Tool Box Review
April 16, 2008
CA governance context (Orientation)
· Indicators of decline: infrastructure, education levels, deteriorating services, etc.
· Old v new CA discrepancy; lack of civic unity
o Voters v residents
o Salience of immigration issue
o Disconnect between needs and willingness to pay (who needs and who pays?)
· Low public approval/trust of state government
o General unwillingness to pay (to entrust government with tax dollars)
· Key governance mechanisms related to current circumstances
o 2/3 threshold for tax increases
o Direct democracy – reliance on initiative
§ Legislature more representative of the population
§ Initiative more representative of voting population
o Ballot box budgeting
§ Earmarked general fund
§ Tax and spending limits
o Term limits
o Non-competitive districts
o State control over local resources => disconnect between decision makers and impact of decisions
· Some results
o Structural deficits
o New ways to finance – not General Fund
o Reliance on budget gimmicks
o Hybrid democracy
§ Interaction between representative and direct democracy
o Complex civic engagement situation
§ Government dysfunction => public distrust, dislike of government => embrace direct democracy => more dysfunction
§ Direct democracy requires more active (if not engaged) citizenry
§ Young people turn to non-government forms of engagement
o Government increasingly unable to plan for/respond to social and economic problems
· Key aspects of governing culture
o Weak planning (including personnel management)
o Confused/multiple accountability
o No performance basis in budgeting
o Reform resistant
Part I: Defining the “Public” in Public Service
· Traditional Public Administration
o Rules, hierarchy, bureaucracy
o Accountability – for inputs, process
o Fixed mission
o Focus on implementation
o Public managers are technicians
· Reinvention/New Public Management
o Market principles – individual demands determine public good
§ Competition
§ Customer-driven
§ Results-oriented
§ Entrepreneurial
o Public managers as entrepreneurs with accountability for outcomes (wide latitude for means/process)
· New Public Service/Political Management
o Citizens are different from customers (collective definition of public good)
o Citizen involvement
o Public manager as seeker of public good – create public value
o Politics are inherent in management
o Public managers as strategists for the public good
§ expand/change mission if necessary
§ complex accountability
· Strategic triangle – for leading in a political context
o Manage out – find substantive value (is it valuable?)
o Manage up – get political support for mission (is it supportable?)
o Manage down – align organizational capacity with mission (can we deliver?)
· Accountability
o For process (fairness, open government)
§ Can there be too much openness? Too much concern about fairness?
§ Danger of process concerns interfering with performance
o For outcomes (performance)
§ Who chooses performance measures?
§ What about perverse incentives? (what gets measured gets valued)
§ Danger of obsession with metrics to detriment of public value
Part II: Political Environment of Policy Process
· Agendas – critical to get issue on agenda
o Why issues rise and fall
§ Focusing events; crises
§ Decline in regular indicators – a condition becomes a problem
§ Availability of solutions – (if none, can fall off agenda)
o Framing – strategy used to get/keep issue on agenda
· Strategic actors, policy entrepreneurs
· Political management
o Why it is important
§ Authority provided by a leader’s position is not enough
§ Need broad political support from overseers, interest groups, media, etc. in order to get legitimacy for mission and agenda
§ Need is greatest if seeking to innovate and where interagency coordination is important to carrying out mission and agenda
o Who is important to political management
§ Political superiors
§ Legislative overseers
§ Bureaucratic overseers
§ Staff who influence the above
§ Media
§ Interest groups
§ Courts
o Techniques of political management
§ Advocacy (for your own point of view)
§ Managing policy development (policy analysis and consultation to find best solution)
§ Negotiation (based on market paradigm – see Part I: people act as customers with fixed interests and bargain for the best outcome)
§ Public deliberation (based on citizen paradigm – see Part I: social learning occurs when citizens engage in public issues; government role includes providing environments in which this can occur)
§ Strategic communication/marketing – danger of manipulation but can help public leaders better understand what citizens value
o Key concepts of political management (that cut across the five techniques)
§ Framing
§ Timing (window of opportunity)
§ Understanding and managing interests (who’s involved and why?)
