Public policy formulation, implementation & evaluation

Formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policy in countries such as India

1. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 1 of 10



***

FORMULATION OF PUBLIC POLICY
 What is Public Policy?
 No single definition
 It is what Governments Say and Do or Do Not
 “A Public Policy is a plan of action undertaken by government to achieve some
broad purpose affecting large segment of the citizenry”.

 POLICY PROCESS – CYCLICAL PROCESS :



Realisation of
problem
Assessment of the
problem
Finding a
solution
Implementing
the solution
Reviewingthe
impact

2. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 2 of 10

Scope of Public Policy
1. Range is immense
2. Expansion of government activities into many areas
3. Protecting health, safety of workers and consumers
4. Reduction of pollution from automobiles, sewage, industrial and agriculture wastes
5. Developing housing and recreational activities
6. Preserving land and property for aesthetic or ecological value
7. Eliminating inequality, etc.

Stages in Policy Formulation
1. Agenda Building (an issue gets the attention of government)
2. Policy Formulation / Policy decision (interested party fights for it & Govt. authorities
action)
3. Policy Implementation (Govt. enforces the policy)
4. Policy Evaluation (judgments are made about the policy’s effectiveness)


1. Agenda Building :

A. How issues get on to the Policy Agenda?
INITIATING FACTOR

ISSUE AGENDA
Charismatic Leader
1. Pollution Control
Ex. CNG conversion (Delhi)
2. Employment, WTO
Ex. ITES contract in US
Agenda
Dramatic Crisis
1. Dangerous Smog
2. Oil Spill
3. Nuclear Secrets Leak
4. Natural Calamities
Agenda
Interest Group
Pressure
1. Threat of Global Competition
2. Privatization
Ex.PSU employees strike
Agenda

3. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 3 of 10

Media focus on
protest/demonstration
1. Testing nuclear weapons
2. Iraq War
3. Ecological Disaster
Agenda
Political Leadership
1. Plant Closings
2. Cost of Govt. Regulations
Ex.US-China trade sanctions on
nuclear issues
Agenda


B. Policy Agenda
1. All problems that exist in society do not transform into political issues
2. All issues do not produce policies
3. All policies do not invite implementation
4. All implementations do not affect the society in the manner intended
5. There is a limited amount of time, money and personnel to handle policy
problems and issues must compete for a position in the agenda


A. Identifying the Problem
1. Political culture of citizens and policy makers, including their benefits,
values and attitudes towards behavior and conditions in the world, affects
how they see problems

2. Orientation to time differs from culture to culture in ways that influence
the perception of problems. Ex. Capitalist society identifies its friends and
enemies differently than socialist one

B. Measuring the Symptoms / Extent of Problems
 Crime Statistics
 Unemployment
 Breakdown of Law and Order
 Racial Discrimination
 Poverty
 Inadequate Educational System
 Wars / Military Actions (Ex. Russia Vs. US Missile Defense System)

4. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 4 of 10

C. Limiting the Range of Agenda Issues
 Lack of sufficient resources to take up new issues
 Co-opt the leaders of the group making undesirable demands by giving
positions in some agencies (It silences the problem temporarily). Ex.
Creation of Telangana state by Dr. Chenna Reddy, Former governor of TN.
 Force is used against activists. Ex. Narmada Bachao Andolan
 Creating favourable image. Ex. Development activities taken up by former
CM of A.P.
 Delaying tactics


POLICY FORMULATION / DECISION ( POTENTIAL CRITERIA)

