Stones Problems Causes By Omar Abdelghany Farida Reyes

Stone’s Problems: Causes By: Omar Abdelghany Farida Reyes Mandy Reynolds Monica Schlaich Meghann Shannon

Classic and Erred Policy Thinking ► Men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the “why” of it (which is to grasp it’s primary cause). ” Aristotle’s Physica, Book II ► Problems: § We think we have defined a problem when we have described it’s causes. § Policy debate is dominated by the notion that problems are solved by finding root causes, and treating symptoms. § Analysis of causes is scarcely mentioned in policy analysis textbooks.

Conceptualizing Causes ► When a problem is defined by causes, the conception of “cause” being used states: § § § Every problem has a deep or primary cause. Cause can be found if only one looks hard and carefully. Causes are objective, and in principle, can be proven by scientific research. ► Ultimately with this conception, the true cause is to blame, and to be eliminated, reduced, or neutralized by policy.

Causal Reasoning in the Polis ► In politics: § We use cause not only to understand, but to assign responsibility for problems. § We prevent people from causing the problem. § Problem causers are made to compensate other people for bearing the problem. § Causers are punished for causing suffering. ► To identify a cause in the polis is to place burdens on one set of people instead of another.

Two Primary Frameworks for Interpreting the World: The Natural & The Social. ► In the Natural World: § We understand occurrences as undirected, unanimated, and purely physical. § Nature is the realm of fate and accident. § The best we can do is to mitigate effects. ► There are natural determinants: § The clash of a cold and warm front causes a storm. ► We believe we have an adequate understanding of natural causation when we can describe the sequence of events by which one thing leads to another.

Two Primary Frameworks for Interpreting the World: The Natural & The Social. ► In the Social World: ► We believe we have an adequate understanding of social causation when we can identify the purposes or motives of a person or group and link those purposes to their actions. § Events are understood to be the result of will. § Society is the realm of control and intent. § Because causation in the social sphere is related to purpose we believe that influence works. ► Flattering ► Bribing ► Threatening

Our Purposeful Actions May Have Unintended Consequences ► This is why in policy and politics, there is a crucial distinction between: § Actions that have purpose, will, and motivation and those that do not. § Effects that are intended and those that are not. Distinctions between action and consequence, and between purpose and lack of purpose create a framework for describing causal stories in politics. Actions Consequences Intended Unguided Purposeful Unintended Accidental Causes Intentional Causes

Accidental Causes ► Accidental Causes include: § Natural disasters. § Anything our culture understands as belonging to the realm of fate. Persons good luck to have bet the right lottery number, or to have bought a stock just before a takeover bid. ► Some aspects of personal looks and health. ► § Machines that run amok. ► Car breaks that unexpectedly fail, or a CAT scanner that crushes a patient. ► ► These are devoid of purpose in either their actions or consequences. One can not speak of actions here, but only occurrences. ► Politically, this is a good place to retreat to if one is being charged with responsibility, because there is no responsibility in the realm of fate.

Intentional Causes ► When Intentional Causes Yield Bad Outcomes: Blame is laid directly at someone’s feet. It casts someone as willfully or knowingly causing harm. Problems are understood as the consequences of willful human action. § We have stories of oppressors and victims. § § § ► When Intentional Causes Result in Good: § It is the domain we call “rational action”.

Inadvertent Causes ► Found in the lower right section of the model, it is the unintended consequences of willed human action ► The story of inadvertent cause is a common interpretation of poverty, malnutrition and disease

Type of Inadvertence ► Carelessness or recklessness ► Usually attributed to labor or management, but includes problems in occupational safety and health ► Safety is put on the backburner due to the interests in profits

Mechanical Causes ► Have no will of their own but are designed, programmed, or trained by humans to produce certain consequences ► Somebody acts purposefully, but their will is carried out through other people, through machines or through “automatic” social procedures and routines.

Mechanical Causes ► The exact nature of human guidance or control becomes the issue. ► The fight about the cause of a problem is a debate usually about whether certain people are acting out of their own will or mechanically carrying out the will of others

Causal Theories ► The four types of causal theories conjure up images of a single action, a single actor and a direct result. This image then remains even when applied to corporations, agencies and large groups or to sequences of identifiable actions and results.

Three Models of Cause ► Complex systems: Social systems are necessary to solve modern problems are inherently complex. § It is impossible to anticipate all possible events and effects, so failure or accident is inevitable.

Three Models of Cause (Cont’d) ► Institutional: A social problem is caused by a web of large, longstanding organizations with ingrained patters of behavior.

