Discussion Thread: Thinking about Your Policy Interests
State what policy or policies relevant to your chosen cognate interest you most.
Explain why.
State what policy goal(s) you most want to see accomplished. Explain why.
Drawing on assigned readings, identify three key features of the public policy
environment relevant to the public policy that interests you, and elaborate on the
ways in which these features of the public policy environment have shaped or will
shape debate on this policy issue.
There are many policies relevant to social policy that interest me. For example, policies about
healthcare, the vulnerable population, labor, criminal justice and corrections, and substance
abuse. Birkland (2015) defines policy as a statement by government of what it intends to do or
not to do – law, regulation, ruling, decision, or order. Specific policies that are most interesting to
me would be the War on Drugs and prison reform. The War on Drugs began under President
Nixon and has been around ever since even though historically and currently prohibitions seem
to fail (Coyne & Hall, 2017). Not only has this policy not succeeded in reducing drug use, drug
crime, and drug related deaths but according to Coyne and Hall (2017) the War on Drugs has
only made the situation worse, domestically, and abroad. As if that is the only issue, this policy
also disproportionately effects minorities more than their white counterparts even though white
people use and sell drugs at similar rates to minorities (Coyne & Hall, 2017). I am interested in
this policy because it is intriguing that has been continued for the last 50 years without much
success and has come with severe consequences (whether intended or unintended). Prison reform
is another social policy that interests me. The United States correctional facilities used to operate
with the goal being rehabilitation until the early 1970s when mass incarceration began (Ahalt et
al., 2020). Mass incarceration and overcrowding create hostile environments where negative
reinforcement is used to control situations and assert dominance. Ahalt et al. (2020) state,
“Despite an emphasis on institutional security, many correctional facilities become plagued by
violence, sexual assault, and suicide” (p. 527). This type of an environment does not prepare the
inmates for life outside of the facilities. Living in these conditions’ effects physical and mental
health deeply which gets carried into their life once released and since incarceration in the
United States disproportionately effects people of color, the poor, and individuals they are the
ones disproportionately affected with mental illness or substance use disorders (Ahalt et al.,
2020).
I would like to see policies created that would increase racial equity on a systemic level. I know
this general goal encompasses a span of areas, such as, education, housing, health, criminal
justice and corrections, labor, etc. but I think it is a very important and necessary issue that needs
to be addressed. President Biden’s Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for
Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government is a start. I say this is a start
because this is just a blanket statement that states it is the “policy of my administration that the
Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equality for all,
including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and
adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality” (The White House, 2021). There needs
to be more done to expand on this, like how and what the Federal Government plans on doing to
advance equality. This executive order does go on stating that within six months there should be
a report of what should be done based off a study (The White House, 2021). I would like to see
policies come out of this study that truly impact racial equity in all arenas, especially concerning
education, housing, economics, and criminal justice and corrections. These policies are
necessary, in my opinion, and I would like to see them implemented because they will help serve
the people in the United States that have historically been underserved and marginalized –
effecting their livelihood and success.
Three major features of the policy environment that would affect the policies which interest me
would be the population and social structure, public opinion, and the rules which tell the
government how to operate. These environmental factors, along with others, are discussed in
Birkland’s (2015) book. These three features specifically will and do impact debate concerning
racial equity policies. The population and social structure will and does impact debate
concerning racial equity debates because the demographics of the population shape what is
important to the majority. The population is growing but it is aging (Birkland, 2015). Birkland
(2015) mentions how by 2015 one-third of the United States’ population will be 50 or above, so
by now in 2022 there is still more than likely a big population that is older. This will affect
debates concerning racial equity since the older generations have different opinions than younger
generations. This leads into public opinion and political environment. When you take what the
population is concerned with and what the media is focused on this gives researchers what the
most important problem is to the people. Policy makers can take this information and use it to
use as what the government should consider important issues and focus on, therefore, influencing
certain areas of public policy more than others (Birkland, 2015). If racial equity is one of the
most important issues to the people, then this would be what the government would be focusing
on, however, if it is not important to most of the people then the government will not focus on it.
