Policy Change and Society

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Policy change is something that has been taught briefly since most of us have been in high school. But does society really understand why policy changes and what is affecting it. Is there policy change for political gains, change of environment, social issues or are their constraints that cause our political actors to act a certain way or influence policy in a different way then expected. Throughout time we see abrupt changes in history like the social reforms President Obama has been attacking since he came into office in 2008. In addition, we have also seen bills signed by Presidents that are opposite of their party favor. Through discussing how policy change happens, the different levels and what affects policy we can start to understand why certain actions of policy happen.
A policy change that is widely known in our history is the New Deal in acted by President Roosevelt in the 1930s. In the New Deal policy, it was a response to the Great Depression. This policy create relief, reform and recovery for the lower class and unemployed people of American. In this case politicians had to make a policy change for the social welfare and economic life of America. It provided relief for cities, made fair competition between industries throughout the National Industrial Recovery Act. Furthermore as the New Deal was created policy changed happened later in the 1930s to support the changing environment. For example, the Social Security act was created to help support the elderly population of the nation, this helped to provided social welfare and insurance funded through out payroll taxes. We also change in social welfare with the setting of maximum hours that can be worked within a work week. These changes were all made to enhance the...

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...overnment spending. The people who are in Part D of Medicare are there for a reason, low income. The fact that they are promised to be covered, but then have to seek out other supplemental insurance or pay thousands on out of pocket cost because they end up getting placed in different plan is not efficient. In my opinion this political move and policy change was not in President Bush’s best interest for his political image unlike President Clinton.
Many things can effect policy change positively and negatively. The motive that drives can be social and economic relief, political gain or there can be lack of policy change due to the constraint of past decisions.

Works Cited

Béland, Daniel, and Alex Waddan. "1-3." The Politics of Policy Change: Welfare, Medicare, and Social Security Reform in the United States. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2012. N. pag. Print.

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