#policy process

In the world of family planning there are two options. One, you can teach planning through the lens of abstinence. Two, you can provide a comprehensive sexual education. 

In private schools across the country and most of the southern half of the country, abstinence only education is the solution. The tool these schools use to prevent teen pregnancy is abstinence. Though it might make sense on paper, the implementation shows that it is not quite working. Abstinence is 100% effective in preventing pregnancy, but that lies on the assumption that people want/choose to be abstinent. The country has spent billions to keep this form of planning in place, but fails in comparison to comprehensive sex education. 

Last week we discussed policy implementation. Often times policy implementation is discussed in terms of failure. This may be due in some part to the fact that the success of a policy is not often publicized. Failure can come from many things, the policy tools, political climate, or social reasons. Whatever the case, with failure comes learning. Institutions themselves do not learn like people and their learning cannot be conceptualized like a person’s. Instead, the learning can be attributed to the person at the top of an institution or agency. As discussed in a previous post there are many types of learning that we try to understand. These include instrumental policy learning, superstitious instrumental learning, social policy learning, and political learning. 

For the past 6 months I have worked with organizations across Laramie, Wyoming to host a Gubernatorial Debate on our campus. The main goal I had in mind was informing University students in hopes of boosting voting turnout. To maintain the goal of youth involvement, it was crucial that the questions came from students. Often times it feels like decisions made in Cheyenne are made without input from UW. The University of Wyoming is a public institution and policy created in Cheyenne can have lasting effects on our education. One question that focused on student involvement made the candidates way in on how their time in office would be different. All four candidate’s answers utilized the buzz word “transparency”. Transparency has been a key vocab word in our understanding of the policy process. 

Policy implementation cannot exist without learning from its successes and failures. There are three types of learning outlined in Thomas Birkland’s Policy Process. The one I will focus on is Political Learning, “learning about making more effective political arguments in policy debate” (Birkland, 2016, p. 348). Political learning takes into account the political climate of an issue and uses political strategy to make effective decisions. 

The Principle-Agent Problem was originally hypothesized outside the political realm, but has now been used in understanding the implementation process within public administration. There a two players that make up this theory, the principle and the agent. In terms of public administration the principle is the political leader and the agent is the street level bureaucrat. This problem occurs when, “The agent is empowered to make decisions or take actions in behalf of the principal, the problem occurs when the agents motivations do not align with the best interest of the principal” (POLS 2410). 

Output and outcomes are very different pieces of the policy process. Outcomes refer to the measurable things produced by an agency or organization. Outcomes are the results of input and outputs, they can be intended or unintended.  

Outputs in relation to women’s healthcare could be more preventive screenings/tests, access to contraceptives, or female focused sex/health education. 

Positive outcomes could be less final stage cancer diagnoses and less unwanted pregnancies.  

Negative outcomes could result from “efficiency” based healthcare providers. I will discuss this negative possibility in my next post.