PUBLIC POLICY

HS 407

Dr. Soumi Roy Chowdhury

 INTRODUCTIONS

About me

My style of teaching

• Customized pace
• Open to feedback
• Appreciate active participation
• Learning effort as important as grades
 CL ASS LOGISTICS - DISCUSSION LEARNING READINGS
INTRODUCTORY SESSION OF SYLLABUS OUTCOMES

EVALUATION CLASS
DECORUM
DISCUSSION OF SYLLABUS
 SOME GROUND RULES

• No calls/messages/talking among yourselves/laptop use (unless asked or

specified). Any signs of non-participation may bring disciplinary actions

• No late entry or early exits

• Once you have come to class, please don’t leave in between or take long breaks.

• Don’t be the one person who disturbs the class atmosphere.

• Let’s enjoy and learn from each other in these few months & have a great learning
experience
 MODE OF EVALUATION

Continuous evaluation: In-class participation, in-

25% class activities, and Quizzes

Mid Sem exam: 30% Written exam

Submission of Policy
End Semester exam: 45% Memorandum
Presentation
 WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY?

Public policy is the Vast area and constantly

Policy Public Policy: framework of laws, evolving, and long-time
regulations, and actions spans are some
A guide to Any rule that
governments implement to
affects the public characteristics of public
decision achieve social and
policy. But the core
making. at larger or people economic goals.
remains about
governance

A statement of the government’s intent and commitment to address a particular issue or problem.
Public policy shapes the decisions of government officials and agencies, and it affects society, the economy,
and politics.
 CHANGING PARADIGM OF
PUBLIC POLICY

Thomas R Dye : Much symbiotic relationship between

Public policy is whatever governments chooses economics , politics, governance, and civil
to do or not to do. services.

B. Guy Peters : State is increasing stepping away from direct

intervention and acting much more as a
The sum of all governmental activities, whether regulatory body
acting directly through the agents that has an
influence on the lives of the citizens.
 Focuses on stimulating economic growth and
inclusivity, prioritising industrialisation, infrastructure
Economic Policy
expansion, and foreign investment, financial policies,
Open economy macroeconomic policies

Addresses social disparities and inequities, issues of

Social Policy gender equality, and social well-being, poverty
reduction

Strives to balance economic development with

Environmental
WHAT ALL ISSUES PUBLIC Policy
ecological sustainability via programmes emphasising
environmental preservation.
POLICY COVERS?
Shapes the future of India’s youth with NEP 2020,
Education Policy promoting holistic learning, research, innovation, and
improved access to quality education.

Recognises access to quality healthcare as a

fundamental right, with policies like Ayushman Bharat
Healthcare Policy
and NHM focusing on affordable healthcare services
The government’s strategic initiatives span and enhanced infrastructure.
diverse sectors, ensuring balanced and
inclusive development: Interdependency between countries , relationships
Foreign policy
and conflict resolution policies

Other policies IT policy, Data policy, digitalization policy

 EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC POLICY AS A
FIELD

Woodrow Wilson in 1880s

Public policy is a relatively young
But there is a distinction
discipline – accepted as a field of “ It is getting harder to run a between public administration
social science research only in constitution than to frame a one” and public policy
the twentieth century
→ this gave rise to public
administration as a field

But public policy is a wider field –

Public administration was it questioned the very
understood to be delivering justifiability of the policy goals
policy goals set by political and analyses their suitability to
authorities unquestionably broader national and human
values.
 Nehruvian era – Sought scholarly inputs from
intellectuals from various disciplines

PC Mahalanobis – Set up planning commission in

1950 but that remained focused only on economic
EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC matters.
POLICY IN INDIA

Post Nehru – This connection between policy makers

and academia/experts became weak. Policy ideation
became gradually monopolised by bureaucracy.

Politico-bureaucratic – the former focused on

electoral power and the latter on administration
continues even today
EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC POLICY IN INDIA

First post graduate programme in public policy started at the Centre for
Public Policy at IIM Bangalore as late as 2002.

Private sector’s interest in public policy were virtually non-existent till

recently. Think tanks , research institutions and universities that have
recently started providing public policy as a course.

This emergence of Private - non- government players – reduced the degree of

government over public policy thought and gave rise to an independent
evaluation of government policies – policy analysis and evaluation

Independent evaluation needs neutrally funded agencies – otherwise how do

you evaluate government policies with government’s money?
 WHY DO YOU NEED TO STUDY PUBLIC POLICY?

• Management of relationships with governments remains critically important today

for people working in the private sector

• Infosys developed the IT infrastructure for Aadhar implementation

• TCS works for developing the public financial management system- An example (Page 10/12)
• The digitalisation efforts of the governments are undertaken by software engineers

• Public demands on account of rapid urbanisation, uptake of technology and

telecommunications, outbreak of diseases increased complexity of social issues
• The implications of a good or bad policy leave a longer impact
 ARCHITECTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

Multiple stakeholders involved in formulating a Public Policy that spans the Sarkar (government), Bazaar
(market), and Samaj (society).

The three branches of the government – the legislature (Parliament), the executive (government and its
Council of Ministers), and the judiciary (Supreme Court) are the main architects of Public Policies in India.

State governments play a significant role in planning and implementing Public Policies.
Chief Ministers, other elected legislators, civil servants at all levels of the government

Large donor agencies support programme implementation play an essential role in deciding where funds are
allocated – Gates Foundation, World Bank, World Health Organisation, UN Agencies

Non-government stakeholders such as NGOs or Civil Society Organisations who support implementation
and educate the public through advocacy campaigns and also provide policy feedbacks
 ARCHITECTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

Opposition parties, advocacy groups, and political unions

Professionals from most walks of public life, including business leaders, journalists, lawyers, security analysts,
consultants, government contractors, and professionals in industries all have something meaningful to
contribute to and influence Public Policies.

