Public
policy is a definite and purposeful course of an action selected or adopted by
the government and its institution from among alternatives to solve or address
a given societal problem. Usually societies at a given point in time are
confronted with problems and government is always seen formulating and
implementing policies to solve them.
Examples
of societal problems that government makes and implement policies to solve
includes, unemployment, insecurity, armed robbery, poor standard in education,
dwindling national income, corruption, low quantity in agricultural production,
inflation, low standard of industrial products, poor health system, poor access
to financial services for economic activities, rising social and economic
inequality, political, religious, social and ethnic violence or agitation, poor
transportation system, poor housing system, drug abuse, rape and poor public
service delivery.
What is Public Policy?
Public
policy is said to be a combination of laws, regulations, actions, policies and
a lot of other factors concerning a given topic. Such public policies of a
nation are shaped over time by education, advocacy groups, influences of
lobbyists, and conflicting interests of special interest groups.
So the public policy process is a very dynamic and complicated process that occurs via public forums.
First, the problems of the public receive recognition and
identification. And the process of public policy will help sort the problems.
These policies can be political, economic, cultural or social in nature.
Let
us take an example of traffic violations.
Say
for example in India the fine for traffic violations uses to be very lenient.
But now they have been revised and made quite strict. However, they are still
not quite as strict as the ones in Hong Kong or Singapore. This can be chalked
up to the public policies of the nation.
General Characteristics of Public Policy
The meaning and nature of
public policy will become clearer through throwing light on dissimilar characteristics
of public policy.
Some of the key characteristics
of public policy making are:
- Goal Oriented
All public policies have the ultimate aim to fulfill certain goals the government has in mind. The reason for the formation and implementation of these policies is the welfare of the citizens of the nation. So the government can use public policies to implement government programs to achieve their goals.
For example,
the current government has a financial inclusion policy. They wish to enlist
the majority of our rural population in banks through the Jan Dhan Yojna.
- Result of Government
Action Public policy is the result of the collective of all government actions. So the actions and activities of all government officials collectively integrate to form public policy.
The entire legal structure of our country stands on the
collective actions of its representatives. From the actions of the highest
judge in the land to that of lawyers and clerks forms the basis of our
judiciary.
- Can Take Various Forms
Public policy forms by the decision of the government to do something, or even to not do something. The decision of the government can represent itself in many forms like law, notices, ordinances, judicial decisions, executive orders, and judgments etc.
In India most public policies will be in a written format, however,
this is not a necessity
- Depicts Concern of the Government
Public policy is the solution to a problem the society is facing. This means the solution for the betterment of society has the sanction of the government. So it is of great importance to entrepreneurs and businessmen in a country.
They
need assurance that the government is looking after their concerns and economic
interests as well. And if the government refuses to take any action it reflects
their ignorance or disconcert. This will warn its citizens of the government’s
lack of empathy and concern.
- Public Policy Making is a Very Intricate Process
Policy making involves several components, which are interconnected through communication and feedback loops and which interact in dissimilar methods. Some parts of the process are explicit and directly observable, but several others proceed through hidden channels that the officials themselves are often only partly aware of.
These hidden procedures are very hard, and often impossible to
observe. Therefore, guidelines are often shaped through a series of single
decisions that result in a „policy‟ without any one of the decision makers being
aware of that process.
- It is a Dynamic Process
Policy
making is a process that is a continuing activity taking place within a
structure; for sustenance, it requires a continuing input of possessions and
motivation. It is a dynamic process, which changes with time, the sequences of
its sub processes and stages vary internally and with respect to each other.
- Making Comprises Several Components
The
complexity of public policy making as we know is a significant feature of
policy making. Public policy formulation often involves a great diversity of
substructures. The identity of these substructures and the degree of their
involvement in policy making, vary because of dissimilar issues, circumstances
and societal values.
- Policy Structure Creates Dissimilar Contributions
This
feature suggests that every substructure creates a dissimilar, and sometimes
unique, contribution to public policy. What sort of contribution substructures
create, depends in part on their formal and informal features which vary from
society to society.
- Directed at the Future
Policy making is directed at the future. This is one of its most significant features since it introduces the ever-present elements of uncertainty and doubtful prediction that establish the basic tone of almost all policy making.
Actual
policy making tends to formulate policies in vague and elastic conditions;
because the future is so uncertain. It permits policy makers to adjust their policy
according to emerging facts and enables them to guard against unforeseen
circumstances.
