PA 460
Professor Wilkins
Exam 1
Part 1: Terms
Efficiency: Efficiency is a term that refers to the measuring of how well a public policy really works. Efficiency takes into consideration several factors such as cost, results, impact, feedback and puts it all together to measure the overall success of a public policy under an efficient point of view. While it is true that efficiency more often than not is represented by a ratio between results and costs, it could be argued that other factors play a role in it. Ultimately, high efficiency is very hard to achieve even when measuring some of the best policies, but what is even harder is determining a cost for a specific policy. Therefore, efficiency is often measured by analyzing procedural efficiency instead which compares what is produced to its cost.
Implementation: Implementation is a term that refers to putting public policies into effect in order to achieve goals set for those policies. However, in reality implementation is hard to achieve as there are so many different ways to stop a public policy from being adopted or carried out. In fact, one thing is to have a public policy approved by law, but even then its implementation is not guaranteed which means administrators who have their public policies implemented should consider themselves lucky. An example of implementation would be the actual actions required to get a public policy started, whatever those may be. Coming up with public programs is one thing, but its implementation is what makes the program/policy work and have any impact on society.
Iron Triangle: Iron Triangle is an expression used to define the interaction between public and private sectors in the United States in the absence of corruption. This term has been used to identify a symbiotic relationship among interest groups, committees, subcommittees and administrative agencies involved in public policies. These three independent parts have relied on each other for support and due to their collaboration, the “iron triangle”, have managed to avoid corruption and other interferences. However, the growing interactions between citizens and the government has somehow made iron triangles less necessary and has allowed private sectors to become more involves in the public sector and its issues. An example of iron triangle would be how agencies that need financial support use interest groups to obtain it and, inversely, interest groups who want access to the Congress use their financial power to get access to administrative agencies who serve their members.
Public Policy: Public policy is the sum of all government activities that have an impact on the lives of citizens. Public policies can be pursued either directly or through public agencies and are meant to solve problems that affect our population. There are three different levels of public policy. First, the policy choices level, which is nothing more than decisions made by politicians, administrators or other people with enough authority to use public power to change things in the lives of citizens. What comes from this level is a policy that can be used and this constitutes the second public policy level: the policy output level. This level is basically taking the policies made in the first level and putting them into action. An example of this could be the government spending money or funding a certain public service. Last, but not least, we have policy impact, the third level of public policy. This level focuses on analyzing the effects public policies have on the population. Of course, the impact public policies have on society and citizens can be greatly influenced by other factors, but this level concentrates on identifying whether the overall policy was a success or a failure.