General public is also involved in determining the course of Public Policies in India :
Eg- Changing laws through agitations, debates, protests
 MA JOR PUBLIC POLICY
DEBATES IN INDIA

Every policy decision produces winners

and losers and therefore has supporters
and detractors

→ it is therefore for the decision maker

to balance the interests of various
competing groups.
 DEBATES ON ISSUES : DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

Distributive justice is concerned with the fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of social cooperation among
diverse persons with competing needs and claims.

Framing a public policy requires answers to many questions:

a) Should government subsidize foodgrains/ fertilizers ?
b) Are right population segment being subsidized? Can we easily identify the violators?
c) Does that deprive other competing needs such as education, health, and security from
resource allocation?

d) Should our taxation system be progressive or regressive systems? (Income tax ? GST?)

e) Debates on displacements, property rights, adequate compensations?

 DEBATES ON ISSUES : EQUALITY

Are we serving the principles of equality and

fraternity as in the constitution?

• Debates on caste-based reservations

• Gender equality debates

• The Debate on Political Reservation for Women in the
Indian Context
• Gender based discrimination of property rights

• Debates on Secularism
 DEBATES ON :

BALANCING THE INDIVIDUAL’S RIGHT WITH COLLECTIVE INTEREST

• Fundamental right to speech has remained an intensely contested space.

• Not only governments but citizens are divided on this issues → which made it pertinent for
government to take this issue up
• The Debate Over Freedom of Speech and Censorship in India

• The Freedom of Speech and Expression is a fundamental right guaranteed to all

citizens under the Constitution of India
• However, the Constitution does not guarantee an absolute individual right to freedom of
expression. Reasonable restrictions are placed on this right by law
• Many laws that restrict free speech such as the laws punishing sedition, hate speech or
defamation, derive their legitimacy from Article 19(2).
• Censorship of movies, books, paintings, etc, is also possible by way of this clause.
 COLLECTIVE HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Collective human rights threaten individual human rights, creating the notion that
the rights of a group can be more valuable than rights of individuals.

• Debates on wearing mask in public in the USA during COVID-19

• Individuals have an interest in their freedom and freedom of choice and living as
they want to live but that might adversely affect social welfare
 DEBATES ON:

DATA SECURITY AND USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Now, we have unprecedented use of technology for public service delivery primarily to address leakages.

• How much digitalization is possible and required in India ?

• Should you collect individual’s data ? – Case of Aadhar ?

• Which government department should collect these data? Will they share it with other departments?

• Whether private players and corporates are allowed to collect and store biometric information ?

• How are those data stored and used? Data security potential breaches?

• Who is responsible for these breaches? The company who is creating the IT structure , an individual government
department, or government at large?
 WHO GETS TO DECIDE ON THESE ISSUES?

In India, the ultimate authority of policymaking lies with the elected legislatures (Union
Elected Legislatures Parliament and State legislatures) – we call them Lawmakers

Legislatures further elect , authorize, and monitor the executives (the council of
Executives ministers) from among themselves – President, Vice President also part of executives.

Bureaucrats
The executives govern the country with the bureaucracrats (IAS / IPS / Cilvi servants).

Bureaucracrats themselves run on political interference (For technical knowledge→ they

Technical experts can depend on academia, policy think tanks)
 ROLE OF JUDICIARY

Elected representatives → have to run within the fundamental rulebook

of the constitution

Judiciary of the country → independent of government / political power

is the final interpreter of the constitution

Judiciary can therefore overturn government orders and can re-

implement bureaucratic policy implementation
 UNDERSTANDING INDIA’S FEDERAL
STRUCTURE

Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central

authority and various constituent units of the country

• The federal structure of India have three tiers

• Centre Government
• State Government
• Local Government
 FEDERAL STRUCTURE

• The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of government, the Union
Government or what we call the Central Government, representing the Union of
India and the State governments.

• Later, a third tier of federalism was added in the form of Panchayats and
Municipalities

• The Constitution clearly provided a threefold distribution of legislative powers

between the Union Government and the State Governments.
• Thus, it contains three lists: Union list, State list, and Concurrent list
CENTRE-STATE RELATIONSHIPS
 RESIDUARY LIST

• The subjects that are not included in the lists stated in the constitutions are termed
as residuary subjects.

• These subjects are basically those subjects which came into existence after the
constitution was written.
• For example: computer software, information technology, and space technology. All
these things came once the constitution was written.

• These subjects can be legislated by only the Union Government and the same is
stated in the Constitution as well.
• Residuary power – the right of making laws on such subjects are with Union governments.
 WHY PUBLIC POLICIES AND ECONOMICS ARE SO
INTERCONNECTED

• Because in Public policy → you are ultimately trying to allocate your scarce resources of the country
efficiently and fairly among your citizens → which is a concern of economics

• Economists play an important role in policy-making,

• Quantification of objectives set by political processes,
• Formulation of macroeconomic policy where economists have a dominating role,
• Formulation of sectoral policy where they work in combination with sector experts.

• Economists also does independent review of the effectiveness of policy programmes as an essential
support for policy-making.

• It studies the policies in the context of market failures and market distortions

• Reading : Paper by Montek singh aluwahalia

 IN THE NEXT FEW CLASSES

• We will spend time in revising some macroeconomic and microeconomic issues

to appreciate and understand the role of public policies more

• Understanding of individual decision making, workings of the markets, market

failures are extremely important to create a holistic understanding of workings of
public policies at large