As Americans we tend to view the UK as our social, cultural, and economic counterpart. Of the industrialized nations discussed in Adolino and Blake we identify most with the values, beliefs, and ideologies held by our English brethren. Or do we? In an across the board comparison of the issues outlined in Table 2-1, the views of the US and UK converge on two issues: the environment and unemployment. Apart from that, the public’s attitudes toward government healthcare, the elderly, inflation, industries, income, and providing jobs differ with a range of 8%-17%. These disparities grow even larger when we look at government spending in Table 2-2. Based on these results it would seem our English brethren are more like distant cousins once removed. So how do we account for such vast differences in our attitudes? The answer lies in how each country approaches the policy-making process and how items make it onto the political agenda. Currently, the economic uncertainty befallen the US has caused major distrust of the government causing an all out partisan war that relies on public opinion to drive government action. Under the cultural school “policymakers must face public opinion that is united over its desire for government action yet divided over the issue of spending. Elected officials attempt to satisfy calls for government program spending increases on certain issues…while avoiding visible increases in overall spending that are likely to alienate another sizable segment of voters” (p. 33).
In the UK, the dominant influence of the parliamentary system can drive policy faster towards expansion or reform because there is no dependence on subnational governments. By streamlining the decision-making process the government can respond to public demands in an effective and efficient way. This could explain the UK’s neutral stance towards overall government spending illustrated in Table 2-2. The majority of attitudes neither support cuts nor oppose cuts which could indicate that the government is successfully meeting the needs thought to be most important to the most number of people. It is difficult to make these kinds of assumptions since the political landscape is always changing; however something can be said of the fact that attitudes in the US overwhelmingly support increased spending across the board. Obviously, the differences in each country’s approach impacts the policy process and ultimately determines the effectiveness of government action, or lack of action in some cases.
I find the Economic School appealing because it seems the most practical. If you have more money, spend it. If the GDP is down, adjust program funding as necessary. One of the major problems with our government is that we tend to rely on forecasting to make important decisions about policy expansion and when the forecasts are wrong the people suffer the consequences. If we had a functioning checks and balances system then we would be in a better financial position than we are today.
Lindsey-
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog. In referring to tables 2-1 and 2-2, you make note of how the U.S. and U.K. differ somewhat greatly in areas of policy implementation and spending when it comes to realms such as education and healthcare. Table 2-1 shows a 9% difference in health care opinion. I believe it would be of interest to go back and look at how the United Kingdom’s state funded health care system changes public opinion versus a private industry such as the United States, which is the only industrialized country in the world to do such (A&B, 2011). Additionally in table 2-2 the desire for spending on education between the two countries is again about 10%. A public opinion poll for this might be important because the U.K. provides higher education (including masters) funded by the state while the United States has seen the price of higher education rise drastically in the last 20 years.
Increasingly, students in the UK are required to pay tuition (thanks to neoliberal market-based reforms). It's still relatively new, however, in comparison with the American acceptance of tuition as "given" in higher education, so Brits may be at least as price-sensitive as Americans are.
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