Policy Process
2.2.2 The Problem Stream
Kingdon (2003, pp. 90-93) saw that the problem stream is the problem or issue which receive attention by the people and the government. The problem stream could only emerge when the policy formulator, citizen, and the government are awared of the problem, and especially when the problem affect the state. Problem identification and specification could be done by the individual or the group of individuals with multiple values and advantages, and thus resulting in the different problem definition. And the stakeholders prefer that the problem is defined according to their own values.
Therefore, the perception of the participants in the problem could be affected by the problem definition which might change form the actuality of the problems, that it could be better or worse depending on the public awareness and the political leader who would pay attention to the problem and the selected approach of solution, as well as the agenda setting, when the individual or group is aware of the solution and pay attention to the problem and seek solution.
Chow (2014) shortly add the explanation that the problem stream refers to the problem issue which reeive attention from everyone including the government, while Zohlnhöfer and Rüb (2016) added that the problem stream is the condition which became problematic and require solving. But as for Young et al. (2010), the problem stream is the perception process of the problem. According to Kingdon’s vision, the problem stream is the social condition which receive attention from the government and considered problematic, by the systematic indicator or the negative feedback of the existing policy. Such indicator would evaluate the level of the particular condition, and if it is worst enough, the policy formulator would consider the condition as problematic.
Larkin (2012) further commented that the political stream involve the anxiety of many individuals who desire the change or the consequence from the disaster, tragic event, or the attention from the mass media towards a particular issue in the long term, which resulting in the perception and mutual feeling among the public, from the small problem
which accumulate into the crisis, or from the individual or group which drive an issue towards the public attention. The characteristic of problems including the indicator, focusing events, crises, symbols, and policy communities, which Kingdon (2003, pp. 90-115) further explained as following.
2.2.2.1 The Indicators
The indicator is the factor which could reflect or explain the particular thing, hence it is formulated to measure the change, identify the status, or reflect the action characteristic. The indicator is related to the standard criteria and could be evaluate the outcome. It is the instrument which help identifying problem, planning, and evaluating the development as well as evaluating the formulated objective or goal’s success. The indicator would be used to measure a particular condition quantitatively, in comparative with any standard criteria in order to show the level, size, or seriousness of the measured problem or condition. A good indicator would be the important warning sign for us to find the way to prevent the damage beforehand, or to reduce the possible impact. Indicator is also the instrument which point the direction where the development or activity of the particular state’s public policy progress and how far the objectives and goals are fulfilled, which is the evaluation of the work’s effectiveness or outcome. Usually the problems which emerge from the authority’s attention might not pass the level of political pressure or being awared only slightly, but some indicator might reflect the irregularities within the system and thus reveal the problem.
The pervasive, necessary, and powerful indicators could be the revelation of problems, in which any solution could cause the anxiety among the participants of policy process. Necessarily, such indicator could give the understanding with the seriously error indicator, which is the conclusion of the indicator’s necessity. The example indicator of the indicators is the United Nations’ concept of economic growth which can be socially indicated by the Gross National Product or GNP, prior to the 1960, under the idea that the social development can be expressed by the economic growth.
The Economic Indicator can be monitored from the GDP and GNP, by comparing the yearly ratio with the pervious year. This indicator of GNP, when adjusted by the inflation rate, would equal to the economic growth rate. And the GDP (Gross National Product) refers to the total value of the final products and services
manufactured during the particular time, using the resources owned by the citizen of the particular nation, while the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) refers to the total value of the final products and services manufactured within the country during the particular period, without any concerns of the manufacturing resource ownership wheter they belong internally or externally. On the contrary, the internal resources which are used for manufacturing oversees would not be counted within the GDP as well. The GDP can be calculated from the present price and the fixed price. The GDP of the recent price would calculate the product value in the monetary terms according to the market price of the products and services, while the fixed price GDP would calculate the product value according to the yearly price of the base year. And finally, the Per capita GNP refers to the calculation of the GDP divided by the total number of population.
