Policy Design and Focusing Events: COVID-19 Policy Responses across U.S. States

• In Event: Policy Design for Democracy: Theoretical Perspectives

Abstract

Ample scholarship debates and examines the extent to which public policies in representative democracies reflect the priorities and needs of the public, often finding that the broader public is unaware of many policy issues and policy responses. A separate body of scholarship analyzes the various ways policies are designed to influence behavior, including the stringency of policies, the targets of those policies, and any sanctions they may include. However, there is a gap in the empirical literature between public awareness and policy design. We examine the extent to which public awareness of existing policy mandates and recommendations is associated with the design of policies. We analyze this question in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. The central premise is that more stringent policy designs will be associated with greater public awareness.

Responses to crises like pandemics are usually organized at the state and local levels in the American federal system. In the 20th century, the federal government became more active in supporting and directing public health policies that would be implemented in the states. However, American federalism has become increasingly polarized and fractured. As a result, the federal government largely failed to lead in the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in sharp contrast with the historic trend of leading pandemic response preparedness. Governors, legislatures, public health departments, and other agencies in each state acted to respond to the emerging crisis, with varying degrees of urgency and intensity, as state-level policies proliferated in response to the pandemic.

The study relies on a mixed methodology, using COVID-19 as a case study to examine variation in policy design of state-level executive orders and public awareness of those policies during the first year of the pandemic. The analysis is supported by a novel dataset derived from a content analysis of executive orders issued between February 2020 and May 2021 across six U.S. states, with codes for policy design characteristics including policy tool(s), stringency, and sanctions. In addition, we draw on a representative survey of adults in the same six states to understand their awareness of COVID-19 risks, their understanding of COVID-19 policies in their states, and their support for those policies. Specifically, we ask whether issue attention influences policy design in U.S. states and whether those factors vary across states.

Authors

• Deserai Anderson Crow, University of Colorado Denver

• Kristin Taylor, Wayne State University

• Thomas A. Birkland, North Carolina State University

• Nathan Jeschke, University of Colorado Denver

• Elizabeth Ann Shanahan, Montana State University

• Honey Minkowitz, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Rob A. DeLeo, Bentley University