§ Policy analysis versus “ordinary knowledge”
· Survival tips from Ashworth
o Understand motivations of Legislators (claim credit)
o Always meet with the opposition – no downside to that
o Plan ahead carefully when dealing with the press – control the interview
o Learn from your boss – bad and good; always ask what would you do?
o Be strategic in moving your policy agenda
§ Get your superiors to support your position by figuring out what makes them look good
§ Stir up opposition to your current policies to give more support for your change agenda
§ Look for the right opportunity to take risks
Part III: Policy Design and Development
Steps in Policy Design
1. Define the problem
o This is key – revisit the definition
o Careful not to define the solution into the problem
o Be skeptical about causal claims, conventional wisdom
2. Assemble evidence – different from academic research
o People and documents – equally important
o Strategy of evidence collection – make best use of time and of limited access to important people
o Not a definitive search for intellectual enlightenment (academic research) but a timely search to help understand policy problems
o Less hustling of data, and more thinking
o Use analogies to similar programs
o Do not ignore those who disagree
3. Construct Alternatives
o
Think about how
the world works in the area you’re working in
o
Draw picture
o
Start with big
picture options
o
“let present
trends continue” as baseline alternative
4. Select
the Criteria
o
Effectiveness – will
it work in addressing the problem?
o
Cost-effective/efficient
use of taxpayer dollars
o
Equity – who
pays/who benefits
o
Affordability
o
Certainty/uncertainty
§
Can we predict
the consequences?
§
How much
uncertainty is there about outcomes?
§
Is it robust –
will it survive or work under different conditions
o
Implementation
§
Management
flexibility – accountability for what v
how
§
Can we actually
make this happen
§
Administrative
costs and demands
o
Political
feasibility
5. Project Outcomes
o
Hardest step, but
most important
o
Be realistic
(avoid temptation of optimism)
o
Use creative
methods - hard to apply science or
social science methods
§
Break even
estimates
§
Scenarios
§
2 x 2 matrix
§
Plusses/minuses
6. Confront Trade-Offs
o
Not likely that
any alternative dominates
o
Have to consider
values
7. Decide
8. Tell Your Story
o
Know your
audience
o
Tell them what
they need to know – not everything you learned in the process
o
“Taxi driver”
test
o
Use your writing
skills
Tools of Policy Design
·
Incentives
o
Positive and
negative
o
Market and
regulatory
o
Watch for
perverse incentives
·
Information
·
Standards
·
Financing
mechanisms
o
How funds or
benefits are distributed
o
Matching
requirements
o
Other?
·
Partnerships
·
Budgeting
o
Across-the board
v targeted decisions
o
Structural budget
deficit
o
One-time v
ongoing expenditures
o
Categorical programs
o
Budget politics –
quick fixes and smoke and mirror; overstate revenues/understate expenditures
·
Rule-making
·
Huge role in
policy making can be left to agencies via rule-making process
o
Role of public
input
Part IV: Organizational
Effectiveness, Leadership, and Policy Change
· Big leadership challenges
o Organizational and individual resistance
o Fear of change and loss
o Entrenched assumptions – single loop v double loop learning (the latter questions those assumptions)
· Leadership strategies
o Motivate with vision – keep on it and on it
o Communicate effectively – outside and inside the organization
o Understand the organizational culture
o Make changes at the appropriate pace
o
· Strategic planning
o A mission and vision that means something to insiders and outsiders
o SWOT analysis (internal strengths and weaknesses; external opportunities and threats)
o Use SWOT to establish priorities
§ Internal weaknesses that are exacerbated by external threats (biggest needs to do something)
§ Internal strengths that are bolstered by external opportunities (best opportunity to improve – low hanging fruit)
o No one textbook approach that works – must fit with organizational culture
o Plan must be used in decisions or it is useless and the organization’s budget IS the plan
· Strategic management
o The actual implementation of a strategic plan through:
§ Budgeting
§ Hiring
§ Information systems
§ Communications
§ Partnering
§ Evaluating – performance measurement
§ Etc.
o Strategic plan (or at least strategic thinking) is necessary but not sufficient part of strategic management