428 CHAPTER 14|ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY
intervention until the twentieth century. What causes a society to change its
assumptions about whether and how government should address social problems?
Sometimes there is a triggering event: the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy led to the passage of gun control legislation, the energy crisis of the early
1970s led to the fi rst comprehensive discussions of energy policy, and Hurricane
Katrina in 2005 led to a reexamination of our readiness for emergencies and our
social safety net. Sometimes redefi ning an issue can move the policy to the next
step of the process. For example, the estate tax has been part of our tax system
since 1917, but when Republican leaders in Congress redefi ned it as the “death
tax” in the late 1990s, it transformed the politics of the debate and made it a prob-
lem that needed a solution. After all, who could support a tax on dead people? (Of
course, dead people don’t pay taxes—the estate’s heirs do—but that nuance was lost
in the redefi nition of the problem.)
Recognizing and defi ning a problem is just the fi rst step; it still needs to come to
the attention of political leaders and get on the policy agenda. When conditions
are right, with the appropriate national political mood and participation from key
interest groups and government actors, an issue can reach the agenda.
Once the issue is on the active agenda, alternatives are proposed and debated,
and the fi nal version of the policy is formulated in Congress (if it is a bill) or the
executive branch (if it is an administrative action). Enactment involves either
(1) a roll call vote in the House and the Senate and then a signature by the presi-
dent, (2) a regulatory decision or administrative action by the bureaucracy, or
(3) unilateral action by the president (such as an executive order or agreement).
Many factors determine whether the policy is implemented successfully. First,
the problem has to be solvable and the policy must be clear and consistent in its
objectives. It wouldn’t make sense for Congress to pass a law telling the Department
of Health and Human Services to “eliminate poverty,” because such a law could not
indicate how to accomplish that broad goal. Second, the policy must be funded ade-
quately and administered by competent bureaucrats who have the required exper-
tise. Finally, external support from the public and relevant interest groups may be
critical to the policy’s success. For example, A ARP’s support is absolutely essential
for the success of any social policy that aff ects older Americans. Its support helped
pass the prescription drug benefi t that was added to Medicare in 2003 and compre-
hensive health care reform in 2010, and its opposition to the Catastrophic Coverage
Act forced Congress to repeal the program one year after it was passed.^4
Implementation of a policy is an ongoing process. To ensure that the desires of
Congress and the president are being followed, policy evaluation is a critical stage
of the process. (See Chapter 11 for a discussion of Congress’s and the president’s
attempts to control the bureaucracy.) Although policy evaluation has become
increasingly visible since passage of the Government Performance and Results
Act of 1993, which requires agencies to publish strategic plans and performance
measures, it is incredibly diffi cult to assess whether a government program is
achieving its aims.
Political scientist James Q. Wilson explains the diff erence in measuring success
in the private sector and the public sector—specifi cally, he compares McDonald’s
to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).^5 It is relatively easy to know whether
McDonald’s is doing a good job: simply compare the profi ts being generated to those
of the previous period. If profi ts are going up at a reasonable pace, the burger fl ippers
and fry cooks are doing their jobs. The DMV’s performance is much more diffi cult to
a s s e s s b e c a u s e t her e i s no si mple me a s u r e , s uch a s pr ofi t, to assess. Maybe you could
review the number of people ser ved per hour or the average time that people have to
wait to get their driver’s license. But that would ignore many other considerations,policy agenda The set of desired
policies that political leaders view
as their top priorities.