Public Policy Making

Chapter One
Public policy concepts, rationales and
principles
1.1. Conceptual framework
1.2. Rationales for studying public Policy
1.3. What makes public policy public?
1.4. Principles of public policy
1.5. Policy actors
 1.1. Conceptual framework
• In the modern world governments regulate almost everything from
our birth to our death through public policies.
• But what do we mean by public policy?
• The term “policy” comes from the Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin
languages.
• The Greek “polis” (city-state) and Sanskrit “pur” (city) evolved into
the Latin “politia” (state) and later, into the Middle English “policie”,
which referred to the conduct of public affairs or the administration
of government.
• The etymological origins of policy are the same for two other
important words: police and politics.
• This created somewhat porous boundaries among the disciplines of
political science, public administration, and policy analysis, all of
which study politics and policy (William N. Dunn ,2004; 34)
 Cont…
• Having an encompassing and a working definition of public
policy is not easy. Some of the definitions are:

• It is “the actions of government and the intentions that

determine those actions”(Cochran et al. ,1993)

• “Public policy consists of political decisions for

implementing programs to achieve societal goals” (Cochran
and Malone, 1999).

• Stated most simply, public policy is “the sum of

government activities, whether acting directly or through
agents, as it has an influence on the life of citizens” (B. Guy
Peter, 1999).
• “What the government, acting on our behalf, chooses to do or not
to do.” (Dye, 2005).
 Cont….

• “A policy is a purposive course of action followed by an actor or

set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern”
(Anderson ,1984:3)
• Public policy is “a set of interrelated decisions taken by a
political actor or group of actors concerning the selection of
goals and the means of achieving them within a specified
situation where those decisions should, in principle, be within the
power of those actors to achieve.” ( Jenkins ,1978)

• “A policy is a statement by government of what it intends to do

or not to do, such as a law, regulation, ruling, decision, or order,
or a combination of these.” (Birkland,2011)
– (Constitution, laws , regulations, court decisions or agency
decisions , or even the change in behavior of public officials
at all levels)
 Cont…
• May be implicit or explicit
• Regulate behavior, organize bureaucracies, distribute benefits,
or extract taxes
• Is the study how governments translate popular will in to
practice
• It is intentional
• Scarcity and rational self interest are the driving forces for
public policy
 The field of public policy
• One major fascinating element in studying public policy is its
reliance on a broad range of social sciences such as political
science, economics, public administration, sociology, etc.

• Scholars argue that public policy emerged from political science.

• As an independent discipline, public policy is one of the recent

sciences (early 1960s and 1970s).

• Some scholars hold that the study of public policy is about 50

years beginning with Harold Lasswell’s (1958) call for the
development of a distinctive policy science.
 Some key attributes of public policy
• Responses to policy demands-some sort of problem that
requires attention.

• It is made on the public’s behalf

• Goal and result oriented.

• Public policy is based on law and is authoritative.

• Without enforcement, a policy loses its meaning

• Policy is ultimately made by government

• Policy is also what government chooses to do or not to do

 Cont…
• Public policy making can be treated as a science (policy
science) in which scientific method can be employed in its
study.
• Though the study of public policy is different from the study
of “natural” or “hard” sciences, the method used can be
scientific and rigorous to produce or test important hypotheses
and allow these ideas to be tested and refined
 Self- Exercises
1. Differentiate the concepts of policy, public policy, and public
management.
2. List all policies you may know and give appraisal of your own
how they were understood among the experts and middle level
managers in your institution. Are they perceived with due roles,
goals and as road map to national development endeavors?
Discuss within your groups and report.

3. What is the commonality and difference between public and

private policies?

4. Explain the difference between implicit and explicit policies. Why

governments need to have implicit policies?
1.2. Rationales for studying public policy and citizen’s role
• In the course of their daily lives, people are affected, directly and
indirectly by an extensive array of public policies, causing
pleasure and irritation or pain.

• Government regulates almost everything we see, breathe, touch,

use, ride, or ingest, from our birth to our death in the modern
world(Gupta ,2001; 1).
• Government do all of them through public policies.

