| Term | Definition |
| Federalist 10 | Constitution protects against factionalism. |
| Federalism | Both national and state governments derive independent legal authority from their own citizens. |
| Public Policy Definition | What governments choose to do or not do; regulate behavior, organize bureaucracies, distribute benefits, or extract taxes (Dye) |
| Action versus Inaction | attempt to change status quo VERSUS accepting it |
| Policy Analysis Definition | finding out what governments do, why, they do it, and what difference, if any, it makes (Dye) |
| Power | ability to alter or influence a course of action; relevance to public policy: 1) The Influence on decision making: 2) The ability to set the agenda and: 3) The ability to persuade and alter perceptions |
| Authority | disparity in the power relationship between the actor trying to influence and the target |
| Legitimacy | those who possess the power to make policy decisions do so under some public ascension of right; public willingly grants right to influence |
| Representation | officials will be elected by the people to serve their interests and the interests of the state; people govern indirectly |
| Public Interest | what is in the best interests of the nation; public policy imposes definition of public interest on society |
| Politics | dynamics and exchanges that interweave institutional determination of public policies; competitive communication, exchange, discussion, and debate |
| Pluralism versus Elitism | political competition and conflict among groups ensures a path by which consensus, compromise, and negotiation can permit a variety of constituent groups to check the influence of other groups VERSUS political and policy process as dominated by the few rather than the many |
| Private versus Public | government has no responsibility or role VERSUS government attempts to dictate (en/discourage; prohibit/prescribe) behavior |
| Needs versus Rights | fundamental to human survival, essential to one's existence, and critical to the sustenance of life VERSUS moral entitlement that one expects to be treated by others and the state in a certain manner, check against power of the state |
| Equality versus Justice | foundational (protection), opportunity (footing), outcome (critical needs and rights) VERSUS equality across society that alleviates obstacles and removes harmful forces |
| Efficiency versus Effectiveness | program or service operating at most optimal resource level VERSUS program or service is achieving desired effects |
| Human Nature | essential and immutable character of all human beings enabling us to generalize expected behavior; justify public policies |
| Rational Model of Policy Process | problem identification, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy legitimation (adoption), policy implementation, policy evaluation, policy change or termination |
| Types of Policy | Substantive, Procedural, Distributive, Re-distributive, Regulatory, Self-regulatory, Material, Symbolic |
| Substantive Policy | deals with a particular policy problem; specific actions, with costs and benefits, advantages and disadvantages |
| Procedural Policy | set of legislative criteria that prescribe the conditions, actors responsible for action; determine which institutional or bureaucratic actors are responsible |
| Distributive Policy | assignment of goods and services to target populations specified by the government; "win-win"; pork-barrel |
| Re-Distributive Policy | shift resources, material benefits, rights, and privileges among the various population segments; reallocation of public or private resources from one particular class to another |
| Regulatory Policy | mandated rules on the actions of specific target populations; mandated rules on the actions of specific target populations with negative effects |
| Self-Regulatory Policy | an attempt to self-manage rules that restrict or control behavior by the actual target population; benefits regulated group because it preempts degree of gov't regulation |
| Material Policy | provides tangible benefits or substantive power to beneficiaries, or imposes disadvantages on others |
| Symbolic Policy | principally rhetorical and seek to inform or persuade the population, often by presenting a particular point of view; may attempt to appeal to the emotional or patriotic nature of the population |