Public Policy Design

For the government, laws and public policy are two sides of the same coin. Laws are actually written down, very official-like. In the US, federal laws had to go through a long process of being a bill before getting to become a law. Bills have to go through Congress, sit on the President’s desk, and jump through all kinds of hoops before turning into laws.

Public policy is how those laws are actually carried out. Oftentimes, the laws we create are more idealistic than realistic: we just don’t always have the resources to enforce all of the laws. This means that, as in all of economics, we have to pick and choose how we spend our limited resources in the face of unlimited wants. Of course, different political leanings at different times result in different public policy design. While most laws are staying the same, how those laws are carried out via public policy design can vary drastically, depending on policy goals of who's in power at the time.

Example:

The mean, green controversial machine, and fastest-growing industry in the U.S.: marijuana. U.S. federal law defines marijuana as a Class One drug, which means it’s on the “worst of the worst” list. Class One drugs are drugs deemed by the federal government to have no medicinal purpose, and should not be used ever, even under the supervision of a doctor. Meanwhile, states around the U.S. have been increasingly passing laws saying that medical marijuana (and in some cases, recreational marijuana) is totally, uh...chill. The federal law (that whole “class one” classification thing) says that federal law enforcement legally has the right to bust any marijuana businesses or users...or even doctors...that they want. From a recreational 20-something pot smoker to a 60-something medical user with cancer, the federal government could enforce the federal law.

But...they haven’t really done it. There are limited federal cops on hand. They’re not going to bust down Granny’s door while she’s taking her doctor-prescribed pot-pills for her chronic back pain. No siree.

In 2013, the head of the Department of Justice issued this thing called the Cole Memo, named after the author, Attorney General Cole. The memo is a unique written example of public policy design. The memo stated that the U.S. Justice Department of Justice, with its limited resources, would not enforce the federal illegality of marijuana in states where marijuana was voted legal...assuming these states were being responsible about it. As long as the states were regulating their growth, distribution, sale, taxes, etc., the Justice Department would be hands-off on state-legal marijuana businesses and consumers. Instead, the Justice Department said it would use its limited resources to help states make sure marijuana was not crossing state borders illegally, not causing violence and accidents, and not making profits for gangs and cartels.

In 2018, there was a new sheriff...er, Attorney General...in town. Being a known critic of marijuana, AG Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo. It was his way of changing the public policy on how the federal government would handle marijuana.

Since the marijuana industry in the U.S. has a lot of momentum (and is making lots of tax-money for states), governors and senators from marijuana-legal states said “That’s not very dope of you, sir.” Some political critics say the Cole Memo was an overreach of political power, since it varied so much from the written law, which made it a-okay to rescind. Some economists say the Cole Memo was on the right track, since bringing marijuana into the legal sphere makes it regulatable and taxable, which could reduce cartel violence and pump money into the U.S. economy instead of into cartel pockets. Everyone else says, “Well, if that’s not the federal policy on marijuana now...what is?” Many believe the actions of the DOJ won’t change too much, mostly because they’ve got bigger fish to fry with their limited resources.

So far, not too much of a kerfuffle has been made. Since the Cole Memo was shut down, states and cities are still making moves to make marijuana legal, and the DOJ is mostly spending their energy elsewhere.

So yeah...public policy design can completely change how a law is interpreted and carried out in the real world. Unlike the Cole Memo, most public policy design and communication is less clear-cut. With so many actors involved, from firms and regulators to people and politicians, public policy is a messy, complicated, and infuriating process.

Hm, “messy, complicated, and infuriating.” Sounds like our Tinder profile.