Alan Blinder on Policy Formulation
I think that Alan Blinder’s account of national politics and policy creation is largely right. Blinder captures the essence of his main point with a wonderful quote: “Politicians use economics in the same way that a drunk uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination.” Here is Blinder’s book on the subject.
I have four scattered notes on Blinder’s talk.
Blinder observes that economists “have time horizons that are too long.” Meanwhile, politicians have “too short time horizons.” And voters, Blinder could have added, have the shortest time horizons of all.
Blinder states that issues of process are frequently shunned by economists. However, if one becomes a government policy advisor, issues of process, in Blinder’s words, hit one “over the head like ten two-by-fours.” Ignoring issues of process is one reason that many analysts exaggerate the influence of economists on policy.
Blinder states that the three roadblocks to good public policy are “ignorance, ideology, and interest groups.” I find myself more ambivalent than Blinder about the effect of interest groups. Lawmakers frequently do not have policy-specific expertise, and most lawmakers lack the time or interest to develop such expertise. A vein of political science research suggests that interest groups provide specialized information to lawmakers and their staff. Of course, interest groups will tailor the information they provide to suit their political goals. I have no interest in denying that some interest groups have a pernicious influence on public policy. For a long time, I thought that the NRA was the most pernicious and effective interest group in American politics. Nevertheless, on balance, I am not sure that American society would be better off policy-wise if interest groups had considerably less influence.
A misinformed or ignorant electorate negatively affects the chances of good public policy. As Blinder points out, if a politician campaigns on sound economic policy X, but confused voters believe that policy X is bad, that is a substantial political problem. Faced with a poorly informed electorate, politicians will have less incentive to promote sound policy and greater incentive to cynically pander.