The Political Process of Policymaking

A Pragmatic Approach to Public Policy

verfasst von: Philippe Zittoun

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buchreihe : Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Philippe Zittoun analyses the public policymaking process focusing on how governments relentlessly develop proposals to change public policy to address insoluble problems. Rather than considering this surprising Sisyphean effort as a lack of rationality, the author examines it as a political activity that produces order and stability.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Introduction: The Political Process of Policymaking

Abstract

Machiavelli’s advice to Lorenzo de’ Medici goes beyond the most conservative and traditional issues in political philosophy (Machiavelli, 2005)*. He does not restrict his reflections, unlike many authors who preceded and succeeded him, to the nature of Power or the forms that government must take. Nor does he indulge in what State or society should ideally be.

Philippe Zittoun

2. Creating Social Disorder: Constructing, Propagating and Policitising Social Problems

Abstract

Before we discuss solution-making processes, we would like to begin by addressing problem agenda setting. We focus on agenda setting not only for what we learn concerning the problems stage, but also for what is revealed with regard to the pragmatic approaches used by sociologists and political scientists to understand how problems emerge. For this reason, we have chosen to begin this first chapter by discussing John Dewey’s influential work on pragmatic approaches to problems, The Public and its Problems (1927), before engaging in a brief synthesis of pragmatic studies on problem construction and problem agenda setting.

Philippe Zittoun

3. Defining Solution: A Complex Bricolage to Solve Public Problems

Abstract

While problems have given rise to numerous studies that have focused on the construction and definitional activities driven by actors, solutions have often been seen as neutral tools requiring no specific definitional activity. Moreover, literature on public policy has employed the term “definition” exclusively to tackle the problem agenda setting process. Authors have generally used the term “formulation” with regard to solutions (Jones, 1970). As a consequence, “to formulate” a solution primarily refers to finding a solution by resolving a problem, rather than defining it. While the concept of “formulation” presupposes a single, unique, and non-debatable meaning, that of definition presupposes varied interpretations. Finally, while “defining” a problem means acknowledging that problems have political implications, “formulating” solutions seems to be more neutral.

Philippe Zittoun

4. Propagating Solution: Argumentative Strategies to Cement Coalitions

Abstract

Analysing language games in discourses “in action” makes it possible to understand how actors use discursive strategies to define policy solutions by assembling an instrument, problems, public policies, and/or values. Solution statements therefore take shape and meaning through the definitional activities we have previously described.

Philippe Zittoun

5. Policy Statements to Legitimise “Decision-Makers”

Abstract

In the previous chapters, we have seen that actors define solution proposals within statements that give them meaning and build coalitions in order to support them. While this process makes it possible to understand how actors come together to defend a common proposal, it is insufficient in explaining how a solution is imposed and ultimately transformed into a decision. Certain proposals supported by coalitions and possessing “solid” arguments thus stagnate continuously without turning into “decisions”. Others encounter conflict or opposition, which relegates them to the cemetery of proposals that never see the light of day.

Philippe Zittoun

6. Conclusion: How Public Policy Shapes Politics

Abstract

According to George Burdeau, politics is what love is to reproduction; a necessary enchantment that responds to an imperative, summoning neither sarcasm nor ridicule (Burdeau, 1979). In the path we have described, public policymaking appears as a necessary political activity which enchants the world by showing that social problems are soluble; that culprits will be punished; that public policies are in place; and that those in authority have the power to decide. Public policymaking thus proposes to restore order that problems, conflicts, and all sorts of disillusions have disordered. As Julien Freund explained, public policymaking is a political activity which reconciles the antinomial dialectics of order and disorder, agreement and conflict, enchantment and disillusionment.

Philippe Zittoun

Backmatter

Titel: The Political Process of Policymaking
verfasst von: Philippe Zittoun
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-34766-4
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46744-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347664