Conclusions

This chapter draws out some lessons from the analysis presented in the book. It discusses the implications of shared powers jockeying over public policy for drifts and their outcomes. It illustrates that policy drifts are a rational, coherent part of the dynamics of public policy making. Political uncertainty does not cease once policies drift. A new stimulus for change will arouse interests from relevant stakeholders and new policy drifts will ensue. To the extent that there are no social, political, economic, or ideological forces pushing for change, the most recent drift remains in place. In this sense, some policy drifts may remain more durable than others.

The Making of Law, Policy, and Policy Drifts

This chapter addresses the formal (i.e., constitutional) powers of the three branches of government. Theories of policy making, including the role of various players or stakeholders in the policy process, formal or informal, including the bureaucracy, will also be discussed.

The Politics of Climate Control Policy Drifts

This chapter examines the politics surrounding policy drifts in the area of climate change. In particular, it focuses on one critical, contemporary policy drift: the Clean Power Plan, a historic and important step in reducing global warming. A host of policy players, particularly individual states, are stakeholders in the process as well as outcomes. As will be seen, shared beliefs and values led policy players to form advocacy coalitions. These coalitions, consisting of state governments and their allies (i.e., business and fuel interest groups), fight for certain values, and work against those coalitions that oppose them.

Privacy Rights and U.S. Surveillance Policy Drifts

This chapter provides a brief discussion of the historical antecedents of privacy rights. Against this backdrop, it then examines how multiple policy players or stakeholders became involved in the battle between liberty and safety. The institutional model of policy making applies here. In particular, it illustrates how the federal government developed a series of byzantine, convoluted laws and secret edicts in the form of policy drifts that it claimed would help win the war on terror and bring some sense of safety and security to the American people.

Civil Rights Law and Policy Drifts

This chapter examines policy drifts in the area of civil rights. It begins with a brief review of the specific legal protections advanced for women and people of color since Reconstruction. It then examines the politics surrounding efforts to restrict and then restore those rights for equitable pay for women. This chapter also examines efforts to pass a civil rights law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees, formally known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). In particular, it illustrates how President Obama initiated a number of important policy drifts in the area of LGBT employment rights. The protection of LGBT individuals has been considered the new civil rights issue.