Policy makers’ ideas: Worldview or window-dressing? POLI 352A.
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Transcript of Policy makers’ ideas: Worldview or window-dressing? POLI 352A.
Policy makers’ ideas:Worldview or window-dressing?
POLI 352A
Two views of ideas
• Ideas are the lenses through which policy makers see the world.
VS.
• Ideas are just window-dressing for the pursuit of raw interests.
Median
Exercise
• Pick some political actor or group who you think is motivated by an idea – not by pure self-interest
• How could we know this? – What kind of evidence would help indicate that this
idea is a lens, not window-dressing?
• Be ready to defend this view against objections from the rest of us
• Choose a spokesperson for group
Types of ideas…and what they tell policy makers
• Value commitments
• Policy tools
• Causal ideas
• Metaphors, analogies
• Concepts, definitions
• Paradigm or frame– Combines normative, causal, tool
What do ideas do?
• Simplify causal complexity
• Reduce uncertainty
• Narrow the menu of options
• Frame issues
• Define problems and goals
• Ideas as weapons, justifications
How to study ideas?Bleich’s strategies
To determine if frames shaped policy, look for:
• Internal coherence of ideas
• Stability over time
• Evidence of frames during policy-making episodes
• Consistency between policy choice and frame
How to study ideas?Bleich’s strategies
• Comparison
– Differing ideas across countries differing policies
– Similarly situated actors in different countries take differing views
• Rule out interests
Studying ideas:Hall’s strategy
– study change over time
Demonstrate:
• Prior stability of policy and ideas
• Ideational change follows real events– Esp. failure
– Big failure big change in ideas
• Flow of new information and arguments
Studying ideas:Hall’s strategy
– study change over time
• Changes in personnel – carriers of new ideas
• Policy change consistent with new ideas
Conclusion: Elusive ideas
• In a complex world, we don’t always know what policies are in our interests.
• Ideas provide a simplifying lens.
• But ideas are hard to study– Have to assemble clues– See Bleich and Hall for strategies
• The value of comparison– Comparing cross-nationally– Change over time