- Mainly Formulated through Governmental Organs
Public policy is also directed, in part, at private persons and nongovernmental structures, as when it calls for a law prohibiting a certain type of behavior or appeals to citizens to engage in private saving.
But public policy, in most
cases, is primarily directed at governmental organs, and only intermediately
and secondarily at other factors.
- Aims at Achieving what is in the Public Interest
Though
hard it might be to discover out what the '„public interest” may correctly
refer to, the term nevertheless conveys the thought of a “general”
orientation and seems so to be significant and important.
Furthermore,
there is good evidence that the image of “public interest” powers the public
policy making process and is so at least, as conceived through the several
public policy making units, a “real” phenomenon, and a significant operational
tool for the study of policy making.
- Use of Best Possible Means
In
abstract terminology, public policy making aims at achieving the maximum net
benefit. Benefits and costs take in part the form of realized values and
impaired values, respectively, and cannot in most cases be expressed in
commensurable units.
Often,
quantitative techniques can so not be used in this area of public policy making
but neither the qualitative significance of maximum net benefits as an aim nor
the necessity to think broadly in relation to the alternative public policies
in conditions of benefits and costs is so reduced.
- Involvement of Several Bodies/Agencies
Industrial workers, voters, intellectuals,
legislators, bureaucrats, political parties, political executives, judiciary
etc. are the several organs that participate in public policy making and can
power the policy process to a great extent.
Key Characteristics of Successful Public Policy
Successful
Public Policy = Good Policy + Good Policies
Good Policy: These
occurs when it is concluded that the policy will produces a measureable and a
positive outcome.
Good Politics: These
happen when no one is expected to criticizes policy or the individuals and the organizations
behind it.
The Rising Importance of Public Policy
It
is clear from the above sections of the article that policy is a purposive
course of action in dealing with a problem or a matter of concern within a
specific time frame.
Before
going into the question of importance which is attached to policy formulation,
implementation and monitoring, it would be better to recapitulate the
components of public policy. Policy is purposive and deliberately formulated.
Policy necessity has a purpose or a goal.
It
does not emerge at random or through chance. Once a goal is decided the policy
is devised in such a method that it determines the course of action needed to
achieve that goal. A policy is well thought out and is not a series of discrete
decisions.
A
policy is what is actually done and not what is planned or desired, a statement
of goals does not constitute a policy. Policy also delineates a time frame in
which its goals have to be achieved. Policy follows a defined course of action
viz. formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Actually the
scope of public policy is determined through the type of role that the State
adopts for itself in a society.
In
the classical capitalist society, State was assigned a limited role and it was
expected that the State would merely act as a regulator of social and economic
activity and not its promoter. With the advent of planned view of development,
State began to be perceived as an active agent in promoting and shaping
societies in its several activities. This was measured as a great change in the
role of a State.
Public
policies expanded their scope from merely one of regulation to that of
development. Expansion in scope led to many other consequences like several
more government agencies and institutions came into being in order to formulate
and implement policies.
In
India, the Planning Commission and its attendant agencies came into being in
order to formulate policies and develop perspectives that could describe the
direction which the country would follow.
So,
the first major goal of public policies in our country has been in the area of
socioeconomic development. Wide ranging policies were formulated in the area
of industrial and agricultural development.
Several
policies were converted into Statutes, like Industrial Development and
Regulating Act or Land Tenancy Act. Others were kept as directives in the
several plan documents. For all policy directions, the Five Year Plans became
the major source. These policies were of two types, one of regulation and the
other of promotion. Laws laid down what could be done or not done through the
entrepreneurs.
This
could be in the larger area like what goods can be produced through the public
or whether certain goods can be traded only through government agencies. Laws
also specified how State agencies themselves were to give goods and services
like electricity, transport etc.
The
State undertook similar responsibility in the social sphere.
Dowry
Act, Divorce Act, etc., are examples of this. But socioeconomic transformation
was not the only problem when India became independent. There were also
troubles of national integrity, the external environment was a source of
threat, and the country had to develop appropriate policies to defend itself.
Separately from this, there have been internal challenges.
Regionalism
has given rise to fissiparous tendencies that have to be countered in the longterm
perspective. These would contain not only defense policies but also similar
efforts at decentralization that make greater national cohesiveness.
