AP Government
Chapter 17: Public Policy
Politics – the interaction between people and their government (citizens, interest
groups, political parties and govt at all levels). Politics is about who gets what,
when, where, and how from the govt.
Policy Makers – the individuals and groups who get to make the actual choices to
create public policy (they could be elected officials or govt employees like a City
Manager for a city).
Public Policy – it’s the specific course of action the government takes to address
a problem (examples: health care, unemployment, immigration, etc)
 distributive policy – policies that offer benefits to all citizens (national
parks, air traffic control, interstate highway system, education, national
defense, Social Security)
 redistributive policy – policies that take resources away from one group
and give it to another (taxes) to benefit the other group. (“Entitlements”
such as welfare programs, Head Start, etc.) aka “zero-sum games” – one
group’s gain is another person’s loss.
 reverse distributive policy – policies that take resources from everyone
to solve a common problem (reducing SS, or raising taxes on everyone)
 8 Steps in Making Public Policy (the “staircase”):
1. making assumptions about the problem (economy, terrorism, etc)
2. setting agenda of problems to be addressed (“policy agenda”,
“think tank”)
3. deciding to act (Downs’s 5-pt stage of issue-attention cycle)
4. deciding how much to do (incremental/comprehensive policy;
iron triangles & issue networks)
Iron Triangles: (1) federal dept /agency (2) loyal interest groups
(3) House and/or Senate Committee
5. choosing a solution to the problem (5 steps: $, taxes, delivery,
protection, regulation)
6. deciding who will deliver the goods/services (who will implement –
private, public, charities, etc.)
7. making rules for implementation (Federal Register – record of
rules)
8. final implementation as ongoing policy (running the program)
It is difficult just to pass a bill / issue executive order / make a
Supreme Court decision – and easier to make a nondecision,
in which policy process stops before final action.