Types of Policies

Classification 1--Substantive and

Procedural Policies

Policies may be classified as substantive

or procedural.
Substantive policies: what government
is going to do (providing services; social
welfare; infrastructure)
Direct allocation of advantages and
disadvantages, benefits and costs.
 Types of Policies
Procedural policies: how something is going to be
done/who is going to take action.
Include laws providing creation of administrative
agencies - determining jurisdiction, specifying
processes and techniques to conduct programmes,
providing for judicial/other controls over operations of
these agencies. E.g. ----- requirement for an
environmental impact statement by agencies proposing
major actions affecting the environment
Procedural policies may have important substantive
consequences
Classification 2--Material and Symbolic
Policies
Material/symbolic -depend upon the kind of benefits
they allocate.
Material policies: provide tangible
resources/substantive power to their beneficiaries/
impose real disadvantages on those who are adversely
affected.
Legislation Prescribing minimum wage/appropriating
money for a public-housing programme/providing
income-support payments to farmers.
 Symbolic Policies
Symbolic policies: little real material impact on
people - do not deliver what they appear to
deliver/ allocate no tangible advantages and
disadvantages.
Appeal to peoples cherished values - peace,
patriotism, and social justice.
Occasionally a mostly symbolic policy may have
important consequences. Most policies neither
entirely symbolic nor wholly material. Symbolic
and material - poles of a continuum
 Types of Policies
Most policies range depends on how symbolic or material
they are in practice.
Ostensibly material - labeled by legislative language but
rendered essentially symbolic by administrative
action/legislature's failure to provide adequate funds for
implementation/ legislation on the books but little done to
enforce it.
May move from more symbolic to more material -
Material-symbolic typology especially useful when
analyzing effects of policy -
alerts to the important role of symbols in political
behavior.
 Classification 3: Policies Involving
Collective Goods
Involve the provision of collective (indivisible) goods/
private (divisible) goods.
Provision of collective goods- cannot be divided
One person's consumption of a collective good does
not deny it to others-
Eg. national defence, clean air, public safety, disease
control, and traffic control.
 Policies Involving Collective Goods
No effective way to provide it for exclusive benefit
and enjoyment etc
No way to calculate that some benefit more from it
than others. E.g defence
This provision - may involve regulation or
redistribution of funds, benefits may appear divisible
but goods not divisible
 Policies Involving Private Goods
Private goods can be divided into units
Restricted and exclude others
Available for purchase or for user fees
Available in the marketplace.
Ration cards/subsidies
Education/health care
 Policies Involving Private Goods
Social goods provided by government (garbage
collection, postal service, medical care, museums,
public housing, and national parks) have some
characteristics of private goods.
Whether provided by the government -a function
of political decisions influenced by tradition; notions
of the proper functions of government; desire of
users/beneficiaries to shift/distribute some costs.
Ideological groups strongly disagree about the range
of private goods that it is appropriate for government
to distribute.
 Classification 4

Divides policies into

Distributive - direct allocation of services or
benefits from government to certain segments
of the population subsidies/contracts
More widely distributed benefits greater
consensus on policies /more popular
 Classification 4

Distributive
Provide benefits to one or a few beneficiaries
(bail-outs to bankrupt companies),
Or provide benefits for vast numbers of persons
(agriculture support prices, tax benefits on
housing loans, free education)
Typically -use public funds to assist particular
groups, communities, or industries.
Beneficiaries usually do not compete directly with
one another
 Regulatory

Regulatory policies may feature

conflict/competition - one side seeking to
impose some sort of control -met by resistance
from the other side.
These conflicts are prominent - on morality
policy, economic regulation, and energy and
the environment.
 Regulatory
Impose constraints/ restrictions/ limitations on
the behavior of individuals and groups.
Reduce liberty of action/ discretion to act of
individuals or groups.
Clearly differ from distributive policies, which
increase the freedom/ discretion of the
persons/ groups affected.
 Regulatory
Some set up rules for the entire society,
criminal justice laws, speed limits- deals with
criminal behavior against persons and property.
Civil rights laws also regulate standards of
employment, public accommodation, and
housing for the entire society.
Social regulatory policies deal with such topics
as affirmative action, pornography, and
abortion, and involve the regulation of personal
behavior.
 Regulatory
Divided into Competitive and Protective
Other regulations are far more particular,
restricting who may enter the banking business or
imposing limits on bank loans. (Competitive
limits provision of goods and services to one/few
designated competitors spectrum sale )
Environmental laws restrict the kinds and
quantities of pollutants businesses may generate.
(Protective protects public from negative effects
of private activity.)
 Regulatory
Some regulatory policies set forth general rules
of behavior, directing that actions be taken or
commanding that others not be taken ---- are
enforced by actions brought in the courts
against violators.
Public-utility regulation by governments
involves detailed control of entry into the
business, standards of service, financial
practices, and rates charged by electric,
telephone, and other utility companies.
 Classification 4

Self-regulatory
similar to regulatory, except that persons/ groups
regulated possess considerable authority and
discretion to formulate and police the regulations
governing them.
Attorneys, physicians, engineers, and other
professions receive authority from government to
license practitioners, thus determining who may
and who may not practice the profession
 Classification 4
Redistributive policies
Involve deliberate efforts by the government to
shift the allocation of wealth, income, property, or
rights among broad classes or groups of the
population, higher and lower
class/castes/advantaged/disadvantaged.
Redistributive policies difficult to enact -involve
the reallocation of money, rights, or power. Those
who possess money/ power rarely yield willingly
- have ample means to resist
Redistribution politics becomes highly ideological
and highly partisan.