Therefore,
since independence, public policies in India have been formulated with a view
to achieve socioeconomic development and maintain national integrity. These
goals have been intricate demanding coherent policies. This has been a hard
task because goals have had to be divided into sectors and subsectors. Several
a times through its very nature, policies have been contradictory.
What
may be rational for economic development may not be so for national
integration.
Therefore,
the need of a strong Centre to cope with external threats etc. is significant
but it may go against the principle of decentralization which gives for greater
national cohesion of a heterogeneous society. This is the cause why
ascertaining of the actual impact of public policy becomes a necessity. These
days policy analysis is acquiring a lot of importance in the realm of the study
of public administration.
This
trend is observable all in excess of the world. The success of policy
formulation, execution, and monitoring ultimately depends on the success of
policy analysis.
In
India, this trend appeared with the launching of our Five Year Plans. As the
years passed through, one Five Year Plan was followed through another and
disillusionment started setting in. Goals of socioeconomic development could
not be achieved.
Those
who were supposed to benefit from the development effort began to lose.
Attention shifted to the management and administration in order to discover out
why the policies were failing to achieve their objectives. This investigation
did not contain the questions of policies being right or wrong. It took the
crises of the 1960s to raise the issue of correctness of policy.
Disenchantment
with the development processes followed the two wars in 1962 and 1965. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforced a devaluation of the rupee in 1966
and a terrible drought ravaged the land throughout 196668. It became apparent
that the development policies were in trouble.
In
the early 1970s another war, drought, and the oil crisis gave a jolt to the
plan that had been followed until then. The culmination was the imposition of
national emergency in 1975 to cope with the rising dissatisfaction.
It
was the emergence of the turbulent period that led to the questioning of the
policies that had been followed. It was no more a question of implementation
alone. The argument that began to gain the popular view was that policy itself
was faulty and all the blame could not be put on administration.
The
first to pick up this line of reasoning was the discipline of economics. The
economic failures dominated the scene and so it was natural that economists
were the first ones to raise questions in relation to the appropriateness of
policy.
Students
of public administration began to emphasize that implementation failures could
also emanate from inadequacy of public policy and so policy analysis should
also be incorporated in the area of study of public administration. This
argument got support from certain developments in the discipline of public
administration. In view of the everyday experience, it was becoming hard to
sustain the classical concept of separation of politics and administration.
This distinction categorized policy formulation and implementation as two
separate activities.
Policy
formulation was regarded as a political activity and policy implementation an
administrative one. But this distinction got increasingly blurred and it was
not an easy task to determine where policy formulation ended and where policy
implementation began. It came to be accepted that both were interactive
processes and had to be seen in an integrated method. With this change in view
students of public administration began to devote greater attention to the
troubles of policy formulation and power of policy design on implementation.
It
is in this method that policy analysis has become a significant focus of study.
Policy makers have also shown great interest in it because it ultimately helps
in improving the effectiveness of policy.
Several
universities and research institutes are involved in policy analysis. The
government gives for a lot of funds in this area.
Successful Public Policy Begins at Inception
To create a successful and
strong policy, you must first do the following:
- Define
the problem
- Gather
evidence
- Identify
causes
- Select
best solution
- Develop
solutions
- Evaluate
a policy
- Evaluate
benefits and cost
- Utilize
the prince system
- Develop
political strategies
Strong and Successful Public Policy
A
strong and successful Public Policy does the below listed:
- Solve
public problem effectively and efficiently
- Serves
justices
- Supports
democratic constitutions and processes
- Encourage
an active/ empathic citizenship
Ask yourself
- Does
the policy solve people problems?
- Does
the policy use government?
- Is the
policy constitutional?
- Is the
policy realistic?
- The
Public Policy process if a onetime process. True or False?
What is Good Policy?
In
a nutshell, a good policy is one that solves problems without creating a
political rift. Whenever it is believed that it can solve a problem without one
party disagreeing with its inception, it can go forward without issue. This
policy should solve a public problem without violating the legal boundaries set
down by federal, state, and local laws. It must encourage an active citizenry,
furthermore, as well as the democratic process.
Successful or Failure
Questions of whether the policy solves the problem and whether or not it is legal affect the successes and failures. For example, California’s attempt to cut down on gun crime saw a ten year foundation that cut down on the gun violence rate by fifty percent; Since the foundation did not attempt to restrict gun ownership it had no questions about constitutionality.
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