Week 4 Flashcards
Outline who is involved in creating the policy agenda
- Parties and interest groups, parliament and media departments and private companies all compete to draw attention to their key concerns
- Contending voices use parliament, the media, public events and private lobbying to press their case
- Politics becomes an argument about which topics and which interpretation of any particular topic, have a legitimate right to government responses and public resources
Outline what the policy agenda is
- Represents the narrowing of an infinite array of possible policy problems to those few that command govt interest
- When an issue is identified, it becomes part of the policy cycle, subject to analysis, policy instrument development etc
- Crucial moment in policy cycle as private concern is transformed into a policy issue
Outline what policy officers must do
- Develop sensitivity to the nature of issues
- Minimise surprise
- Anticipate problems
- Understand how lobbyists work to influence govt agendas
- How social media can draw attention to aspects of issues
- Self interested nature of many proposals
Agenda metaphor
When cabinets meet, ministers have an agenda- a list of topics for discussion, but this lists is only a small sample from the policy agenda, in turn a tiny selection from an abundance of possible topics
Outline political issue drivers
- Election commitments and party political platforms
- Areas of particular interest to key government supporters
- Ministerial and governmental changes
What is a charter/portfolio priority letter?
- Passed from the prime minister to each minister and sent at the start of the term
- Identify election commitments and outline the leader’s expectations and priorities
- Typically state broad policy directions and particular targets
- Complement the Administrative Arrangement Orders that set out the responsibilities in terms of Acts of parliament and functions
Who are the voices seeking attention for concerns?
- Policy researchers
- Policy promoters
- Policy designers
- Policy guardians
Who controls the policy cycle, theoretically and realistically?
- Theoretically- ministers
- Reality- politicians are subject to external influences
Who may influence priorities of the agenda?
- Rise and fall of a prominent minister can shift priorities
- Independents and minor parties can have a powerful influence on govt’s policy agenda
- Minority govts create particularly fluid environment for selecting some issues over others
What influences govt’s decisions to include certain issues in the agenda?
- Ideology of the govt party will dictate certain issues. Clearest after change in govt, however after years in office, will rely more on policy advice and issue identification within public sector and alternate sources
- Long established govts may be overtaken by new issues or driven by events beyond their control, causing them to redefine their agendas in response to events
- Policy can be overtaken by arguments about evidence. Govts must must arbitrate on what info is heard and what is ignored and reinterpreted
- Policy professionals learn that an individual minister’s preference is important and must be accommodated. Also observe that politicians cannot set the agenda; responding to problems and complaints consumes much ministerial time
Outline external drivers (with examples)
- Economic forces (e.g. share market fluctuations, interest rate adjustments, credit crunches, employment rates, business fortunes)
- Media attention
- Legal shifts (e.g. High Court Judgement)
- Natural disasters
- International relations (e.g. refugee arrivals, diplomatic representations over human rights issues, wars between other nations)
- Technological development (e.g. bitcoin as a vehicle for moving currency outside the existing tax net)
- Demographic shifts (e.g. population growth and movement change patterns of demand for govt services)
- Market forces are the most powerful, as they are largely beyond the regulation of governments
Outline internal (within govt drivers (with examples)
- Emerging issues monitored by govt policy specialists, who structure info and so shape the political domain’s view of the matter
- Monitoring policy issues in other jurisdictions (e.g. overseas responses to particular problems, successes or failures of policies in other states)
- Ongoing monitoring of wicked problems and intractable issues of perennial govt concern
- Coordination of policy issues across govt and between govt structures and agendas
- Regular, programmed reviews, built into the budget cycle
- Statutory ‘sunset’ dates
- Budget overruns
- Unfavourable audit reports
- Performance audits and benchmark failures
Internal factors require constant monitoring and activity by govt. Early detection of issues is valued skill in policy professionals
Outline how big data challenges govts
- How to capture and analyse tech data and decide what should be exploited
- Can be mined to promote better issue identification and to target services better and more efficiently, through privacy and confidentiality are limits
- To capitalise support, govts must improve how large data sets are accessed and used by decision makers
- Care must be taken to avoid embedding assumptions and cultural biases
Define data visualisation
Presentation of large data sets in visual forms to make sense of big data for decision making, and attracting attention to critical topics
Define an unsaleable issue
Defined “as ambiguously as possible, with implications for as many people as possible, involving issues other than the dispute in question… as simple as is feasible”