A good indicator is not only the honest perception of the fact, but also precise and effective. The gathered facts and the interpretation based on these facts would be the important information for the discussion of interpretation of the indicators of the data transformed from various accounts. The policy problem could be swiftly interpreted. The interpretation of indicator must be comprehensible by the general individual. After the indicator is found, it is necessary to gather the basic information of each indicator from the relevant organization, who already gathered the basic statistical information in the particular matter. For some indicators without prior information, the starting point might be collecting the data from the present year and finding the past data if possible, so that the indicator could reflect the change from the past and help analysis the future trend. And the important thing for the indicator is the information and the continuity of information, for if any indicator lack the information or the information is not continue, it would not be possible to analyse the development result and evaluate the change, the current situation, and the future trend (Kingdon, 2003, pp. 90-115).
2.2.2.2 Focusing Events, Crises, and Symbols
As the problems might not be clear in its own, the usage of indicator would require the focusing on problems in order to receive attention from the group of people who are closly related to the government. The definition of the policy problem means the condition which cause the need, deprivation, or dissatisfaction, which led to the exploration for solution. The exploration can be done by those who were affected
by the problems or the representatives. Problem is the condition which result in both direct and indirect need or dissatisfaction in various individuals, such as famine, poverty, traffic jam, flood, and pollution, etc. In general, when any problems emerge, the related person would try to find the way to cure or solve the problem. If it cannot be finalized, the problem might not be treatable with any forms of private actions. For example, the consequence might be high and involve too many stakeholders. These problem would become the public problems that require the government’s intervention to solve them.
The public problem has the special characteristic of interdependence, subjectivity, artificiality, and dynamics. The public problem tends to be the crisis which require urgent solution. In other words, the public problem is usually not independent but is a part of the public problem system. Solving one problem could cause another problem. Furthermore, the public problem is usually vague, sensitive, and complex, as it is the result from the human perception and judgement, which could varied through the time. As for the condition, it means the problem which occur when we believe we could do something about it. The problem is not only related to the condition or external situation, but also the perception of element and how the interpretation could formulate the problem with the values, comparative, and interpretation. Such problem must be valuable enough to find the solution.
The problems are formulated from various condition, such as the statistical information, the experience of the policy formulator, the academics’ proposal, the mass media, the community leaders, and the need of the local citizen, under the policy formulation which allow the participation from all related partners. The problem must be divided from the reason and priority of the problem, which can be classified as following.
1) Crisis Problem refers to the problem which require the urgent decision, or else it could cause serious damage.
2) Non-Crisis Problem refers to the problem which require attention but not urgent, so there is quite a lot of time for preparation of decision.
3) Opportunity Problem refers to one type of the non-crisis problem. This type of problem would include hidden potential and opportunity within the form of policy problem, which is related to other problem, the policy formulator, and the analyst
who have different perspective according to the view of policy formulator and the situation.
Furthermore, the structure of policy problem can be classified as following.
1) The problem with good structure, few participant, clear solution, and clear future advantage.
2) The problem with medium level structure, with few participant, clear solution, clear advantage, but the outcome calculation is uncertain.
3) The problem with vague, confusing, complicated, and complex structure, which the solution is hard to find.
It can be said that the public problem is the result from the citizen’s demand.
There might be several interest groups, but the opportunity for the problem to become policy issue and receive attention from the policy formulator would differs. Some problem might be put into the agenda setting urgently, but some problem might be rejected, depending on various reasons such as the problem structure, the problem characteristics, and the role of agenda-setters. The problem structure is highly influential to the development of the problem. Public problem with quite good structure has more opportunity to enter the agenda setting and receive attention from the policy formulator than the problem with rather confusing structure, as the problem with quite good structure would not generate the complicate condition and policy conflicts among the participants. The public problem would become the policy agenda or enter the agenda setting and receive attention from the public policy formulator when it possess some special characteristic; the condition of crisis which require urgent solution.
As for the role and influence of the policy entrepreneur such as the interest group and political party, they are also the important factors in advocating the public problem towards the policy agenda. However, the success of these policy entrepreneur would varied according to the level of preparation, whether they are ready or not, and the opportunity to access the policy formulator, whether it is possible or not. If the policy entrepreneur is rather prepared and has the high chance to access the policy formulator, the advocacy of problem towards the agenda setting would not be too hard to do. But there would be the issue which must be concerned, especially the limitation of problem territory from expanding to impact other policy entrepreneur, and preventing the problem to spread widely.
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.