Moral Suasion
Moral suasion is a term that refers to a way the Government attempts to influence society when all other instruments of policy fail. The government and most officials who are well-known around the
United States have succeeded in using moral suasion several times as they have the support of the public and can therefore accuse anyone who is opposing them of being unpatriotic and harmful to society. Examples of moral suasion have been well documented over the years: Vietnam War,
Watergate, Hurricane Katrina and the weak, inadequate response to it. Most Presidents have used moral suasion at one point in their presidencies: J.F. Kennedy used it to jawbone steel industry officials, Bush for his wars and so on.
Part 2: Essays
Essay #1
Public policy is the sum of all governments activities that have an impact on citizens. These programs can be applied directly or through public agencies and affect people’s lives in many ways. Public policy has three levels: the choices level, where policies are made, the output level where policies are applied and the impact level where policies are evaluated in terms of results achieved and overall performance. However, several other aspects of public policy require some more explanation. In fact, there are several instruments the Government can use to influence the lives of citizens and attempt to change things in society. First, there is law. Law is a very unique and powerful instrument possessed by the Government as it is probably the most influential instrument and no other public actors can use it. Law is used to produce the most important output of all: rights. Such laws determine the position of people in society and are fundamental as a foundation for other outputs and instruments. People obey laws every day without even thinking about it. The simple proposition of laws is very powerful itself, but the fact we have police forces and other law enforcing authorities out there monitoring citizens makes obedience to laws much more likely. Second, the US uses laws to regulate economic problems and social conditions more than any other country- Third, laws can be helpful as well as they can used to create burdens that people have to endure. Some laws favor one group of citizens and penalize another, but this is how most laws are: there will always be someone disagreeing with them.
Two other instruments used in public policy are services and money. Services include programs that the Government freely provides to its citizens such as education, defense and recreation. Education is by far the most used, but defense employs 3 million people as well. These services are often provided to the less capable, such as children or handicapped people. Although these services tend to be very beneficial, there are people who argue against them or some of them as they prioritize the national debt over some services that do not have an impact on their lives. On the other hand, money is provided to citizens, organization and other governments by our government. For whatever reason it may be, ranging from mortgages to veterans programs to Social Security or loans given to other poor governments, money is always being given away by the American government and this has caused countless issues within our society as to whether it is really worth it to give so much money to so many different people and organizations.
However, the Government does not just give, it also takes away and the most common form in which it takes money from citizens is by taxing them. Taxes are an instrument used by the Government to attempt to break even every year. Depending on which administration is in charge taxes have raised, decreased, been created or been canceled, but they never disappeared altogether. In fact, taxing people is a powerful instrument for the Government that is enforced by Law and by the last instrument of public policy: moral suasion. Moral suasion is the power to convince, and in some cases manipulate people’s actions and beliefs in order to fit a specific agenda the Government or powerful officials have in mind. Moral suasion has worked both in favor and against the citizens, but it is a powerful instrument used by the people with power to do things their way. Presidents tend to have moral suasion over citizens because they are widely recognized and supported and when most American citizens support somebody’s ideas, it is an extremely difficult task to persuade the majority of otherwise.
In conclusion, all these instruments of policy making are important in different ways, but I believe the most important ones are law and money for the simple reason that law forces people to do things or not do things out of fear and is largely enforced by the police. On the other hand, money is what makes most public policies a reality in the first place and without the flow of money the economy would be dead and so would be our public policies. Even though there are many issues to be discussed about both these instruments their importance when it comes to public policies is undeniable.

Essay #2
Policymaking is an extremely complex process involving a wide range of actors and ideas. The institutions and processes of policy making help to channel the demands of groups into effective action and enable the government to make decisions when faced with seriously difficult demands.
Stated simply, policy formulation involves the process of deciding how we will meet the policy challenges that constitute the public agenda. Depending on what kind of policy we are trying to formulate, different actors have more or less important roles in the formulating process. There are 4 main actors in the policy formulation process: public bureaucrats, think tanks, interest groups and members of Congress.
Public bureaucrats are federal, state and local authorities working in the context of public agencies. Think tanks are organizations that have a public agenda and have a role in public policies. Interest groups are individuals or groups of people who are looking for access to the Congress or administrative agencies and support public policies financially, providing Congress and agencies with what they need to implement their policies. Members of Congress are obviously connected to the formulation of public policies as they can be the ones to let them pass or deny their implementation, as well as make some changes if necessary.
That being said these actors interact with each other in many ways during the process itself. For example Congress members and administrative agencies that want to support their programs are provided with funds by interest groups who demand access to the Congress in an attempt to become more influential figures in society. Organizations (think tanks) and corporations have a saying in the formulating process as public policies can have a huge impact on their business and they do not wish to lose profit as a result of their implementation. All these actors play, to some extent, a role in the formulation process, but I believe some are more relevant than others.

In conclusion, I think Congress and public bureaucrats play a more important role in the formulation process. Even though, think tanks and interest groups are definitely influential I cannot help but think that Congress could stop a public policy from being implemented anytime and, at the same time public bureaucrats have the power to control and shape public policies within local, state and federal administration. For these reasons these two hold the most power in the formulating process and should be considered the main actors when it comes to public policies.