Policy Process
2.2.3 Policy Stream
As for the problem in public policy formulation, which might cause the long- term problem for the society, such as the populism policy which focus only with the election campaign by using the budget in advance without any consideration on the investment in the new facilities. As finally the state’s resources would be limited, the policy formulator is thus required to consider the account receivable and account payable, in order to limit the ratio of public debt and GDP. Furthermore, the people must check the policy action of the government, whether it allows the advantage for their own business or their allies. If the government’s policy formulation is problematic, for example; does not respond to the people’s need, involve too much usage of populism policy, or the corruption and allowance for their clans, the people would have the right to exercise their power as the citizen who pay the tax to change the government through election, impeachment, protest, or resistance through not paying tax.
Furthermore, when the bureaucratic system dominate the process of public policy formulation would benefit the leader of the system rather than the overall society.
In this case, the solution might be the political leader who has both political right and leadership in negotiating with the bureaucratic system and formulate the strategic administration system, starting from the government’s announcement of policy plan.
And in the policy implementation, the responsibility to act must be checked so it could be beneficial in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. There must be the consistency among the action plan of the ministry, bureau, and department, etc. Each plan must include the follow up through the indicators, and the action plan must be executed according to the allocated budget.
proposal draft to respond to the problem participants until the latest accepted proposal would enter the agenda setting. Then the proposal draft could enter the agenda setting.
The idea of the proposal must be possible, appropriate, and do not oppose to the values and beliefs of the problem participants and could actually be allocate. For example, there is the possibility of budget allocation, being supported by the political groups both in the same side and the opposite side.
The policy community include the policy specialist who formulate the policy.
The policy specialists could be from both inside and outside the government. Some of them could be the standing committee of the representatives who lobby the public problem into the agenda setting and receive attention by the policy formulator, which could be the result from the initiation by the policy specialists in various issues, who must systematically analyze the problems. There must be the knowledge exchange as well as the collective interaction among the participants throughout the long period.
Hence, the concept proposal by the policy agenda setter who is also experienced, specialized, highly independent, and free from political pressure and changes. In this policy community, there is often some framework about the public policy which the experts and specialists subscribed to. Such framework would facilitate initiation as well as the revelation of public problems. Therefore, if we could understand the underlying frameworks of the policy community, we could better understand the agenda setting in such policy community. In dispersing from one policy area to another area or related community, the specialists might differ highly in the level of dispersion. Some community might be hindered, diverse, and highly scattered, as each community has different needs (Kingdon, 2003, pp. 117-121).
Young et al. (2010, p. 4) added that while the problem stream and policy stream is about agenda setting, the policy stream would involve the specific alternatives for coping with problem by the policy community members, which include both the actors from inside and outside the government who interact, exchange opinion, and create policy alternatives together.
In other words, the policy stream means the realization of concept or solution policy. It might be proposed, developed, debated, and approved by the specialists in academic circle or think tank institution within the policy community, from the political
party, or both the formal and informal allies who share the mutual benefit (Chow, 2014;
Kingdon, 2003; Larkin, 2012; Zohlnhöfer & Rüb, 2016).
As for the people’s value and belief within the society where policy proposal is negotiated, they must be the public value and belief which is beneficial for people within the society. The harmony or division in the society would affect the policy’s consistency. And in order for the policy proposal to retain, the policy formulator must conduct the public relation of the idea and educate people in the society, both inside and outside the state so that the public could understand. There may be public presentation, lobbying the Legislative members to support the approval of such policy proposal, report, or interview through the media. The policy proposal does not only have to originated from the society’s consensus, but could also come from the minority’s idea as well. However, the policy proposal of the community or society must include the policy alternative which is likely to be announced or enter the agenda setting. In other words, the policy must have both technical feasibility and budget feasibility as well as receive attention from the society from the public relation (Kingdon, 2003, pp. 131-143).
Policy stream is the policy proposal for solving problems, which identify the choices to be decided. The policy proposal is the result of the diverse idea of the specialists, scholars, researchers, analysts, planners, etc. within the policy communities, which is called the “Primeval Soup” by Kingdon (2003, p. 116). For example, after the economic crisis in 1997, scholars agreed that the national development strategy and the main economic policy of Thailand at the time was the origin of liberalization in various issues according to the liberal capitalism, which later developed into the neo-liberalism approach which is currently widespread. Such approach is the dependency and siphoning the resources from the third world country into the developed country underneath the wrestling and depredation of wealth from the inferior country. It can be said that this approach is a form of neo-colonialism. And according to this perspective, the policy community are all aware of the threat from depending on the first-world country’s economy, following the liberalism approach, that there was the widespread pressure for idea and approach to ensure the independence from being the neo-colonial country in Thailand at the time. And the policy communities were all share the goal to empower the grassroots and communities.
In other words, the problem stream is the problem condition and significance, which affect the policy formulator and the overall society. The indicator of such problem could be in number or statistic which indicate the damage from the problem, such as the number of unemployment, the statistic of decreasing household income after the 1997 economic crisis in Thailand. Problem stream also include the threats from the event and crises. For example, the 1997 economic crisis affected all sector. And there would be the feedback which acquire even more attention to the problem, such as the feedback of 1997 economic crisis which impact the influential scholars within the academic circle and policy formulation’s solution against dependency on the world economy. The perspective at that time was that Thailand must escape the world capitalism system through the socialism approach which aim to empower the grassroots and community. For example, King Rama IX suggested the sufficiency economy and new approach of agriculture, Chattip Natsupa proposed the approach of community culture, and Kitti Limskul proposed the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) approach, etc.