Policy Over-Reaction and Under-Reaction: An Institutional Analysis

Policy Over-Reaction and Under-Reaction: An Institutional Analysis B. Guy Peters University of Pittsburgh In the best of all worlds governments would be able to produce a measured and proportional response to policy problems that emerge within their environments. But unfortunately we do not live in that world, and responses from the public sector often are excessive (numerous examples in policing and defense) and perhaps equally often they are inadequate (the federal government and Hurricane Katrina). Why do governments, both as a whole and at the level of individual organizations, find it difficult to produce responses at a suitable scale? And further, why do governments find it difficult to adjust their responses one they have been initiated? This paper will build on the research already undertaken by Moshe Maor and others concerning policy responses. I will argue that the nature of the institutions involved in making and implementing policy will provide one useful set of explanations. I will use institutional theory to develop a set of hypotheses about the likelihood of different types of response from the public sector. Although the various versions of institutional theory will supply substantial insight into the levels of response, the level of response can not be understood in isolation, so the nature of the policy issues faced by the institutions will also be important for the analysis (see Peters and Hoornbeek, 2005). Thus, we will be arguing there is an important interaction between the nature of the policy problems and the institutions that process them. This paper will not provide systematic testing of these proposition but will illustrate the points being made with case materials drawn from a number of different political systems. The paper will therefore will contain comparative analysis as well as the discussion of policy responses in more analytic terns.