Thanks to one of the readers of this column for asking me "how exactly do governments make decisions?" It's a great question and, of course, the answer is not straightforward. I suspect this topic will be the subject of more than one column.
I have said before that political parties aggregate interests and suggest policy approaches that fit with their view about the role of government in determining public goods. But what happens when a political party becomes government? At this point, they must explain what they want to accomplish to an already existing state bureaucracy of ministries responsible for particular areas of public policy. Ministers are generally not experts in the field of public policy for which the ministry is responsible. This is because the ministry is staffed with people who have expertise in that particular area. The minister, who is a member of Cabinet, is responsible for communicating what the government wants to see as policy outcomes to the public servants as well as for reporting what the ministry is rolling out as policy changes.
But how does a decision actually get made? Let me explain one potential way in which policy is formed. John Kingdon's model of policy making is somewhat of a classic in political science. While there are many more contemporary models, Kingdon's model is a good place to start because it allows us to look at the traditional institutions that are involved in decision making. Kingdon's says that you need three things to happen in order for policy to emerge: policy, politics and a problem.
First, there needs to be a problem that needs solving. There may be all kinds of problems that exist in every area of public policy and explanations for how policy is made may differ depending on the type of policy in question. For our purposes here I am going to focus on education and its connection to the larger childcare debate which resulted in a move toward all-day kindergarten. The problem might be understood in the community-at-large as one that pits those who believe that the state should assist in providing childcare that incorporates early childhood education and those people who believe that childcare is an individual responsibility. As the debate makes its way into the political world a government may decide to look at the issue to see the pros and the cons of becoming involved in this policy area.
When a problem is identified, Kingdon says there needs to be a policy that exists that can deal with the problem. So civil servants need to have a series of policy options available to respond to the particular problem. Here is where experts are drawn in and committees are struck to look at particular problems and potential solutions. In the case of childcare, the policy options are wide-ranging. Researchers, policy analysts and lobbyists offer advice that is supposed to be based on evidence. In this case, the importance of early childhood education has been evidenced and thus could become the basis for extending the kindergarten day.
Having a range of policy solutions does not always mean that the best policy is chosen. Policy ideas not only deal with the problem but they also must solve the problem from the perspective, or ideology, of the governing party. For example, the best option may require significant investment by the state and the governing party may be ideologically opposed to making such an investment. Moreover, the policy idea has to be a "winning idea." In other words, the governing party has to believe that the policy option will have some traction politically. The government tests ideas like all-day kindergarten to see if it has political traction; they have to decide if more people will be in favour of the policy than those you are, some vehemently, opposed to an idea.
This leads to Kingdon's final element which he calls the political stream. There must be a political motivation for a policy change. It must satisfy some need that the electorate cares about. Policy only emerges when governments have the political will.
Kingdon's model emphasizes traditional institutions of government as the central actors in the policy process: ministers and bureaucrats. While these institutional actors are important, in today's world policy decisions are likely to include non-state actors. Next week I will look at how these new actors have become part of the decision-making process.
