Discretion Rather than Rules: Choice of Instruments to Control Bureaucratic Policy Making

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Gailmard
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Incentive Scheme ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Transfer Payments ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Optimal Action ◽  
Choice Of Instruments ◽  
Levers Of Control

In this paper I investigate the trade-off a legislature faces in the choice of instruments to ensure accountability by bureaucrats with private information. The legislature can either design a state-contingent incentive scheme or “menu law” to elicit the bureau's information or it can simply limit the set of choices open to the bureaucrat and let it choose as it wishes (an action restriction). I show that the optimal action restriction is simply a connected interval of the policy space. However, this class of instruments is not optimal without some sort of limitation on the set of levers of control available to the legislature. I then analyze one such limitation salient in politics, the legislative principal's inability to commit to honor a schedule of (state contingent) policy choices and transfer payments for a menu law. In this case the optimal action restriction outperforms (in terms of the legislature's welfare) the best available menu law.

A Folk Theorem for Repeated Elections with Adverse Selection

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Incentive Compatibility ◽  
Folk Theorem ◽  
Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Bayesian Equilibrium ◽  
Strict Concavity

This article establishes a folk theorem for a model of repeated elections with adverse selection: when citizens (voters and politicians) are sufficiently patient, arbitrary policy paths through arbitrarily large regions of the policy space can be supported by a refinement of perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Politicians are policy motivated (so office benefits cannot be used to incentivize policy choices), the policy space is one-dimensional (limiting the dimensionality of the set of utility imputations), and politicians’ preferences are private information (so punishments cannot be targeted to a specific type). The equilibrium construction relies critically on differentiability and strict concavity of citizens’ utility functions. An extension of the arguments allows policy paths to depend on the office holder's type, subject to incentive compatibility constraints.

National Sovereignty vs. International Cooperation: Policy Choices in Trade‐Off Situations

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Emmenegger ◽  
Silja Häusermann ◽  
Stefanie Walter
Keyword(s):  
International Cooperation ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Cooperation Policy

The Finnish Climate Change Act: Architecture, Functions, and Challenges

Climate Law ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 301-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismo Pölönen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Dynamic Features ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Term Energy ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
The Cost

The article examines the key features and functions of the proposed Finnish Climate Change Act (fcca). It also analyses the legal implications of the Act and the qualities and factors which may limit its effectiveness. The paper argues that, despite its weak legal implications, the fcca would provide the regulatory preconditions for higher-quality climate policy-making in Finland, and it has the capacity to play an important role in national climate policy. The fcca would deliver regulatory foundations for systematic and integrated climate policy-making, also enabling wide public scrutiny. The proposed model leaves room for manifold climate-policy choices in varying societal and economical contexts. The cost of dynamic features is the relalow predictability in terms of sectorial paths on emission reductions. Another relevant challenge relates to the intended preparation of overlapping mid-term energy and climate plans with instruments of the fcca.

Integrating Ideas into Policy-Making Analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 1054-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Bleich
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Frames ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
History Of Race ◽  
Cross National

This article argues that systematically integrating ideas into policy-making analysis greatly enhances our understanding of policy outcomes. Variables emphasized by other schools of thought—such as power, interests, institutions, and problems—often provide an inadequate explanation of policy choices. To demonstrate the contribution of ideas to policy-making analysis, this article examines the impact of policy frames, showing how they help actors define their interests, generate interpretations of pressing problems, and constrain actions. Retracing the history of race policy development in Britain and France reveals that each country's frames influenced domestic policy outcomes and thus played a vital role in explaining cross-national race policy differences.

The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Foreign Policy Planning in Brazil (1949-2018)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Rogério de Souza Farias
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Policy Planning ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The World

Summary Policy planning has a long history in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the world. This article provides an overview of almost 70 years of this technique in Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations (Itamaraty). I will argue that there has been a clear trade-off between predicting, preaching, disrupting and managing. Despite its failures, planning has been an important tool for coping with uncertainty and has provided coherence in foreign policy-making.

Big Data, Semantics, and Policy-Making

2019 ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Lamyaa El Bassiti
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Semantic Technologies ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Data Semantics ◽  
Policy Argument

At the heart of all policy design and implementation, there is a need to understand how well decisions are made. It is evidently known that the quality of decision making depends significantly on the quality of the analyses and advice provided to the associated actors. Over decades, organizations were highly diligent in gathering and processing vast amounts of data, but they have given less emphasis on how these data can be used in policy argument. With the arrival of big data, attention has been focused on whether it could be used to inform policy-making. This chapter aims to bridge this gap, to understand variations in how big data could yield usable evidence, and how policymakers can make better use of those evidence in policy choices. An integrated and holistic look at how solving complex problems could be conducted on the basis of semantic technologies and big data is presented in this chapter.

5. Democracy and the EU

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Tapio Raunio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
European Level ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Input Legitimacy ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the relationship between European integration and democracy. The continuous transfer of policy-making powers from European Union (EU) member states to the European level has raised serious concerns about democratic legitimacy. The chapter assesses the claims that European integration undermines national democracy, and that decision-making at the EU level is not sufficiently democratic. It argues that while significant challenges remain, European integration has definitely become more democratic over the years. But there is perhaps a trade-off, with stronger input legitimacy potentially an obstacle to efficient European-level decision-making. It also underlines the multilevel nature of the EU polity and the importance of public debates about European integration.

The policy capacity of political parties in Canada

2018 ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Greg Flynn ◽  
Marguerite Marlin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Limited Impact ◽  
Policy Capacity ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Party Members

Political parties and their members are often viewed as having limited impact on government policy choices. However, prior research shows that both sets of actors devote considerably more time and resources to policy-related activities than this view would suggest. We examine the policy capacity of parties and their members to influence policy-making in Canada over the course of the last decade. We focus on the ability of party members to have their policy wishes included in election campaign manifestos and the extent to which the 2008 and 2011 federal Conservative governments were able to fulfill their campaign commitments in a highly challenging policy capacity environment. Consistent with prior studies on previous Conservative and Liberal governments, this examination demonstrates that while governments face a number of influences on their policy choices, the policy wishes of party members and the election campaign policy commitments of parties have a significant influence.

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