POLS7140

Public Policy and

Governance

Lecture 1: Introduction and Housekeeping

Instructor: Dr. Yiran LI

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Classroom Rules

• Please be on time
• Please turn off the mobile phone
• Please pay attention and be respectful
• Please be active
• Please be prepared
• Please handle class problem after the class

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Housekeeping

• Email: yiranli@hkbu.edu.hk
• Lecture: Thursday 6:30—9:20 pm
• Lecture room: AAB505
• Office: AAB1118
• Office hours:
• Thursday 3:00 pm-4:00 pm
• or by email appointment
Public + Policy = Public Policy?

•Policy
•Collective decision-making and/or decision-making for, or on
behalf of, a collectivity;
•Action intended to impose social/political purpose or control
upon events, developments, things … ;
•Steering, guidance, regulation, government, governance
(guardianship, stewardship, oversight & intervention);
•The stance adopted by a body or agency on an issue (a matter of
concern or interest to it/others);
•Conscious, strategic or purposeful action by those with (e.g.:
state) authority in the name of that authority.

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Who can make policy?
Q: What type of body or agency or actor can be said to make (or have)
policy?

A: If only states have policies, then all policy is public policy (and ‘public’ is
redundant); so can policy be made by non-state actors?

• Yes, why not? … If so, market actors/businesses have policy too;

• … So, too, charities and voluntary sector organisations;

• Indeed, almost any collective body or group which might wish to take
a stance on some issue or question;

• … And they might be (made) publicly accountable through their

policies – e.g.: a clothing brand’s stance on the use of sweatshops in
the supply chain (note the role of law here).

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What is policy?
• Policy – a pattern of decisions, informed by sets of ideas (traditions,
knowledge, understanding of the context, etc.) designed to bring about
strategically a set of outcomes consistent with an interest, identity or set
of values (the ‘utility’ of the group/body in question);

• It involves decision-making (choice) and strategy and is typically end- or

goal-oriented;

• More simply, policy is strategic action intended to (help) achieve a utility

or (perceived) good in a context in which the good might not otherwise
arise;

• Policy, then, implies intervention by a (collective) actor in a context in

which that action might bring about a desired outcome.

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What is policy? Implications

• There is nothing innately public about this (unless we decide that only
significant actors deserve the label ‘policy’);

• Individuals could be seen to have policy, but generally they don’t need a
formal decision-making process in order to decide how to act;

• Policy is (generally) the product of a conscious and political decision-

making process in the body, agency, group or institution in question …
and it is (in some sense) collectively binding (even if temporarily) on the
body, agency etc. .

All very good, but what about public policy …?

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What is the “public” in public policy?
• Public

• The public is ‘us’; but it is worth remembering that for every ‘us’ there is
also a ‘them’ (the cui bono question);

• The ‘public’ is typically here synonymous with ‘the people’, ‘citizens’ (of
a particular political community, space or jurisdiction);

• The ‘public’ is also counter-posed to the ‘private’ – public is non-private

… here ‘private’ can mean various things:
- sectional/individual interests
- market actors (motivated by profit cf. public interest)
- possibly, partisan interests.

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Public + Policy = Public Policy?

• Policy might be ‘public’ policy in two different ways:

• - the actor can be ‘public’;
• - the interest or good served can be ‘public’;

• In the former, PP is policy made by a public actor or authority; in the

latter, PP is public good provision; there is no reason why they should be
linked [the basis of a 2 x 2 table … next slide].

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Public + Policy = Public Policy?

Q. So why do we think of them as linked?

A. Because the legitimacy of the state/government typically rests on

claims to public goods delivery.

• Hardly guaranteed:
• state failure to deliver public goods (e.g.: poor bank regulation);
• private actors can provide public goods (e.g.: Berlin Phil plays a public
concert; SpaceX).

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 public actor
public good ‘public policy’ – state
acting in public interest: –
regulation; health
provision; defense;
welfare; international
security; law, (health care,
education)
private good (Health, education),
postal services, public
housing
private actor
altruism; charity; protest
and collective action;
‘public interest’ journalism;
lobbying; corporate
welfare; philanthropy
✗
profit-maximising
behaviour; self-interested
behaviour; ‘exit’ threat of
mobile investor; investment
strike; lobbying; advertising;
tax avoidance; monopolistic
behaviour
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 public actor grey area private actor

public
good

grey area

sectional/
A
private
good

A – is the good public or private, or both? Few PPs are good for
all , and all are better for some than others … “good for ‘us’
because good for profits” etc. – labour market deregulation,
austerity, low/high interest rates, tax concessions to mobile
investors etc., bank bailouts. 12
 public actor grey area private actor

public
good

A B
grey area

sectional/
private
good

B – When do private actors deliver public goods? A fine line here –

does the profit motive deliver value for money, choice etc. or
exploitation, environmental degradation and financial instability
through risk-taking? Philanthropists think they do good, but … Public
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‘good’ is constructed. Depends on unanticipated effects too
 public actor grey area private actor

