An Introduction to the Policy Process

CHAPTER 4:
OFFICIAL ACTORS AND THEIR ROLES
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
1
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Overview
• Understand the difference between official
and unofficial actors
• Understand official and unofficial actors in the
policy process
• Prepare to understand the role of interest
groups and power in policy making

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

2
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Approaches to politics and policy
• Institutionalism
• Behaviorism
• Neoinstitutionalism
• Changes in understanding of what
“institution” means

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

3
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Official and unofficial actors in public
policy
• What are official actors? What makes them
“official”?
• What are unofficial actors? What makes them
“unofficial”?
• Are one set of actors more “legitimate” than
another?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

4
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 The traditional institutionalist view of
formal institutions
• Automatically have power and authority
• Are relatively stable—monolithic?
• Have the final say in policy debate
• Their decisions are accepted
• Interest groups are petitioners or sometimes
supplicants

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

5
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 A more realistic view
• Power and authority must be earned and
reinforced
• Are broadly stable, but are not at all
monolithic
• Do not issue the final word—decisions often
lead to countermobilization

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

6
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 A more realistic view
• Power and authority must be earned and
reinforced
• Are broadly stable, but are not at all monolithic
• Do not issue the final word—decisions often lead
to countermobilization
• Countermobilization is proof that decisions are
not final, and not always accepted
• Interests and members of formal institutions
work together, not apart, in pursuit of goals
• This looks more like the behaviorist approach

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

7
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Hierarchy? Or network?

The Constitution
and the People
(really?)

Executive Legislative Judicial

The Bureaucracy Lower Courts

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

8
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Hierarchy? Or network?
Legis- Legis-
lators lators
Mediated by policy
News
Agencies
brokers or policy News
Agencies
Media entrepreneurs Media

Coalition 1 Coalition 2

Groups Groups
Experts Experts

Parties Parties

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

9
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Official actors
• Legislative branch
• Executive branch (president, governor)
• The bureaucracy
• Judicial branch (courts)

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

10
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Legislative branch
• Why does Article I come first?
– Does this rationale still hold today?
• Make laws
• Hold hearings
• Perform oversight over the executive branch
• Do casework for constituents
• What are the power advantages and
disadvantages of the legislative branch?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

11
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 105th Congress 110th Congress
(1997-98) (2007-2008)
House Senate House Senate
Bills 4,874 2,655 7,336 3741
Joint resolutions 140 60 101 107
Concurrent
354 130 442 46
resolutions

Table 4.1: Bills, Amendments, Joint Resolutions,

and Concurrent Resolutions in the 105th and
110th Congresses
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
12
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Assessing legislative activity
• Multiple bill introductions
• Many bills are symbolic
• Many introduced to serve constituent
interests
• How do we know what’s “on the agenda” just
from a count of bills?
– Why does it matter what’s on Congress’s agenda?
– Is the volume of legislation the best measure of
overall activity?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

13
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Casework
• Where do people take their problems with the
federal government?
– To where do they appeal if their initial complaints
aren’t heard?
• Why do members of Congress encourage
casework?
• How might casework be useful in the policy
process?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

14
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Oversight
• What is oversight?
• Why has it become more important?
• Congress’s oversight tools
– Hearings
– Communications from
• Constituents
• Interest groups
• News media
• GAO, CBO, CRS

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

15
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Organization of the legislative branch
• Parties
– Elect the presiding officer or speaker
– Determine who sits on committees
• Committees
– Chairs are very powerful
– Screen bills
– Set the legislative agenda
• Is the Congress centralized? Or decentralized?
– Evidence in favor?
– Evidence against?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

16
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Public policy and critiques of the
legislature
• Are legislatures out of touch with the people?
• Are legislatures too slow? Do they suffer from
gridlock?
• Members and reelection
• Congress as a decentralized institution
• Congress as a localized, constituency-serving
institution – examples?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

17
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Implications
• “Gridlock” or deliberation?
• Major change requires major social movements
• More focus casework, oversight, and distributive
spending
• The House, in particular, may favor local interests
over national interests
– Over 80% of Americans think that incumbents should
lose their seats
– Yet, the vast majority of incumbents are reelected
• Why?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

18
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 How does this matter for public
policy?
• How does the legislative branch identify and
handle problems?
• Is the legislative branch solely focused on
finding and fixing problems?
• What motivates its members?
• How does Congress handle its rather extensive
workload?
– What are the implications for policy making?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