• In addition to the indicated role of governments, there are

demanding reasons or rationales to study public policies.
 Theoretical, professional and political reasons

• Citizens have good reason to develop policy knowledge and

skills as it affects their life (the life of every person) whether in
their career life through the professions, programs institutions, etc.
• Theoretical underpinnings on public policy help citizens in their
conscious political participation
• Public policies sharpens citizens’ analytical skills in order to help
them decide what political positions and policies to support,
evaluate the extent of democracy and good governance, develop
the ability to influence policy decisions.

• Academics want to examine/assess the general understanding of

the public, the policymaking processes, seek truth in a bid to
explain the causes and consequences of public policy vis-à-vis
what governments ought to do.
 Cont…
• Political scientists are also concerned as to how public policy is
related to the structure of political parties, their group interests,
their interparty competitions, the electoral systems, and the
executive-legislative relations.

• Government agencies need to have policy think-tanks who

can examine (analyze) public problems and provide policy
alternatives in order to help policymakers, interest groups and
citizens choose among those alternatives that can achieve
desired outcomes.
 Cont….

• Interest groups use information developed through policy

analysis to reinforce their arguments.

• Ordinary citizens and organizations also benefit from policy

knowledge and its analysis to make their views and
decisions.

• Thus, policy analysts need to understand the interests and

aspirations of all groups to come to policy formulation.
 1.3. What makes public policy public ?
• One belief of classical liberalism among many others is that
power derives from the consent of the people (the governed).
• The idea of social contractarians also support the above one
that governments should be founded up on the choices and
consent of the people.
• Public policy got its adjective (public) from the view point
that it is made on behalf of a public by a means of a public law
or regulation.
• Proponents of policy claim that the government should
develop policies in the “public interest”.
• Though Public interest could be individuals interest held in
common and those goals on which there is a consensus;
policies or programs favored by the majority, there are
disagreements over what constitutes “ the public interest “.
 Cont …

• For example, if the rich has to be taxed more than the poor,
which one of these is in the public interest and who is to
evaluate this?
• There are multiple public interests at the local, state, and
national, or international levels. Such diverse interests
contributes to the expediency or restraint of various
policies at any point in time

• The bottom line, however is that public policy is directly and

indirectly related to public interests as it affects citizens in one
way or another.
 1.4. Public Policy Principles
• In addition to the definitions of public policy we have seen
earlier it is important to look at some of its features which are
generally called public policy principles.

 It is intentional
 needs Participatory approach
 Both short and long term
 Establishes incentives
 Prohibits morally unacceptable behavior
 Success or failure
 Influences citizens
 Policy actors

Official actors Unofficial actors

• Legislative Branch: House of • Interest Groups

Federation vs. House of • Political Parties
Representatives
• Think Tanks and other
• Executive Branch: the Prime
Research Organizations
minster & his/her Cabinet,
Administrative Agencies
• Media
• Judicial Branch: Courts • Individual Citizens

Official actors: Legal authority to make public policy

Unofficial actors: Do not by themselves make public

policy that is legally binding on all of the citizen. They
can influence the policymaking process and the decision-
making process, etc
A. Official Actors
– Official actors are players with legal authority to make public
policy
a) Legislative Branch:
• House of Federation vs. House of Representatives
b) Executive Branch:
– Prime minster
– Council of Ministers /Cabinet
– Executive ministries : Advice and execute policies
– Independent agencies and government corporations: Execute policies
and provide special services
– Boards, Commissions and Committees
c) Judicial Branch
– The Supreme Court
– Higher Court
– First Instance Courts
 B. Unofficial Actors
– Unofficial actors are players can influence the policymaking
process and the decision-making process, etc. Do not by
themselves make public policy that is legally binding on all
of the citizen

– Unofficial actors /supplementary actors include :

• Interest Groups
• Political Parties
• Think Tanks and other Research Organizations
• Media
• Individual Citizens
 1.Interest Groups
• An interest group is a collection of people or organizations
that unite to advance their desired political outcomes in
government and society
• There are different ways to organize this groups by
the types of interests

