What policy mechanisms are available to implement your priorities? What are the benefits and consequences of the alternatives?
Since their introduction to the market in 2003, electronic cigarettes have been a significant source of consternation for policy makers weary of this popular trend’s affect on the health and well-being of minors. During the 116th Congress, Representative Pallone of New Jersey introduced a bill, “Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019″, which implemented a number of policy levers to curb teen smoking including raising the national smoking age from 18 to 21, requiring graphic warnings on e-cig packaging, and increasing taxes on all tobacco products. This bill could be a good start, by why stop there? What do these measures leave out, what else would you include?
As you may already know, the process by which science policy is made and implemented across the government varies greatly from institution to institution. Less varied, however, is the overall cycle through which policies are first conceived. Typically, the cycle begins with policymakers crafting a policy agenda informed by particular values and problems identified in society. After a policy agenda is created, policy makers then must set out to formulate specific policies to actualize their agenda. But what policy mechanisms are available? What are the benefits and consequences of the alternatives?
The means or mechanisms by which a policymaker actualizes their agenda is what’s known as Policy Levers. As you may guess, policy levers constitute the wide variety of options a policymaker has to change and shape society. Further, these interventions may cycle or evolve through the different stages depicted in the chart below, but not necessarily.
Beyond the typical policy competition we see during elections, the selection and assessment of the different policy levers available to policy makers is equally challenging. As you’ll see below, some levers may be more sound than others, but that’ll depend on who’s measuring and how they’re measuring.
When considering science policy, you may not be aware of what specific alternative policy levers were considered by policy makers, but you can make your own analysis of alternative policy levers once you learn of the different levers available. You may ask yourself what’s important when comparing available levers and whether you think one is required to make rapid changes in society or if more incremental change is warranted.
To introduce a number of the different policy levers available to policy makers, take a look at the case example above we have provided below concerning curbing teen smoking. Then, take a look at some of the alternative levers available below. Later, we also briefly explore a matrix of alternative levers at different stages of policy intervention as well as different conceptions of the role of government.
Different Hypothetical Policy Levers in Action: Snuffing out Smoking
Depending on one’s political leanings, the purpose or role of government may vary drastically. Given a particular role, the government may have a limited focus or interest in implementing policy levers throughout different stages of policy.
Alternatively, some may think the government ought to change roles to fit whatever needs evolve. Below, we present a matrix of example roles and interests of the government at different stages of policy intervention.
Comparing Policy Levers
Another challenge in assessing the levers present or available to enact a policy is determining the appropriate means of comparing the alternatives available. As is often the case, any policy lever will have its benefits and demerits, so picking one over the other requires some metric of assessment.
But which one?! Many metrics are available for policy makers to choose from and any one policy could rank supreme given the metric selected by the policy maker. Meanwhile, the very same policy could be loathed by another who chooses a different criteria for comparison. In the accompanying box, we’ve outlined eight assessment criteria with a brief description of their limitations. Refer to this box whenever a specific policy lever is touted as being the best and ask yourself, “the best policy according to which metric?“
References and Further Reading
- Elliott, O. V., & Salamon, L. M. (2002). The tools of government: A guide to the new governance. Oxford University Press.
- Lodge, M., & Wegrich, K. (2016). The rationality paradox of nudge: Rational tools of government in a world of bounded rationality. Law & policy, 38(3), 250-267.
- Schneider, A., & Ingram, H. (1990). Behavioral assumptions of policy tools. The Journal of Politics, 52(2), 510-529.
- Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019, H.R. 2339, 116th Cong., Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) (2019).
- Sidney, M. S. (2017). Policy formulation: design and tools. In Handbook of public policy analysis (pp. 105-114). Routledge.
- Hood, C. C., & Margetts, H. Z. (2007). The tools of government in the digital age. Macmillan International Higher Education.