commitments
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21
Q

Policy Phases

A
  1. Awareness and Agenda-setting
  2. Policy Formulation
  3. Decision-making
  4. Implementation
  5. Evaluation
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22
Q

Clemons and McBeth’s “Awareness”

A

aka Agenda-Setting

Recognition of threatened values or interests

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23
Q

Policy Definition

A

How things are framed or defined upon being set on the agenda

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24
Q

Clemons + McBeth’s “Policy Determination”

A 
aka Policy formulation
- policy definition is sharpened
- policy objectives are set
- alternatives are considered
Indicative of their view of PP as gov't-centric
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25
Ways in which citizens contribute to policy formulation
Opinion polling Consultations Designed processes (BC Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform)
26
Decision-Making: Why is a policy chosen?
1. It best solves the problem 2. Best solves secondary problems (Elections, etc.) 3. Manages conflicts between publics and individuals
27
Three Things Needed for Good Implementation
Resources Instiutional Compentencies Buy in from bureaucracy
28
In Policy Evaluation you assess...
Output - how many things/resources/people were dedicated to this Impact - did it achieve its goals
29
Who constitutes evaluators in policy evaluation?
``` Bureaucrats Media Citizens Opposition parties NGOs ```
30
Who is a stakeholder?
1. Individuals or groups affected by the policy problem or potential policy responses. 2. Someone or group with power or influence whose cooperation or lack of obstruction is necessary to pass policy 3. Individuals or groups with perspective / insights (member of a policy network)
31
Real Utopias
Idea that what is possible is based largely on our ideas
32
Three Types of Claims
Descriptive Causal Normative
33
Foucault - Power
Power is relations between two people. Being able to control their behaviour.
34
Phronesis
Practical wisdom - the right thing to do at the right time
35
Four Questions for Policymaking (Flyvberg)
- 1. Where are we going - 2. Who gains and who loses, by which mechanisms of power? - 3. Is this development desirable? - 4. What should be done? Empirical evidence can inform this, but political/ethical questions must be answered.
36
Mechanisms of Power
Interpretation/messaging/comms Bargaining Shared interests with other groups
37
How social media is a 'media disruptor'
1. Instantaneous and global distribution - takes away time and space, transcends state borders/institutions 2. Capturing all of the online advertising market - Facebook as 'becoming' the internet 3. Disempowerment of gatekeepers/you become gatekeeper - I'm assuming like mass media and gov't? 4. Disrupting 'professional journalism' - anyone can do it, less regulation online, business model shift 5. New 'attention' economy - clickbait/hate clicks 6. Surveillance capitalism / data use
38
New Media Gatekeepers
Individuals/content consumers and creators Silicon Valley AI / algorithms
39
Groups Involved in the Political Influence Models
1. Citizens 2. Public Sphere and Opinion 3. Traditional Organizations 4. Politicians/Public Agencies 5. Laws and Policies 6. Public Action Connecting Points between these 1. Elections + Lobbying 2. Communicative pressure (Traditional) 3. ICT (Info and Comm technology)
40
The One Group Who is missing from the Politics + Internet Models
The social media actors themselves / silicon valley | They have their own interests
41
Techno-pessimism
In the realm of social media, arose in the Trump era and especially post-Cambridge Analytica
42
Amazon as a quasi-state
Controls half the online retail market Companies rely on its infrastructure, financial systems, algorithms and rules. People are more scared of getting in trouble with Amazon than going to real court.
43
4 Points of Rahman Article on Informational Infrastructure
1. Reframe Policy Problems - don't deal with cambridge analytica, deal with the structural problem 2. Digital platforms as infrastructure - Are the ways people access significant parts of life like social and economic relationships - Tend to monopolize due to network effects - Create situations of domination 3. Three Forms of Platform Power - Gatekeeper - Transmission - arbitrary rules and information flows - Scoring - socially, beyond the platform 4. Creative approaches to policy platforms - Managerial (gov't oversight bodies) - Self-governance - Structuralist - break up monopolies
44
Network Effects
The more people that use a platform, the more they can't live without it/need it for everyday essentials.
45
Domination (Rahman)
Arbitraty and unaccountable control / interference in people's lives
46
California Consumer Privacy Act
Passed in 2018 saying Californians must - Know what personal information (PI) is being collected about them. - Know whether their PI is being sold or disclosed and to whom. - Be able to say no to the sale of PI to third parties. - Be able to request the deletion of PI the business has collected. - Enjoy equal service and price from a company even if they exercise their privacy rights.
47
