Chapter 5: The Social Context of Public Policy

VALUES: The fundamental and enduring beliefs about the most desirable conditions and purposes of human life.

1. Values involve subjective judgments by individuals that lead to conflicts both within and among people.

2. Values in a market system are resolved through the relative prices that reflect what persons think are most worthwhile. What about the market for drugs?

3. Collective decisions are made that contribute to the enhancement of the society's welfare. Social change occurs when homogeneous values break down and large segments of society begin to express so-called nontraditional values.

Classification of Values:

1. Extensiveness refers to proportion of population that manifest the belief.

2. Duration refers to the persistency in the belief.

3. Intensity relates to actions in response to belief or threats to the belief.

4. Prestige refers to the cultural esteem of the barriers of the belief.

Value Systems:

1. Theoretic. Knowledge for knowledge sake.

2. Economic. Value as determined in the exchange process.

3. Aesthetic. The beauty contributed.

4. Social. A basis for relationships and affirmation of one's existence.

5. Political. The desire to influence through power.

6. Religious. Pursuit of teachings held by religious system.

7. Ethical. Desire to do the right thing.

Forces Influencing Values:

1. Technology. Automobile stimulates freedom and adventure of travel.

2. Information. Knowledge of benefits and costs of actions (smoking)

3. Demographic changes. Concern over health care.

4. Education. Exposure to broader dimensions of life.

5. Institutions. Family and religion transmit among generations.

6. Affluence. Desire for the good life, "keeping up with the Jones."

Values and Social Change:

1. Group dissatisfaction. Civil rights, women's liberation, consumer movement, environmental movement, gay rights, etc.

2. Dramatic events. Watergate increased concern for ethical standards. Insider trading on Wall Street. Exposure by the media to persons and events.

3. Strategies to affect social change more widely understood, from demonstrations to legal procedures.

4. Emergence of strong leadership. Martin Luther King. Is leadership improving? What can we learn from negative characteristics of leaders?

IDEOLOGY: Shared set of beliefs that are representative of a group or entire society.

1. Purpose of ideology is to identify and support roles and relationships for individuals in society.

2. Ideologies simplify and cut through the complexities and ambiguity of the real world. But they are more than theoretical, they are a simplifying description. Example, the free enterprise system.

3. Free enterprise refers to primary reliance upon the market system to provide for the allocation of goods and services. It is justified because it allows for the expression of individual preferences, relies upon property rights as a guarantee of individual freedom, and depends upon the impersonal forces of competition to provide rewards to society.

4. We think of ourselves as basically a free enterprise society with public policy having a legitimate role only in correcting deficiencies in the system. Public ideologies impinge on public policy and provide a blueprint for collective choice that leads to acceptable actions consistent with society's belief system.

5. Ideologies may lag behind current developments in an era of rapid social change.

SOCIAL-POLITICAL STRUCTURE: Establishing a social problem as part of the agenda of the policymaking system. There are several models of the social-political process.

1. The Power-Elite Model: There are three classes; the ruling elite (establishment), the middle class (silent majority), and the lower class that relate through a vertical hierarchy. Power and decisions are made by the ruling elite that establishes the public policy agenda as a reflection of its values and ideologies.

2. The Pluralist Model: Society consists of groups which, to varying degrees, influence the public policy process. Organized groups share common attitudes and values with regard to particular issues (abortion rights) and feed their demands into the public policy process. Groups perform symbolic functions, ideological functions, economic functions, and information and instructional functions.

Groups may be classified as economic interest groups, solidarity groups, public interest groups, and special interest groups. They use media focus, boycotts,

demonstrations, coalitions with other groups, litigation, and lobbying to affect the public agenda. A pluralist origin is, in theory, grass roots oriented with diffused power. but pluralist groups often become dominated by their leadership. Competing interests among pluralist groups may lead to fragmented policy decisions.

Congress itself is fragmented and subject to grass-roots lobbying by interest groups.

Many decisions are made "behind closed doors" effectively removed from public control.

These two models are extremes and both in fact operate on the social political structure to affect decisions. In general, values and ideology operate through both the establishment and pluralist groups to affect public policy. (Figure 6.1)

VALUES ARE THE FOUNDATION OF THE PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS

1. Values give us purpose or goals.

2. A person without purpose or the confidence to pursue that purpose has consigned him or her self to a life of frustration and mediocrity.

3. What do you value in life and how do you go about achieving them? Can they be achieved individually and can they be shared collectively? Social values can be enhanced when shared collectively.

4. How do we resolve conflicts of values (both within and among individuals)?

a. The market process?

b. The political process?

5. How broad is our value system? Can we evoke our value system on others and benefit society as a whole? Smoking controversy. Breast implants. What about legalizing drugs?

CLASSIFICATION OF VALUES: FORCES THAT ALLOW US TO PRIORITIZE

1. Extensive. Breath of shared beliefs.

2. Duration. Are persistent beliefs a reflection of higher priorities?

3. Intensity. Depth of actions in response to belief or threats to beliefs.

4. Prestige. Cultural esteem of the barriers of the belief.

Can you priorities your values? What is most important? What do you spend you voluntary time on? What do you think about when you dream? How do you see yourself in terms of cultural self-esteem?

VALUE SYSTEMS:

1. Is there a conflict between economic and social value systems?

2. Can wealth affirm our existence and assure our social relationships?

3. Can we pursue wealth and always do the right thing ethically?

4. Do we ever value something aesthetically as opposed to its intrinsic value?

5. What makes something or someone valuable?

FORCES INFLUENCING VALUES:

1. Is technological change disruptive of our value system?

2. What about the effect of information? What we don't know can't hurt us?

3. Are their basic social concerns due to the aging of our population that change our values?

4. What about the role of education and institutions such as the family and church?

5. What about peer pressures when family values disappear?

6. Is the narcissistic age over or is materialism still dominating our value systems?

7. Do we have the luxury to fulfill more than our basic needs?

VALUES AND SOCIAL CHANGE: How can we transmit our values so as to affect society?

1. Can shared group dissatisfaction affect social change? Civil rights, women's rights, consumer movement, environmental movement, gay rights, pro-choice, etc.

2. How have dramatic events, like Watergate, affected social values? Is the O.J. trial a dramatic event that bring about social change?

3. What is the effectiveness of boycotts, demonstrations, litigation, and the terrorism?

4. Is the emergence of strong leadership a prerequisite for social change? Martin Luther King, Newt?

IDEOLOGY

1. What is the purpose of ideology?

2. Is this analogous to an economic model applied to social complexities?

3. What has been the role of "free enterprise" as an ideology when, in fact, it does not exist?

4. Can the ideology of free enterprise help legitimize government regulation or enforcement?

(AT&T restructuring?)

5. When can ideologies lag behind current developments?

SOCIAL-POLITICAL STRUCTURE

1. What two models explain the extremes in determining the agenda for public policy issues?

2. What are the basic tenants of the power-elite model?

3. Is America a pluralistic society or does it depend upon the historical period examined?

4. Are competitive interests in a pluralistic society a reason for the apparent fragmented policy decisions demonstrated by our Congress?

5. What is the "iron triangle" and the belief that many public decisions are made behind closed doors?

6. Can the establishment and pluralist groups coexist to make viable public policy? Why all the confusion coming out of Washington these days?

7. Will the increased complexities of today's society require major changes in the public policy process?