POLITICIANS AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC POLICIES

Policy scientists can make important contributions to the study of policy distribution, a question that is likely to be among the most crucial national issues to be discussed throughout this decade. One aspect of this question that has been neglected is the theoretical assumption associated with public choice theory that politicians, once elected, will reward their supporters through the distribution of policy benefits. However, empirical research indicates that policy benefits seldom are distributed in this way. Instead, politicians follow the principle of universalism. In league with bureaucracies and policy communities, politicians define need and then ask bureaucracies to allocate benefits. This makes politicians roles as distributors of policy very different than simplistic models suggest. Copyright 1985 by The Policy Studies Organization.

SUBGOVERNMENTS AND THE IMPACT OF POLICY FRAGMENTATION AND ACCOMMODATION

For many years political scientists have utilized the subgovernment model of policy-making to explain certain types of policy output. Recently a number of scholars have argued that the traditional conceptualization of subgovernments was simplistic and incomplete. They view subgovernments as a complex and integral part of the larger policy-making environment. This paper examines this "new" subgovernment by analyzing its role in contemporary public policy-making. If subgovernments have lost their autonomy and been exposed to the complex demands of the larger political system, what impact does this have on policy outputs? Relying upon the literature on subgovernments and their principal components, the paper offers an interpretation of how subgovernments have potentially expanded their influence on public policy as a result of two contemporary developments: policy-making fragmentation, and the accommodation of policy outputs. Copyright 1988 by The Policy Studies Organization.