Public Policy Essay

830 Words2 Pages

In order to make policy decisions, decision makers often merge conflicting objectives into acceptable outcomes. Public policy is a new field of political science. Its development is an area of study that emerged out of the recognition that traditional analyses of government decisions were incomplete descriptions of political activities. As the relationships between society and its various public institutions has become more complex and more interdependent, the need has developed for more comprehensive assessments of institutions do, how they put their decisions in practice, and why they pursue some policy alternatives over others. This essay will discuss if the formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policy can be separated into discrete stages and be totally different entities with no attachment to each other whatsoever. Moreover, the essay will also delve into the extent to which the three processes; formulation, implementation and evaluation are separate processes that are considered differently and which of the processes must precede the other if not, it will answer the following questions; Can the public policy processes be interchanged during policy formulation? Does interchanging affect the whole process and puts it in disarray? If interchanging the public policy process causes disarray, what steps and measures should be taken to prevent this from happening? In this essay, an analysis of the extent to which the process of public policy is not a separate process will be discussed. The essay will then conclude by taking a position on whether the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the public policy process separate or not. Public policy is defined as a course of government action (or inaction) taken in ...

... middle of paper ...

...hese have to do with deep-rooted features of the surrounding context that make it difficult to adopt particular policy options or put them into effect. They can take many different forms. Constitutional provisions and the political system form a vital constraint that can limit the range of options available in a given situation. For example, the existence of two or more levels of government in federal systems impose similar constraints because many national policies require intergovernmental agreement, something that can be impossible or very-consuming to obtain. It requires decentralisation of policies in multi-level systems of government. To improve policy formulation, managers are advised to undertake the collection of necessary information in advance on various aspects of emerging and existing problems and develop proposed solutions for use by key policy-makers.

More about Public Policy Essay

Open Document