C
public
good

A B
grey area

sectional/
private
good

C – the boundary between public & private has always been blurred and is
more blurred then ever – are charities public or private? What about
Quangos, PPPs, independent CBs, private contractors in the public sector,
market and quasi-market mechanisms? What about credit rating agencies
and the IMF, the OECD etc,? All involved in governance – and governance is
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public policy?
 public actor grey area private actor

C
public
good

A B
grey area

D
sectional/
private
good

D – in the provision of non-public goods, the boundary between private and public
actors is no less porous and some of the same actors feature again (credit rating
agencies – are they public or private, do they provide public or private goods?). Is
an exhibition one pays to enter in a public museum taking place in a public or a
private space? Does a private orchestra become a public actor when it gives a free
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concert? Does paying to see a doctor make her less of a public actor?
Implications and Problems
• I1: No particularly good reason for confining the realm of PP to
the provision of public goods by public actors (PP1);

• I2: As long as we are clear who is providing what, PP analysis

should include private provision of public goods (PP2) and
public provision of private goods (PP3);

• I3: Good to think of A, B & C (possibly D too) as areas of

ambiguity and as part of the terrain of public policy analysis;

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Implications and Problems
• P1: The 2x2 table may not help – public-private is perhaps best
seen as a continuum;

• P2: Danger of conflating claims to provide public goods for the

reality of so doing (rhetoric or discourse vs. reality);

• P3: Focuses on what actors do – what they fail (or choose not)
to do may be just as important (‘non decision-making’) –
evasion, continuity, conscious and unconscious neglect (failure
to address tax evasion etc.).

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Public Policy and the State
• Most of what we study is provision of public goods, predominantly by
the state (or ‘public’ bodies);

• Public policy requires the capacity to determine/discern the public

interest and the authority/legitimacy to act upon it in a binding way;

• That authority is typically the state (even where private actors are
charged with the delivery of the public interest – e.g.: private-run prison
to incarcerate those convicted by the state);

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Public Policy and the State
• PP, then, not “what governments do” (Cairney 2012: 5), but what states
and state-sanctioned personnel do (and don’t do too);

• The field of PP broader than just what governments do (not just the
legislation but how it is put into practice, the discretion it allows etc. –
e.g.: immigration policy).

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Public Policy and Legislation
• So, PP is not just legislation/law;

• PP also exists in norms, conventions, soft rules, guidance, training,

briefings, socialisation, precedent and, indeed, discretion;

• So: (i) not all PP involves law; (ii) PP is never reducible to legislation
alone – interpretation and discretion are key; (iii) PP is typically more
fluid than law – implementation may change without the law changing;

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Public Policy and Legislation
• Yet law is crucial to PP delivery – the more a PP requires the compliance
of others, the more likely it is to take legal form (e.g.: policy on littering –
needs sanctions and surveillance);

• Legal sanction part of a more general category of PP that seeks to

modify behaviour through incentives – others include: tax
concessions/allowances, sanctions, grants, tax penalties.

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Public Policy and State Capacity
• PP typically requires a state;
• … and that state requires certain capacities if PP is to be credible and
effective;
• States can lack requisite capacities (e.g.: to prevent littering) and/or may
choose not to acquire them (e.g.: to reduce carbon emissions to
sustainable levels through energy rationing);
• E.g.: If the state is to regulate the banking sector it needs to be able to
monitor, surveil, gather information and intervene – it needs a complex
administrative capacity;
• In other words, a bureaucracy and a civil service populated by civil
servants/fonctionnaires (agents of the state charged with public good
provision an/or things which might facilitate that).

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Why do we need public policy in the first
place?
• Welfare economics tradition (Hicks & Kaldor): public goods don’t provide
themselves – we need a public authority (whether a benign demagogue
or a democratically legitimate one);

• Why? Markets can’t regulate themselves … the self-interested and

competitive behaviour of firms (and other entities exhibiting a similar
logic), though individually rational, is collectively irrational;

• Thus, market actors have collective action problems and market

rationality leads to a series of negative externalities (unintended
consequences) – ‘tragedy of the commons’ (Hardin) etc.;

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Why do we need public policy in the first
place?
• To respond to such market failures we need a state as
regulator – the ‘ideal collective capitalist’ (Engels; Hirsch; Offe);

• Market failures: monopolies and cartels; unfair competition;

wage suppression; resource depletion; pollution; global
warming; exploitation; risk-taking, herding and financial
instability.

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Why do we need public policy? Not just
regulation
• Not just a question of regulation (the prevention of market failure);

• There is a more positive argument too – private/market actors typically fail to

provide (or under-supply) public goods which can be more efficiently & effectively
provided by a collective agency;

• These come in two kinds: (i) those on which they rely (and from which they benefit);
(ii) those on which we rely (and from which they might benefit). The former markets
tend to under-supply or supply inefficiently; the latter they tend not to supply at all;

• Examples of (i): protection of property, defence, transport infrastructure; examples

of (ii): welfare of workers, cultural infrastructure (museums, concert halls, libraries),
clean beaches, biodiversity, security/policing;

• Hence the need for a state funded through taxation.

