Public Policy: An Introduction
Abstract
Public policy as a subject has a long past, though it came in discussion
after 1940s but at the beginning of twenty century it also discussed in
political science as an important field. Public policy can be simply define as
an attempt by government to address a public issue by instituting laws,
regulations, decisions or action pertinent to the problem. Numerous issues can
be addressed by public policy. Public policy may be general or specific, broad
or narrow, qualitative or quantitative. Public policy focuses on the public and
its problem. As a field of policy as well as decision making public policy has
an important role to develop political values and knowledge. This paper attempts
to discuss about what is public policy, what is its nature, scope and
significance as well as importance of public policy as a subject of study.
Key words: Public, Policy, Nature,
Analysis, Significance etc.
Introduction
Public policy generally related to
public that means common people of a country. Public policy deals with public
interest as well as societal and country’s interest. It is an attempt by
government to address numerous issues such as- crime, education, foreign
policy, health, social welfare, agriculture, industries and so on. In the past,
study of public policy dominated by researchers and students of political
science but in recent time the study of public policy has evolved into a new
branch of social science, the so-called “policy science”. Yet public policy
formed an important element of political process. Dye says:
“…. Institutional studies usually described specific government
institution …... without systematically inquiring about impact of institutional
characteristics a policy outputs. However, the linkage between institutional
arrangement and content of policy remained largely unexamined.”(1)
Today the policy science have gone far beyond naïve
aspiration for societally relevant knowledge. And at present time public policy
is not only studied by researchers and student of political science, it studied
by all who aware about political things.
Definition
of Public Policy
The concept of public policy presupposes that there is a
domain of life which is not private or purely individuals, but held in common.
To understand public policy we should know bout what is public and private, and
what is policy.
The idea of public: It is important and essential to
understand the of ‘public’ for a discussion of public policy. The word public
comprises all the dimensions of human activities regarded to governmental
intrusion or social regulation.
The idea of policy: Policy denotes the decisions of actions among other things ‘guidance for action’.
It may form of:
·
Authoritative
decisions,
·
Purposive
course of action,
·
System
of governance,
·
Declaration
of common goals,
·
Expression
of political rationality.
Hogwood & Gunn (2) specified ten uses of the term ‘policy’:
·
A
label of the field of activity,
·
An
expression of desired state of affairs,
·
Specific
proposal,
·
Decisions
of government,
·
Formal
authorization,
·
A
program,
·
Output,
·
Outcome,
·
A
theory or model,
·
A
process.
David Eston defines policy as the ‘outputs’ of
political system, and public policy as “the authoritative allocation of values
for the whole society.” (3)
Thomas Dye says
- “Public policy is whatever governments choose to do or not to do.” (4)
According to James E. Anderson, “A
purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing
with a problem or matter of concern.” (5)
Person defined
– “a policy is an attempt to define and structure a rational basis for action
or inaction.” (6)
Carl J. Friedrich define public policy as “….a proposed course of action of a
person, group, or government within a given environment providing obstacles and
opportunities which proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a
goal or realize and objective or a purpose.” (7)
Robert L. Lineberry says that “it is what government do and fail to do-to and for
their citizens.” (8)
According to Heidenhcimer “how, why and to what effect governments peruse particular
course of action and inaction.” (9)
Origin of Public Policy
The study of public policy began in
1922, when charles Meriam, a political scientist, sought to build a link
between political theory and its application to reality. The field of public
policy whose intellectual seeds were sown in the 1940’s has made it remarkable
impact on the academic and government institutions over the years. Public policy as an academic pursuit
emerged in the beginning of 1950’s and since then, it has been acquiring new
dimensions and is struggling hard to achieve the status of a discipline in the
comity of social science.
Nature of Public Policy
For understanding a public policy, it
is important to analyze its nature. A policy may be general or specific, broad
or narrow, simple or complex, explicit or implicit, discretionary or detailed
and qualitative or quantitative.
A public policy may cover a major
portion of its activities, such as a development, economic growth, social
justice, equality or self-reliance or similar broad principles of guidance for
action may be adopted as developmental policy or a rational goal.
The nature of public policy as a
course of action can be better or more fully understood if it broken down into a number of categories,
these being policy demand, decision, statement, outputs and outcomes. These
are:
·
Policy
demands are those demands or claims made upon public officials by other actors,
private or officials, in the political system for action or inaction on some
perceived problem.
·
Policy
decisions are decisions made by public officials that authorize or given
direction and content to public policy actions.
·
Policy
statements are the formal expressions or articulations of public policy.
·
Policy
outputs are the “tangible manifestations” of public policy, the things actually
done in pursuance of policy decisions and statements.
·
Policy
outcomes are the consequences for society, intended or unintended, that flow
from action or inaction by government.
·
Public
policy may be either positive or negative in form.
Scope of Public Policy
Public policy is an important area of
study and practice. Public policy focuses on the public and its problems. Dye
puts it, with what Government do, why they do it and what difference it makes.
The study of public analysis
includes:
·
Analysis of the policy
process: This encompasses a definition of the problem, agenda
setting, formulation, implementation and evaluation of the policy.
·
Analysis for the policy
process: This encompasses the use of analytical techniques,
research and advocacy in problem definition, policy formulation, implementation
and evaluation.
Typology of Public Policy issues
Lowi has persuasively argued that
there are three primary types of policies- distributive, redistributive and
regulatory and that each type of policy is associated with a particular
political process.
·
Distributive policy: This policies
concerned with the distribution of new resources are distributive policies.
These include grants and subsidies that give protection to certain interest
against competition. Some examples of distributive policies are adult education
program, food relief, social insurance, scholarships to students belonging to
weaker sections of the community, and so on.
·
Redistributive policy: Redistributive
policies concerned with changing the distribution of existing resources with
the rearrangement of policies which are related to bringing about basic social
and economic change in the economy and society. Redistributive policies are
generally ideological; they raise basic issues about the proper role of
government in social and economic matters.
·
Regulatory policy: Regulatory
policies are concerned with regulation and control of activities. They seek to
alter individuals behavior directly by imposing standards on regulated
industries, and are much more likely to arose controversy.
Importance of Public Policy
Public policy, as we have analyzed,
is an important component of the democratic government and its focus is on “the
public and its problems”. It is an are which has to do with those spheres which
are labeled as public. There are many reasons to study public policy, such as-
·
Scientific
reasons,
·
Professional
reasons,
·
Political
reasons,
·
Administrative
reasons,
·
Description,
analysis and explanation of cause and effect of governmental activities,
·
Institutional
arrangement,
·
Impact
of environmental forces on the content,
·
Policy
analysis and policy advocacy,
·
For
promoting policy education values,
Conclusion
After above discussion, it can be
said that the study of public policy helps us to understand the social ills of
the subject under study. Lasswll commented in 1948 that the ultimate goal of
policy-making was “the progressive democratization of making”. Parsons also
opined that “it is the clarification, shaping and sharing of values so as to
extend and enhance democratization which still remains the core and vital task
of theory and practice of public policy”. Public policies of a democratic
country are important devices and mechanisms for moving a social and economic
system from the past to the future. Thus, the significance of public policy as
a subject in the academics can be understood.
Public Policy: An Introduction
-- Md. Helal Uddin
