exam

MPPA  595 Public  Policy  Implementation  and  Analysis

Dante  M.  Honorico

Philosophy

• Public  Management   philosophy   – what  citizens  expect  from  public   managers. • The  ethical  responsibilities   of  public  managers  upon  assuming   office. a. Primacy  of  serving  the  public  interest. b. Fairness c. Subordination  of  private  interests.

What  Distinguishes  Public  Managers

• Extensive  vetting  process  before  appointment,  including  extensive   background  checks,  sometimes  legislative  confirmation  for  senior  positions   in  the  executive  branch.

• Disclosure  of  personal  information,  such  as,  medical  and  financial  records. • Close  scrutiny  by  the  media • In  most  cases,  strict  adherence  to  non-­‐partisanship.

Examples  of  Public  Managers

• Elected  chief  executives  – the  president,  state  governors,  city  mayors,  etc. • Appointed  chief  executives  – city  managers,  chief  county  administrators,  court  

administrators  (non-­‐judicial  positions),  etc.

• Appointed  2nd tier  executives  – cabinet  members,  bureau  directors,  commissioners,   heads  of  government  corporations.

• Senior-­‐level  civil  servants  – administrators  of  sub-­‐bureau  government  offices. • Directors  of  legislative  oversight  bodies,  such  as,  Way  &  Means,  Finance  

Committees,  etc.

What  is  Implementation?

• Simple  definition:  To  carry  out,  accomplish,  fulfill,  produce  results,  complete a  policy

• Implementation  must  be  measured  against  a  goal  otherwise  there  is  no  way   to  tell  whether  it  is  a  success  or  a  failure

• According  to  Moore,  managerial   success  in  the  public  sector  (Page  10,  Par.   3)  is  “initiating  and  reshaping  public  sector  enterprises  in  ways  that  increase   their  value  to  the  public  in  both  the  short  and  the  long  term.”

Increasing  Public  Value

• Increasing  effectiveness,  efficiency  or  fairness  in  currently  defined  missions   (what  the  agency  is  currently  mandated  to  do)

• Or,  introducing  programs  that  respond  to  a  political  aspiration  or  answer  a   new  need  in  the  agency’s  task  environment  (Examples?)

• Or,  recasting  the  mission  or  repositioning  the  agency  so  that  its  old   capabilities   can  be  used  more  responsibly  and  effectively

Important  Elements  of  Implementation

• “the  study  of  implementation  requires  understanding  that  apparently   simple  sequences  of  events  depend  on  complex  chains  of  reciprocal   interaction.  Hence,  each  part  of  the  chain  must  be  built  with  the  others  in   view.  The  separation  of  policy  design  from  implementation  is  fatal.”

Parallels  in  Contemporary  Public  Policy  Setting

• Wildavsky book,  Page  3,  Appearances  – Oakland’s  overall  employment  rate   “of  8.4%  more  than  twice  the  national  average.”

• Page  4,  Appearances  – “is  bogged  down  in  a  bureaucratic  fight  over  minority   hiring.”  Still  happening  today  which  means  some  lessons  are  never  learned   or  even  if  they  were,  politics  are  still  getting  in  the  way.

Case  Study  –The  Library  and  Latchkey   Children

• What  options  are  available   to  the  librarian? 1. Start  charging  parents  of  latchkey  children  using  the  library. 2. Recruit  and  utilize  non-­‐paid  volunteers  to  provide  supervision  to  latchkey  children. 3. Re-­‐schedule  staff  to  provide  coverage  for  latchkey  children  perhaps  even  initiate  

reading  enrichment  program  for  them.

4. Any  more  options?

Negative  Perceptions  of  Public  Managers

Public  managers  lack: 1. Initiative  (timid,  risk-­‐averse,  overly  concerned  about  career.) 2. Imagination  (  creativity) 3. Drive  (single-­‐minded  approach  to  mission  accomplishment)

What  do  Public  Managers  Really  Lack?

• Political  support • Stakeholder  (constituent)  support • Budgetary  support  or  capability • Clear  and  coherent  mandate  (mission  creep) Moore,  Page  19,  Par.  2

Communities

Are  where  individuals  live,  connect,  and  are  responsible  for  one  another.

Types  of  Communities:

1. Community  of  Relationships  – connection  to  activities  and  organizations. 2. Community  of  Interests  – bound  by  common  concerns. 3. Community  of  Place – neighborhoods  where  people  have  the  ability  to  talk  

over  the  back  fence  about  issues  of  common  concern.

Street-­‐Level  Bureaucrats

When  do  they  make  policy?

• Whenever  they  have  wide  discretion  in  decision-­‐making. • When,  taken  in  concert,  their  individual  actions  add  up  to  agency  

(government)  behavior.

Discretion

What  is  it?

• The  power  to  decide  or  act  according  to  one’s  own  judgment.   • The  power  to  take  independent  action. • The  freedom  to  decide  what  to  do  in  a  particular  situation

Examples  of  Discretionary  Action

• A  police  officer  deciding  who  to  arrest  and  whose  behavior  to  overlook. • A  judge  deciding  whether  to  give  an  offender  probation  or  jail  time. • A  teacher  deciding  which  student  will  be  suspended. • A  building  inspector  deciding  whether  or  not  to  waive  a  requirement.

Why  Have  the  “Built-­‐In”  Discretion?

1. Street-­‐level  bureaucrats  often  work  in  situations  too  complicated  to   reduce  to  programmatic  formats.  The  work  they  do  simply  cannot  be   reduced  to  “check-­‐the-­‐box”  functions.

2. They  work  in  situations  that  often  require  responses  to  human  dimensions     where  flexibility  (discretion)  is  required.

3. Constant  interaction  with  citizens  at  the  “street  level”  demand  capacity  for   discretion  – because  the  lack  of  it  undermines  citizens’  belief  that  street-­‐ level  bureaucrats  can  resolve  problems.