Discussion Thread: Advocating for public Policy
Identify one or more official policy actor(s) most responsible for the public policy issue that you are exploring and assess their role(s) in evaluating/implementing/blocking this public policy issue. Be specific.Identify one or more unofficial policy actor(s) most responsible for the public policy issue that you are exploring and assess their role(s) inevaluating/implementing/blocking this public policy issue. Be specific.Consider what kind of research may be useful in assessing your current policy or issue and tailoring it to the relevant actor or audience. (For example, is there a lack ofcurrent or relevant data on this issue? Are there externalities that have not been fullyunderstood? Are there new academic perspectives that have not been taken into account in the policy process?)1.Birkland (2015) explains that official policy actors are involved in public policy becauseof the expressed responsibilities laid out in laws or the Constitution which give the actorsthe power to make and enforce policies. The public policy issue I am interested in isracial equity in all arenas. The official actors, such as, the legislative, executive, andjudicial branches all play a role in the public policy of racial equity. However, the two Ifind to be the most responsible for racial equity would be the judicial branch and thelegislative branch. This is not to say I do not think the executive branch plays animportant role in racial equity. However, it seems as though the power of the executivebranch to set an agenda for their term, create executive orders, and veto power would notmake this the most responsible official policy actor for racial disparity reform (Birkland,2015). In Donnelly’s (2017) study on racial disparity reform finds that when the judicialbranch is not taking an initiative in corrective efforts then elected officials are more likelyto pursue racial disparity reform. This study also comes to the conclusion thatpartisanship has an influence on whether racial disparity reform is pursued or not(Donnelly, 2017). It also shows that states are less likely to adopt stronger forms ofpolicy, such as, policy-specific reform and comprehensive reform (Donnelly, 2017).These findings demonstrate that the stance the judicial branch is taking stronglyinfluences whether or not elected officials pursue racial disparity reform. Therefore, I saythe judicial branch is one of the official policy actors most responsible for racial disparityreform. The judicial branch is responsible for evaluating whether laws or policies areunconstitutional and making corrective efforts. If they are not evaluating certain laws orpolicies groups are suggesting do not promote racial equality/equity or evaluating thembut not changing anything – it will influence other branches to take action. This willespecially happen because, generally speaking, the other branches are full of electedofficials who rely on the people to be re-elected. I propose that the legislative branch ismore responsible for racial disparity reform than the executive (even though this articleby Donnelly groups the elected branches together) because it is stated that unifiedDemocratic control or Democratic governor does not significantly influence thelikelihood of policy change, but a more Democratic legislature increases the likelihood of