A. Public Opinion

1. Public opinion – democracy – elected representatives
2. Factors that influence public opinion
 Letters to the editor
 Direct contact with authorities
 Obscured mails
 Speech, rallies, demonstrations, protests
 Civil disorders and riots
3. Reception of public opinion - General tendency to screen communications
to distort meanings
4. Public opinion does not serve as the determining criterion for policy
decisions:
a) Voting – voters must have opinions on policies
b) Opinions on policy (favored candidate). Most voters do not have
time, expertise or inclination to think extensively about most issues
c) No knowledge about candidates stand
d) Alternatives offered (better among the worst)
e) Voter turnout
f) No voting on the basis of issues
g) No public opinion polls
h) Scattered interest groups (lack face to face communication)
i) Vested interests’ do a lot of lobbying
5. Result of the above actions - Opinions and policies are frequently
incongruent
6. Policy makers at central and state level are at higher ‘Socio-economic’
status. Therefore, insensitive to the experiences of people of lower status
7. The generation gap between citizens and policy makers

5. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 5 of 10

8. Conflict of Interest
a) Economist – Improved standard of living
b) Ecologist – Depletion of non-renewable resources


B. Influence of Policy-Makers on Public Opinion
1. Policy-makers initiate as well as receive opinion
2. Sometimes public demand for a policy is actually the result of work by
policy-makers
3. Public depends on government officials for information
4. Reports from scientific laboratories operated by Govt. make major stories.
Ex. Patents in BHEL, Iraq’s claim of weapons
5. Govt.’s monopoly on foreign policy
6. Major decisions of the courts are announced in an elaborate ritual –
devised to impress the media and the public
7. Policy-makers are not passive recipient’s stimuli, but they seek to shape
public opinions. Sometimes go to extreme length to obtain political
support
8. This aggressive action by policy-makers reduces the already limited role of
public opinion in influencing policy decision
9. Political executives (PM/CM) frequently attempt to influence public
opinion through speech over TV, radio, written presentations or press
conferences


C. Constitutional Limits of Public Policy
 The fundamental “Law of the land” limits the public’s influence on making
policy – Public Interest


D. Decision Making Rationality
1. Identify a problem
2. Measure the symptoms / extent of problem
3. Clarify and rank goals
4. Assessing alternatives
a) Predicting consequences of policy alternatives
b) Policy experiments
c) Long and short-run consequences
d) Matching consequences and goals
5. Collection of all relevant options for meeting the goals
6. Predict the consequences of each alternative and assess them
7. Select the best alternative

6. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 6 of 10

E. Options and Information from the Bureaucracy
1. Primary source of information is bureaucracy
2. Information passes from bottom to top
3. Subordinates paint the situation & sometimes do not report at all


F. Standard Operating Procedures ( SOPs)
Most departments use routines or SOPs to gather and process information in
a methodical fashion. Because of
1. Constraint of time
2. Ignorance of available information
3. Secrecy
4. Personal characteristics of bureaucrats and elected officials
5. Making inferences based on selected indicators

G. Economic Constraints on Decision-Making
1. Level of economic development
2. Monetary Policy
3. Fiscal Policy – Govt.’s borrowing and taxation
4. Regulatory Policies of FIs (Financial Institutions)

H. Political Constraints on Decision-Making
1. Political Feasibility - Opposition party’s good policies
2. Political Culture (values and beliefs). Ex. Fighting in the Assembly
3. Bargaining and Compromise
4. The weight of history on public policy (traditional approach to policy
matters)
5. The constitution
6. Committed Resources – previous commitment of existing resources


I. How Policy-Makers Cope?
1. No public opinion
2. Rationality is used (But rely on decision rules – Rules of thumb or standard
operating procedures - SOPs)
3. Decrease the pressure of considering alternatives
4. Occasionally engage in innovation. The following are the reasons for the
same:
a) Aggressive Leadership
a) Professionally oriented bureaucracies
b) Sharp public demands

7. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 7 of 10

c) The development of new technologies (it is believed that 2.5 million
tones of Helium-3 is available on lunar surface which will be enough
to meet the energy needs of earth for 10,000 years)
d) Replication of other department’s innovative and successful policy


J. Policy Formulation / Decision-Making Rules
1. Incrementalism
2. Shifting public opinion
3. Innovations from bureaucracy
4. New resources ( Ex. Usage of moon’s natural resources by U.S, Russia and
others)
5. International events
6. Crises
***