This also ties into the demographics of the population since age, race, gender, and class effect
what is most important to an individual. The structure of how the government operates can affect
the debate surrounding racial equity policies. These rules that the government must follow to
create transparency can also slow down the process of policy change since there has to be time
allowed for citizen participation and public scrutiny (Birkland, 2015). This allows the change to
be very slow concerning racial equity which with how often elected officials can change this
could mean no change since it provides time for public scrutiny of proposed changes.
References:
Ahalt, C., Haney, C., Ekhaugen, K., & Williams, B. (2020). Role of a US–Norway Exchange in
Placing Health and Well-Being at the Center of US Prison Reform. American Journal of
Public Health, 110(S1), S27–S29.
Birkland, T. A. (2020). An introduction to the policy process: theories, concepts, and models of
public policy making. Routledge.
Coyne, C. J., & Hall, A. R. (2017). Four Decades and Counting: The Continued Failure of the
War on Drugs. Policy Analysis, 1–28.
The White House. (2021, January 21). Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support
for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The White House.
Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-
support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/
Replies:
Crystal,
You and I have similar interests when it comes to policies in our cognate that interest us. I chose
the War on Drugs and prison reform. Policies in general that concern racial equity (whether
promoting it or continue the divide) interest me – either in a what we need to change or what is
working.
In reading some for my post I came across an article that mentioned how before 1970
correctional facilities did have the goal of rehabilitation, however, that goal was abandoned in
1970 and started mass incarceration (Ahalt et al., 2020). It is also mentioned how the negative
effects of the environment mass incarceration creates disproportionately impact people of color,
the poor, the mentally ill, and those with substance use disorders since incarceration affects these
groups of people at a higher rate (Ahalt et al., 2020). This information matches what you have
mentioned here in your post.
I find your dissertation topic very interesting. I wonder how the War on Drugs has also
contributed to mass incarceration and how that would contribute to your study. Rosino and
Hughey (2018) include in their article that the War on Drugs has also increased racialized mass
incarceration and that these policies increased police violence in black communities and racial
profiling.
Honestly, it seems there are a lot of crime control policies since 1970 that have contributed to
mass incarceration in general but also largely contributed to racialized mass incarceration, such
as, the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (Rosino & Hughey, 2018).
References:
Ahalt, C., Haney, C., Ekhaugen, K., & Williams, B. (2020). Role of a US–Norway Exchange in
Placing Health and Well-Being at the Center of US Prison Reform. American Journal of
Public Health, 110(S1), S27–S29.
Rosino, M. L., & Hughey, M. W. (2018). The War on Drugs, Racial Meanings, and Structural
Racism: A Holistic and Reproductive Approach. American Journal of Economics and
Sociology, 77(3-4), 849–892.
Andrew,
China and our continued trade and debt owed to them has been something I have worried about
for a while now. It has perplexed me why this has not been at the forefront of the government’s
attention over the last several years. The United States would be at a disadvantage if China
stopped trading with us or demanded payment of the debt, we owe to them.
However, something I had not really thought of is China’s relationships with other countries,
such as Africa. According to Brautigam (2020) it seems that the Belt and Road Initiative is not all
about commerce but more about dominance. Ultimately, this research does not concretely say
that what China is doing is to create leverage, but it creates a good possibility that this could be
what they are doing (Brautigam, 2020).
I agree with you that this administration’s categorizing of China and Russia as a threat to the
United States and that their recent behavior has been aggressive is accurate. The years we have
spent not paying much attention to China and allowing them to continue to do what they do has
gotten us to the point of “China…has rapidly become more assertive. It is the only competitor
potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technical power to
mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system” (Biden, 2021, p. 8). You
mentioned how increasing taxation can lead to American companies to not outsource their
production and I do think that is something that needs to happen, but also after the last couple of
years, the United States needs to reestablish its place in the world as a leading country and
strengthen our alliances (Biden, 2021).
References:
Biden, J. (2021). INTERIM NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIC GUIDANCE 1.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSC-1v2.pdf
Brautigam, D. (2019). A critical look at Chinese “debt-trap diplomacy”: the rise of a meme. Area
Development and Policy, 5(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2019.1689828
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