• Involve in diverse areas of policy concern: labor,

agriculture, business, education, health, environment,
and other areas of society

• Are many and diverse in their interests, organizations,

size, and modes of operation

• Rely on lobbying
 Cont…

• Its role in policymaking process:

– Major source of demands for public-policy action .
• Pressure group and public-interest group may express
demands and present alternatives for policy action.
• They may also supply public officials with much
information, often technical, and perhaps not
available from other sources, about the nature and
possible consequences of policy proposals.
• The amount of influence depends on:
– the size of the membership
– its monetary and other resources
– its cohesiveness
– the skill of its leadership
– its social status
– the presence or absence of competing organizations
– the attitudes of public officials , etc .
 2. Political parties
• Political parties are organizations interested primarily in
contesting elections in order to control the personnel of
government.
• Elections are contested more on the basis of constituency
service, media imagery, and negative attacks on
opponents rather than on policy differences.

• The way in which parties aggregate interests is affected

by the number of parties.

– In predominantly two-party systems, the parties’

desire to gain widespread electoral support will
require both parties to include in their policy package
those demands which have very broad popular support
– In multiparty systems, on the other hand, parties may
do less aggregating and act as the representatives of
fairly narrow sets of interests.
 Cont…
• Its role in policymaking process
– Help elected officials and their supporters create
packages of policy ideas

– Crucial to the organization of legislative branch

– Party labels provide voters with cues for voting,

– Provide a rough way of transmitting political

preferences from the electorate to the elected
branches .

– Generally, parties have a broader range of policy

concerns than do interest groups; hence they act
more as brokers than as advocates for particular
interests in policy formation.
 3. Think Tanks
• Think tanks are independent research
organizations ,sometimes ideologically neutral but often
identified with a particular political perspective

• Staffed with full-time policy analysts and researchers,

some of whom are ex-government officials.

• Address more complex government problems that need for

greater analytic capacity and good sources of information
and ideas
 Cont…

• Their role in policy making process

– Sources of information and policy ideas

• Provide basic information and data on policy issues
• Develop alternatives and proposals for handling
problems
• Evaluate the effectiveness and consequences of
public polices

– Add much substance to policy debates

• Testify at congressional committee hearings
• Communicate informally with public officials
• Write articles
 4. Communications media
• The news media can serve as ‘the fourth branch’ of
government, thereby providing a check on the other three
branches
• The “press” today consists of traditional outlets such as
magazines , news papers ,radio and television ,but also
extends to web sites ,blogs, social networks/media, and the
like
• Acts as the primary source of information on public
affairs
• Its role in policymaking process
– Suppliers and transmitters of information
– Agenda-setting function
• Elevate some issues to greater public interest
• Determine what people think about
• Shapers of attitudes
 Some features of media
• Basically media is a business entity who seeks to
maximize profit.
• Minimal coverage of policy matters: but on
– Issues of high public appeal
– Politics of policy rather than the details of policy
content
• Bias in media coverage and reporting of public affairs
& allegations that public officials are managing or
manipulating the news:

1. Biases in news coverage based on competitive and

economic needs of the news outlets
2. Painting stories to be more dramatic
 Cont…
3. Personalizing (conflict positions ) to make the news
interesting and comprehensible to readers/viewers

4. Distorting stories ( eg. novel like narration)

5. Manipulation of the media by government officials

and interest groups through selectively providing
favorable or unfavorable information, etc
 5. Individual Citizens
• Individual citizens have weakest representation in the
policymaking process

• Play passive role in policymaking process as individuals

due to :
– Free-riding,
– simply not interested
– rationally ignorant

• Individual citizens role in policy making process

– Participate indirectly through voting (representative
democracy)
– Political activism
– Referendum
– New ideas and directions to the policy process
 Group work
• Policy decisions affect citizens’ age, profession, points of
view, decisions and choices. In contrast, citizen’s ability to
participate in the policy process helps to influence policy
decisions. How?
• Discuss as to how public policy is an expression of political
rationality?
 Reading assignment
1. Role of public managers in public policy making (read and
come to class to report)