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

A. Communication Gap
 Communication is often inadequate
 Unclear Transmission of message
 No Clarity – vagueness in policies
 Inconsistency
 Insufficient Resources, information and personnel

B. Implementation Gap – Managing Public Policy In India
 Disposition of implementers. (Ex. Public interest)
 Lack of incentives to achievers. (Ex. Birth control in A.P)
 Ineffectual bureaucratic routines
 Interests that are not satisfied with policies of legislature, executive or
judiciary, work to shape policy to satisfy their own desires by maneuvering
to control its implementation
 Diversity and pluralistic nature of society amidst free press
 Conflicting demands made by different groups through a vast network of
communications
 Institutions involved range from all branches of govt., the executive,
legislature judiciary and a host of non-governmental institutions,
associations, interest groups, political parties, academic bodies and
individuals
 Inadequate research

8. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 8 of 10

 Origin of public policy – election manifestoes
 Ideological preferences of senior officials. This facet of official behavior is
neglected to research
 Interpretation of public interest. Administrators have enormous power to
use this concept. It is vaguely defined.
 Clash of ego between a politician and a bureaucrat
 Outlook differs – demoralizing bureaucracy. Bureaucrat blames political
leadership for introduction of irrational criteria in implementation.
 Urgency plays a less effect or neutral role of ego.
 The task of preserving a stable balance between political and career official
is a continuing source of difficulty in framing good policy.
 Bureaucracies are not prone to innovation but political elites. ( Ex. Bihar’s
basic education policy)


Observation on Policy Formulation and Implementation
1. Govt.’s in developing countries often formulate broad sweeping policies
2. In western (developed countries) policies tend to be incremental. But, in
developing countries they are ambitious, sweeping, designed to bring
about development and social reform, creating new pattern of actions and
institutions, in the process generating tensions.
3. There is more politics in formation and more administration in execution
of it.
4. Overlapping policy decisions
5. Lack of knowledge among Bureaucrats & Politicians
6. Lack of quality research
7. Play-it-safe role
8. Neutrality between best and worst (bureaucracy)
9. Indian bureaucracy has been politicized and exercised more powers in
reality than the law permitted.
10. National planning commission – predominant
11. Planning cells in key ministries
12. P.M constitutes number of committees to seek advice. (Ex. Economic
policy advisory committee-most influential)
13. Indian political parties tend to research at the time of elections
14. Bureaucrats play a major role in definition, development and
implementation of policy.

9. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 9 of 10

1. EVALUATION OF PUBLIC POLICY

A. Feedback
 Senior officials have some margin both on advising and carrying out
policies
 They can evaluate policies as
1. Highly desirable / successful (Ex. Govt.’s claim of literacy rate in
few states of India)
2. Merely feasible
3. Ill-considered

B. Feed-forward: PDCA - (X) »– PDCA (Balanced)
***

Note: Cost Benefit Analysis of Policies
1. Many policies impose indirect / spillover costs on society
2. Lack of coordination between departments leads to additional costs
3. Cost of delay – inflation cost
4. Poor planning – lack of vision. (Ex. Widening roads in urban areas)

Conclusion
 What is needed?
1. Accurate diagnosis of the present situation and possible trends
2. Clear definition of the objectives of state policy
3. Set possible alternative courses of action with an estimate of their costs and
benefits
4. Improve knowledge and information base
5. Improve acquisition and integration of knowledge and information
6. Development of personnel involved in policy-making
7. Incentive to achievers
8. Adequate research and follow of Kaizen principle
9. Carrying out policies whole-heartedly
10. Vision beyond horizon
11. Empower younger generation
12. Increase dynamism and adaptability levels
13. Be more pro-active, less reactive and never inactive

10. Dr. L. Mothilal, Pondicherry University, India, Jan-2016 – [email protected]
Page 10 of 10

 “ Public policy does not solve all problems”

 “ All citizens receive the benefits of public policy and pay the costs”

 “Hope is the source of life.” So, let us work whole-heartedly and proactively for good
and sustainable public policy.