Alastair McTaggart
Policy champion for data privacy | Proposed a proposition but then didnt do it with the promise of the new bill
48
Epistocracy
The rule of the knowers (of political affairs usually)
49
Jason Brennan
Wrote 'Against Democracy' Epistocrat Thinks you should be an expert for your vote to count
50
JS Mill on Democracy
If people pay taxes, they should have a say. Exluding people can be dangerous - can make them malcontent. Generally, people affected by gov't should have a say in it. Plural voting - people with more knowledge should have more of a say throughs secondary votes
51
Plural Voting
JS Mill idea that those with more knowledge get additional votes. This avoid class rule by manual labours and unintelligent rule. Should be based on education or occupation, not property or tests.
52
Five Problems with Expertise
``` Experts disagree They have cognitive biases They are unpersuasive How do you assess expertise? In policy, we're dealing with predictions a lot, and political scientists are no better than the average at this ```
53
Runciman's Four Critiques of Epistocracy
Value conflict means no 'right' answer (we should suffer from our own mistakes not others) Democracy ensures equal power - no domination Risk averse Democracy is best when shit hits the fan
54
Simulated Oracle
Jason Brennan's idea that people's votes change based on statistical evidence of what they would vote if they were 'high-information' people
55
Advocacy Research
A way to make citizens into experts Experts work with citizen groups, use basic methodologies Participant-dominant model Participant inquiry
56
People hearing experts tell them something makes them agree less, to be persuasive, one must believe that someone...
is an experts AND shares their interests (has their best interests at heart, shares their values)
57
Three Reasons People Don't trust Elites
– Jargon – Reproduce existing systems – Dismiss amateurs Also, policies are social constructions, and you cannot avoid interpretation/value judgements, and so people might not share your values
58
Fischer’s Four Critiques of Epistocracy
■ No one can be an expert in all things ■ Rule by experts would also be rule by non-experts ■ Experts also might make things worse ■ Citizens are experts in their own lives, values
59
Expert advice is ultimately just _____
An informed opinion (implication = it has some value judgement in it)
60
Specialized Citizens
The idea that experts must operate as one of many democratic citizens and work with other citizens to policymake
61
Limitations of Committee Testimony
Are politicians equipped to answer the proper questions? | Are the voices of regular citizens reflected?
62
Heresthetics
Manipulating political circumstances to get what you want | Can utilize structural procedures, framing, and agenda-setting
63
"Will of the people" is made up because...
Voting rules/systems change outcomes | Actors can manipulate voting rules
64
Overton Window
Providing more extreme options makes other options | seem normal
65
Frames in Thought v Communication
Frames in Thought: our own cognitive structures to help us make sense of the world Frames in communication: not things that are in our worldview, but the ways in which things are presented to us, how people choose to present things. Selective presentation and interpretation of political realities.
66
To be a frame, something must...
not provide new information, but a new spin.
67
If you accept a specific frame, you...
are accepting a set of other values or considerations upon which it rests
68
Two Problems with Frames
When citizens see them as value-neutral or themselves have no preference, frames can have undue power They can be manipulative
69
Dominant Frames
Frames that almost everyone accepts / alternative frames are demonized.
70
To question dominant frames, one must...
Increase exposure to new frames Ask specific questions, instead of large ideological questions ... hard though because people fall back on what they know
71
Polarizing Frames
One's that assert that others are wrong and are just generally inflammatory
72
Group-based Frames
Groups, often those without the political power to produce their own frames, are stereotyped.
73
Two Pros of Frames
Politics is complicated... | Competing frames add nuance actually
74
For healthy debate, deliberations must include
Competing frames A shared understanding of terms Shared agreement on basic issues Trust between groups
75
The Study of PP is changing in that it...
Is shifting away from high modernist assumptions of: Technocracy Exclusive focus on government instead of other influencers
76
Policymaking is mostly a matter of ...
persuasion
77
Look at questions posed from Monday's class
Do it
78
Voting Paradox
Honestly, unsure. I think that it is to get the will of the people but that is impossible because you can 1. Have different voting systems 2. Manipulate voting systems
79
Praxis (Clemons + McBeth)
Theory-guided action
80
Flyvberg
Aalborg project Four questions for policymakers Power creates knowledge (chamber of commerce)
81
Fung et al.
Six Models of Politics + Internet
82
Rahman Piece
Big platforms are infrastructure now, hold enormous power

POLI 348 (1 decks)

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