Politics, Economics, and the Public: Policy Outcomes in the American States. By Thomas R. Dye. (Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1966. Pp. xv, 314. $5.00.)

1967 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 1113-1114
Author(s):  
James A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Public ◽  
American States

Thomas R. Dye,

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Goldsmith
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
American States ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Variables

This chapter examinesPolitics, Economics and the Public: Policy Outcomes in the American States, a book by Thomas Dye that highlights the importance of politics in determining public policy. First published in 1966, Dye focuses on the extent to which political variables influenced policy in comparison with economic ones, in particular economic development. He analyzes the impact of economic development and political variables, such as party and electoral systems on five policy areas: education, welfare, highways, tax/revenue policy, and public regulatory policy. Dye also measures economic development in terms of urbanization, industrialization, wealth, and education. This chapter discusses the importance of Dye’s book in the political science literature on public policy by setting it in the context of the state of political science of the period.

scholarly journals On Frontline Workers as Bureau-Political Actors: The Case of Civil–Military Crisis Management

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 1148-1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jori Pascal Kalkman ◽  
Peter Groenewegen
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Bureaucratic Politics ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Public Policy Making ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
The Public

We focus attention on the public policy-making influence of frontline bureaucrats. They are increasingly operating in interorganizational partnerships and networks in which they develop collaborative relations with frontline workers of other public organizations. We theorize that their embeddedness in local interorganizational environments induces and enables them to defy locally inappropriate policies and to pursue locally relevant policies as policy entrepreneurs simultaneously. The case study of policy-making in Dutch civil–military crisis management demonstrates that this “frontline bureaucratic politics” bears considerably on policy outcomes. We conclude that viewing frontline workers as bureau-political actors enhances our understanding of public policy-making in interorganizational arrangements.

Disproportionate Policy Response

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Maor
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Large Body ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Responses

Disproportionate policy response is understood to be a lack of ‘fit’ or balance between the costs of a public policy and the benefits derived from this policy, and between policy ends and means. The study of this phenomenon and its two anchor concepts, namely, policy over- and underreaction, has been inspired by the insight that inefficiencies in the allocation of attention in policymaking leads policymakers to react disproportionately to information. This theory of information processing appears to be broadly accepted and has generated a large body of research on agenda setting. However, little attention has been devoted to actual policy over- and underreaction and how it affects the public. The latest developments are conceptual in nature and include a conceptualization and dimensionalization of policy over- and underreaction, as well as an early-stage development of a preference-driven approach to disproportionate policy response. These issues are fundamental to developing understanding of the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of disproportionate policy response. They are also valuable to those who want to better understand the processes through which policy over- and underreaction occur and are of considerable interest to practitioners who want to understand how to manage disproportionate policy responses more effectively. Although disproportionate policy response poses methodological challenges because it is time-bound, context-sensitive and has a problematic counterfactual (i.e., proportionate policy response), it deserves academic attention. This is because the insight of the punctuated equilibrium theory—that policy responses oscillate between periods of underreaction to the flow of information coming from the environment into the system and overreaction due to disproportionate information processing—implies that policy oscillation is the norm rather than the rarity. To probe research questions related to the topic at hand, disproportionate policy response can be measured as individuals’ perceptions of what they think about the proportionality of policy. Alternatively, scholars may employ vignette survey experiments, sophisticated cost-benefit analysis and a comparison of policy outcomes with (national or international) standards developed by experts. Scholars may also undertake experimental manipulation using risk unfolding over time, combined with varying types of warnings. The study of disproportionate policy response is a gateway to some of the most significant aspects of public policy. Global and domestic threats coupled with relatively skeptical publics about politicians and political institutions and rising negativity and populism in democratic politics imply that policy overshooting is increasingly required for the public to perceive policy action as sufficient and politicians as competent, at least in the short term. Not only has disproportionate policy response been a focal point for political actors seeking decisive and swift policy change in times of real or manufactured crisis or no change at all, but such action has time and time again also made a dramatic impact upon the direction and the character of policy and politics. Classic examples are the U.S. response to 9/11 and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. So far the literature on policy change has not responded to the emergence of the stream of research aimed at fully understanding the complex phenomenon of disproportionate policy response, but a robust research agenda awaits those answering this article’s call for action.

scholarly journals Referendum as a Party Tool: The Case of Slovakia

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Nemčok ◽  
Peter Spáč
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
National Elections ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Deviant Case

This article is part of the special cluster titled Political Parties and Direct Democracy in Eastern Europe, guest-edited by Sergiu Gherghina. Referendums are widely regarded as a way of enhancing democracy as they provide a further arena for citizens to affect public policy outcomes. In this regard, Slovakia represents a deviant case that contradicts such an expectation. Since its emergence in 1993, the country implemented mechanisms of direct democracy into its political system. This article analyses referendums in Slovakia and it shows how political parties use the employment of this tool solely for their own purposes. Our study provides evidence that Slovak political parties use referendums either as a way to mobilize their own supporters for upcoming national elections or to harm their opponents. Hence, a referendum in Slovakia serves as a tool for expanding the power of political parties rather than as a way of increasing the public engagement of citizens in the democratic system.

Political Knowledge and Policy Representation in the States

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 907-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Jaeger ◽  
Jeffrey Lyons ◽  
Jennifer Wolak
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
State Government ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Policy Representation ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Low Levels

Political knowledge is central to the success of representative democracy. However, public policy has been shown to follow public opinion even despite low levels of political information in the electorate. Does this mean that political knowledge is irrelevant to policy representation? We consider whether knowledgeable electorates are better able to achieve representative policy outcomes. Using the heterogeneity in the responsiveness of government across the states, we consider how state political knowledge moderates the connection between citizen ideology and the policy outcomes of state government. Using national surveys and multilevel logit with post-stratification, we develop measures of collective political knowledge in the states. We test whether knowledgeable electorates are more likely to secure representative political outcomes than less politically informed constituencies. We find that as state political knowledge increases, so does the correspondence between the preferences of the public and the ideological tenor of state policy outcomes.

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