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What public policy need this state provide?
•A useful Q, since it helps us start to characterise public policy:

1. Regulation: to correct (and/or anticipate/prevent) market/private failure –

arguably the more public good provision relies on private actors, the more
regulation is required (not often appreciated). Implies: oversight, information,
access, surveillance, discretion and capacity for intervention;

2. Law-making, rule-setting and enforcement: the imposition through legislation of

collectively-binding rules. Requires: research and administrative capacity,
legislative and executive capacity, implementation and enforcement
agencies/personnel;

3. Defense & security: market exchange (and much else) best conducted in a secure
and stable environment in which property rights are defended. Requires:
legitimacy and sovereignty, a monopoly of the capacity for violence (Weber),
bureaucracy.

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What public policy need this state provide?
4. Infrastructure: the provision of public goods in the form of transportation
systems and networks, information management, dissemination and exchange
systems (from broadband to radio), supply/distribution networks for energy and
raw materials, and public amenities/utilities (libraries, museums, swimming
pools, bus stops, parliaments, voting booths, town halls etc.) – and the capacity
for the maintenance of all of this (including risk assessment and prevention
strategies, flood and emergency planning and defence);

5. Distribution/redistribution: The Q here is ‘cui bono’ – who benefits? All PP has

distributional consequences – some intended (rewarding the ‘good’, penalising
the ‘bad’); policy that seeks to correct unjust outcomes of other policies/systems
might be seen as re-distributive (e.g.: legislation to prevent workplace
discrimination; or compensation to workers for unemployment; or paid
maternity/paternity leave) … Crucially, all PP has distributive effects (for which PP
makers might be held responsible).

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Summary
• If policy is the making and taking of collective decisions for a group or collectivity,
then public policy is the making and taking of such decisions either in the name of
the public or by authoritative public bodies (such the state) or both;

• There is no a priori reason why private actors can’t make public policy and public
policies typically provide a combination of public and more sectional benefits or
goods;

• We should be wary of (all) claims to discern the public good and aware that all PP
has distributional consequences (the boundaries between public and private goods
and between public and private actors are porous);

• PP typically requires a state and such a state needs capacities – PP is less what
governments do than what states and state personnel do.

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Summary
• It is not difficult to derive the need for PP (and for the state as a PP
provider) in market-based societies like those in which we live;

• Anticipated market failure necessitates a regulator;

• And the inefficiency and/or unwillingness of market actors to provide

collective public goods implies the need not just for corrective regulation
but positive public good provision by a state or state-like body funded
through taxation;

• Public policy is likely to include the following: (i) regulation; (ii) law-making
and enforcement; (iii) defence and security; (iv) the provision and
maintenance of infrastructure; and (v) distributive/redistributive policies.

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What is public policy making?

• Technicalities of policymaking
determining costs and benefits
optimizing policy programs
reviewing policy outcomes.

• Main concern over the cost-

effective of policies, programs

• Program evaluation to ensure

that expected impact is
actualized, keeping track of
implementation.

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Politics of policy making
• What problems should receive government and legislative attention?
How to advocate for it?
• How should a problem be defined? Framing issue nature and identifying
the causes and solutions.
• What makes bureaucrats complaint? How to exert control over
administrator?
• How to engage the public effectively?
• How to organize coordination when there are different preferences and
interests in community?

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Content: Public Policy

Date Topic Key Question

Topic 2 Coordination How to make people work together?
Topic 3 Agenda setting How to choose between problems for
policy action?
Topic 4 Bureaucratic oversight How to monitor bureaucratic
behavior?
Topic 5 Information overload How to process information in
government efficiently?
Topic 6 Policy dynamics How to understand policy change and
diffusion?
Topic 7 Policy analysis How to implement and evaluation
policy?
Topic 8 Policy entrepreneurship How to promote entrepreneurship in
public policy?
Content: Good Governance
Date Topic Key Question
Topic 9 Smart city transformation How to manage smart city changes?

Topic 10 Crisis response How to respond to crises?

Topic 11 Environment How to understand environment

governance?

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 Class Structure

20 minutes of student
presentations and 10
minutes discussion on student presentations
literature explore academic
applications related to
topic

1 hour and 10 minutes 1 hour group discussion

lecture with break

Lecture: introduces group discussion

topic in focus of responds to problem of
the week, more the week, as shown in
theoretical syllabus

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Assessment
Class Participation and Discussion….………....…………………………20%
Two Group Presentations ……...……………...…………………………...20%
Policy Brief ……………………………….…...……………………………...…..20%
Individual Paper………………..…………………………………..………..……40%

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 Logistics of Group Discussion

1. present your case, followed by other 3. put together a short

presenters. report and upload to
Moodle
presentation: on a real-world case that
speaks to the topic in focus for the week
presenter report: a brief reflection (less than
300 words in bullet points) on the feedback
to your presentation + names of students
who gave the best/most useful feedback
2. collect feedback on your presentation from
groups (about 10 mins each)
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Presentation on Literature and Discussion

• Select two papers each topic to present.

• 20 minutes presentation and 20 minutes discussion
• The presenters need to prepare discussion questions to lead
the discussion.

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Questions?

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