Public policies are, at once, the means for articulation of political
philosophies and processes, the conduits for conversion of political
and bureaucratic decisions into actions and the means by which the
electorate can assess government performance. Public policy
processes offer a means of achieving social and economic change and
they are a primary justification for the existence of governmental
systems. On these counts, identification of the elements of policy
processes and the ways they interact with each other is essential to
an understanding of the relationships between public policy decisions,
systems of democratic government and their connections with wider
society.
This thesis goes behind the facade of public policy outcomes and
analyses the processes involved in arriving at policy decisions.
Linkages are traced between political theories, the processes of
public policy decisions and final policy outcomes. This involves,
first, an examination and critique of liberal-democratic theories.
Second, there is detailed examination of pluralist democratic practice,
which is the prevailing political paradigm of modern western
liberal-democratic societies. The analysis finds substantial evidence
of gross distortions in the process relative to normative theories.
Plain causes are the institutionalisation of special interests to the
exclusion of wider public interests and inadequate accountability of
governments and bureaucracies for their actions.
Policy processes in pluralist systems are examined and it is concluded
that the social environment, institutional influences and factors which
affect the behaviour of institutions are key elements explaining public
policy decisions.
The capacity for pluralism to significantly influence policy outcomes
depends largely on the degree and nature of access to the public policy
process at various points.
In examining the role of government institutions in public policy
processes, it is argued that a clear distinction between the elected
legislature and the administrative bureaucracy is artificial and
misleading. Further, there is evidence that public service bureaucrats
can become captives of their particular client groups and, thus, less
accessible to the full range of relevant interests. These problems are
exacerbated by the two-party Westminster model of representative
democracy which tends to concentrate power in cabinet government,
resulting in a decline in the importance of parliament as a deliberative
and scrutinising bodies.
This dissertation develops the view that there are significant causal
links between institutional philosophies and values and the dominant
disciplines within institutions. It is also argued that growing
professionalism in bureaucracies and a tendency for functional divisions
of public policy to be in broad symmetry with the divisions of the
professions, tends to intensify the influence of particular professional
disciplines on related areas of public policy.
The critique of liberal-democratic theories and the related discussion
of factors affecting policy processes in a pluralist system are used to
identify the essential elements of public policy processes. It is
proposed that all policy processes contain the four elements of
pluralism, access, accountability and planning which are interactively
related. Differences in emphasis given to these elements in the policy
process explains the nature of individual policy decisions. Thus, the
normative policy process datum model provides both a static and dynamic
framework for analysing policy decisions.
In order to examine the theoretical arguments in an empirical context,
the policy processes of the Australian Federal Government, in the area
of industry assistance, are analysed. This policy arena contains all
the 'raw material' of pluralist processes and is, therefore, a fertile
area for analysis. Furthermore, operating within this policy arena is
the Industries Assistance Commission [IAC], a bureaucratic institution
which is quite unlike traditional administrative structures. The IAC
has, prima-facie, all of the features of the policy process datum model;
it operates in an open mode, it encourages a range of pluralistic inputs,
it has a highly professional planning function and, because its policy
advice is published, it encourages scrutiny and accountability of
itself, other actors in the bureaucracy and the elected government. The
IAC operates in a rational-comprehensive mode.
The analysis concludes that the IAC was established in part to be a
countervailing force to restore some balance in the industry policy
arena. In this it has been partly successful - the distributive policy
decisions of governments have come under much greater scrutiny than in
the past and other areas of the bureaucracy have been forced to operate
more frequently in a rational-comprehensive mode, rather than as
advocates of sectional interests.
The IAC has itself limited its range of objectives, however, and has
tended to become a computational organisation, isolating its core
economic [planning] technology from the interactive processes of the
policy process model, i.e. pluralism, access and accountability. By
protecting its essential philosophy in this way, the IAC runs the risk
of becoming less influential in the overall policy process.
Using the policy process model as a datum, and the empirical experience
of the IAC and the policy arena in which it operates, several options
for administrative reform are examined. A summary agenda for
administrative change is proposed which revolves around ways of achieving
balanced pluralistic inputs, a greater degree of access, better
bureaucratic and government accountability and ways of exploiting but
controlling technocratic planning expertise. Emphasis is placed on the
need to achieve enriched interactive flows between each of these key
elements. If these conditions can be met, it is proposed that a revised
and improved administrative bureaucracy will emerge.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218863 |
| Date | January 1986 |
| Creators | Croker, Keith L., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Administrative Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Keith L. Croker |
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