Three Models of Cause (Cont’d) ► Historical: Social patterns tend to reproduce themselves § People in power benefit from their social organization & current resource distribution that keeps them in power § Thus, they maintain their patterns through control over selection of elites & socialization of both elites & nonelites

Usefulness of Complex Cause ► Not useful because they don’t offer… § Single locus of control § Plausible candidate to take responsibility ► Biggest tension between social science & real-world politics → Social scientist tend to see complex causes of social problems, while in politics, people search for immediate & simple causes

Making Causes in the Polis ► 1995 → William Weld addresses Clinton seeking federal disaster assistance ► Qualifications for federal disaster assistance § Show problem is result of uncontrollable forces of nature ► Contentions: § Weld – accident of nature [rising predator populations] § Scientists & other experts – issue of human control [overfishing] ►@ best, inadvertence through ignorance

Struggle for Political Power ► Table 8. 1: Types of Causal Theories Consequences Actions Unguided Intended Unintended Mechanical Cause: Accidental Cause: Intentional Cause: Inadvertent Cause: intervening agents Purposeful oppression nature carelessness

Positions in Struggle for Political Power ► 2 strong positions: ► 2 weak positions: § Accident → no possibility of human responsibility § Intent → direct control & knowing action leading to full responsibility § Mechanical Cause → human control mediated by other people/machines/systems § Inadvertent Cause → action without full knowledge

Strategies for the Accused 1) Show the problem was accidentally caused 2) Show the problem was cause by someone else 3) Show inadvertence, especially of unforeseen consequences

Books & Studies Eastman, Work Accidents & the Law ► Rachel Carson, Silent Spring ► Ralph Nader, Unsafe at any Speed ► Both claim that condition… ► Crystal § Formerly interpreted as accident was actually the result of human will § Formerly interpreted as indirectly caused is actually pure intent

Common Strategy in Causal Politics ► Conspiracy Story ► Rational Choice Theory § Holds that whatever people do, their behavior is largely a result of conscious deliberate choice ► Teleological Fallacy § Assumption that effects of an action are its purposes to commit § Purposes must be demonstrated with evidence of actor’s wishes/motives, apart from effects of his/her actions

Knowingly Tolerating Risks of Injuries ► 1981 suit against Ford was upheld because safety was traded for cost-reduction ► “Conscious disregard of the probability that conduct will result in injury to others, ” this is considered “malicious intent. ” ► Idea of calculated risks

Disproportionate Impact ► Disproportionate Impact is discrimination based on a rule or policy, where accused does not blatantly show intent ► In 1971 the Supreme Court allowed statistical evidence to prove discrimination ► Plaintiff needs to show that the results of a selection process were highly unlikely to occur by chance

Disparate Impact ► Behaviors and rules that discriminate against minorities and women ► This led to the idea of “institutional discrimination” ► Discriminatory Impact is the moral and political equivalent of calculated risk

The Uses of Causal Argument In The Polis 1) Challenge of protect an existing set of rules, institutions, and interests 2) Assign blame and responsibility for fixing a problem and compensating victims 3) Legitimize certain actors as “fixers” of the problem, giving them new authority, power, and resources 4) Create new political alliances among people who perceive themselves to be harmed by the problem.

1. Challenge or protect an existing social order Example 1: In the 19 th and early 20 th century, many poor rural whites in the South were afflicted with a sickness later discovered to be caused by the hookworm parasite. People with the disease were listless and eventually became slowwitted. Charles Stiles discovered in 1902 that the hookworm was the cause of the disease and it could be easily cured with cheap medicine. Stiles was ridiculed for discovering the “germ of laziness. ” The discovery was resisted because it meant Southern elites had to stop blaming poor whites for their laziness and stupidity and stop congratulating themselves for their superior ability to work hard and think fast-a supposed superiority that served to justify political hierarchy. Example 2: The theory of maternal deprivation-that children whose mothers work suffer developmental deficits and delays-arose just as middle-class women entered the workforce in large numbers. Consciously or unconsciously, theory served as a brake on disintegration of the standard middle-class pattern in which the man is breadwinner and the woman is child rearer.

2. Assign blame and responsibility for fixing a problem and compensating victims. ► “The fall of a kingdom can be traced back through a lost battle, a fallen soldier, an injured horse, and a loose horseshoe, all the way to a missing nail and a careless blacksmith. ” ► Even when there is a strong statistical and logical link between a substance and a problem there is still a range of places to locate control and impose sanctions. ► Finding the ultimate cause of harms in these policy areas is not the issue. Locating moral responsibility and real economic costs on a chain of possible causes is the true issue.

3. Legitimize certain actors as “fixers” of the problem, giving them new authority, power, and resources. Ø Causal stories become mechanisms for linking a desired program to a problem that happens to be high on the policy agenda. Example 1: HMO’s Answer to: ► increase health care to the poor ► cost-containment problem Example 2: Urban Mass Transit Answer to: ► traffic congestion ► Pollution ► Energy conservation Ø Causal theories server as devices for building alliances between groups who have problems and groups who have solutions.

4. Create new political alliances among people who perceive themselves to be harmed by the problem. Ø Causal theories predicated on statistical association can create alliances by mobilizing people who share a “risk factor” but otherwise have no natural communication or association. Example 1: Shifting the location of responsibility on a causal chain can restructure alliances. In the past, the drunk driver was solely responsible for accidents. These days, taverns can be held responsible for the server’s negligence and now see their customers as potential liabilities. Tavern owners may seek new alliances with other antiregulation groups. Example 2: Women who took the drug DES 30 years ago to prevent miscarriages now have daughters who are at greater risk of developing certain cancers. Organizations of these women sprung up as soon as the initial publicity of the DES-cancer link occurred.