Policy Characteristics, Patterns of Politics, and the Minimum Wage: Toward a Typology of Redistributive Policies

Abstract

The central hypothesis of all policy typologies is that distinctively different patterns of politics can be identified for different types of public policy issues. Lowi identified three different policy types, which he termed distributive, regulative, and redistributive, each of which triggers a distinctively different pattern of political behavior. Unfortunately, Lowi's categories were inductively derived and ambiguously defined, leading to disagreements over how to categorize particular policies. Hayes built on Lowi's seminal effort, deriving Lowi's three policy categories from two underlying dimensions and identifying additional categories Lowi's original formulation had missed. Using the minimum wage issue as an example, this article will identify a critical deficiency in both these typologies. While Hayes' typology defines the boundaries between policy categories more precisely than Lowi's, neither typology is equipped to deal with variations in political patterns occurring within a particular cell. As this article will show, the minimum wage issue, although consistently redistributive in Hayes' terms, has manifested three very different patterns of politics at different points in time. Accordingly, a typology of redistributive policies will be advanced to account for these variations in the redistributive politics of the minimum wage.

The Determinants of Policy Introduction and Bill Adoption: Examining Minimum Wage Increases in the American States, 1997–2006

“…690–91), some scholars have tended to view the policy as regulatory in nature. Others see the policy as redistributive because clear winners and losers are identifiable (Hayes, ), and still others contend that minimum wages qualify as symbolic policy because ideologues differ in their understanding of the policy and ignore its “objective nature” (Waltman, , p. 140). While the purpose of this overview is not to weigh in on the typology debate, we include it as an illustration of the policy's multidimensional nature, which has been reflected in the literature to date.…”

Income inequality and the growth of redistributive spending in the United States (US) states: is there a link?

“…Further, when there is a greater gap in income between the median and mean, the median voter will prefer more redistribution. This basic assumption that welfare policies draw public attention and crystallise citizen preferences both before and after adoption is relatively unambiguous and has sufficient empirical support in the literature (Sloan 1997; Hayes 2007; Bendz 2015).…”

“…Other scholars have noted that the specific nature of redistributive programmes will condition the relationship between inequality and redistribution. Different types of redistributive programmes play different roles in society (Hayes 2007; Hatch and Rigby 2015). Though we first think of “welfare” (i.e.…”

From a Narrowly Defined Minimum Wageto Broader Wage Policy

“…Michael Hayes (2007) suggests REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY that, on the narrow basis of Lowi's typology, the minimum wage exhibits features of both regulatory and redistributive policies. Redistributive policies tend to be intensely conflictual because there are clear and specific resources being redistributed from one group to another, and opposition is guaranteed because the potential losers from redistributive policies are clearly identified.…”