19
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 The executive branch
• Chief executive (President, Governor)
• Staff (about 3000 appointed officials)
• We consider the permanent civil service
(“bureaucracy”) separately from the top level

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

20
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Presidential advantages over Congress
• The veto power
• The head of a unitary branch
• Considerable power shifted toward the
executive branch during
– The Civil War
– The New Deal
– World War II
– Cold War
– Great Society
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
21
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Presidential advantages over Congress

• Attracts a lot of media and public

attention—can “go public” (the “Bully
Pulpit”)
• Has informational advantages over other
branches
• Therefore, has significant agenda-setting
power

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

22
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Constraints on the President’s power
• Inability to force action
• Sheer size of his staff
– “Going native”
– Turnover
• The will of the other branches
– Appointments
– Courts
– The permanent bureaucracy
• Result: the president may be more involved in agenda
setting than in selecting alternative policies

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

23
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Agencies and Bureaucrats
• What is a bureaucracy?
– Division of labor
– Impersonal, unbiased rules
– Staff expertise among civil servants
– Obvious hierarchy
• What is a civil servant?
– Selected on merit
– Possess technical knowledge
• What motivates civil servants?
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
24
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Is the Bureaucracy (that is, the
government) too Big?
• 1999:
– 2.79 million civilian employees
– $1.8 trillion budget
– 4.47% of Americans work for all government (2.09% work
for the federal government), according to U.S. BLS
• 2008
– 2.73 million civilian employees (slight decline)
– About $3.0 trillion budget
– 4.65% of Americans work for all government (1.88% work
for the federal government)
• How do we measure too big?
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
25
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Billions of Dollars
5,000
In Current Dollars
4,000
In Constant (FY 2000 Dollars)
3,000

2,000

1,000

0
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
estimate

Figure 4.2: Overall Federal Outlays, 1940-2014,

Current and Constant Dollars
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
26
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Outlays as percent of GDP
50

40

30

20

10

0
1940 1952 1964 1976 1988 2000 2012
estimate
Figure 4.3: Federal Government Outlays as
Percentage of GDP, 1940-2014
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
27
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Constant (2000) dollars
12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0
1940 1948 1956 1964 1972 1980 1988 1996 2004 2012
Figure 4.4: Federal Government Outlays Per Capita,
Constant Dollars, 1940 to 2014
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
28
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Thousands
25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0
1982 1992 2000 2002 2004 2006

Figure 4.5: Total Number of State and Local

Government Employees, 1992-2006
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
29
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Thousands of Full Time Equivalent Employees
2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0
1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009

Figure 4.6: Number of Federal Civilian

Employees, 1981-2010
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
30
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 300 Index: 1981=100
Outlays
250

200

150

100
Employment
50

0
1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009

Figure 4.7: Comparative Growth of the Federal Budget

and Federal Employment, 1981-2010
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
31
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Policy implications
• Since at least 2008, deficits and debt have
grown quickly.
• What accounts for this growth?
• The number of employees is flat, while
spending has grown very fast
– Why?
• Do we have “big government”? How, or how
do we not?
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
32
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 What do government agencies do?
• Provide public goods
– Why must government provide such goods?
– Examples?
• Provide services that people may not want
provided by the private sector
– Electricity
– Phone
– Water

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

33
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Bureaucracy and accountability
• Bureaucrats are not elected, yet they make policy
• Bureaucrats are supposed to act in the “public interest”
– What is the “public interest”?
• Bureaucrats are given more or less discretion based on
– Expertise
– Authority
– Leadership
– Political acceptability
• The problem of agency “capture”
• Agencies compete for attention and discretion
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
34
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 The courts
• Hamilton: “The least Dangerous Branch”
• The courts are neither impotent nor all
powerful.
• Rely on enforcement by other actors—
executive and legislative branches, private
actors.
– Why are most court decisions respected?

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

35
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 The courts
• The Courts do make policy
– Remember the definition of public policy
– Their logic: legal reasoning, judicial review
• The courts are undemocratic institutions
– But, was our republic designed as a democracy?
– How does one balance popular will with
constitutional limit?
– What would our system look like without judicial
review?
• Are courts very influential as policy makers?
From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy
36
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
 Implications for policy
• Policy change is slow, and takes time to
develop
• Coalition building is important
• The institutions are important gatekeepers,
but are not the only participants

From Thomas A. Birkland, An Introduction to the Policy

37
Process, 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.