PUBLIC POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
Public Policy is a purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors’ in dealing with a problem or matter of concern.
Public Policy can be ‘anything governments choose to do’.
Actors or Agents can be any one or everyone who is involved in decision making.
ALL POLICIES ARE:
? Goal-Oriented rather than random, although goals could be loosely stated and unclear
? Consisting of Courses or Patterns of Action taken over time by government officials rather than discrete, separate decisions
? Consisting of the Decisions and Statements that Emerge in Response to Policy Demands, or demands for action or inaction by other actors
? Involving what governments actually do, not what they intend to do, including policy outputs in pursuance of policy decisions and statements
? Can be positive or negative.
? Accepted as legitimate, authoritative, and legal binding.
DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH THE TERM POLICY CAN BE USED:
? A label for a field of activity—broad statements by government about industrial policy
? An expression of general purpose or desired state of affairs—’to provide every citizen with a sanitary environment’
? Specific proposals—’to reduce inflation by three percent in the next year’
? Decisions of government in—policy decisions announced by the president or parliament
? Formal authorization—acts of parliament
? A program—a land reform program
? Output—what is actually delivered such as the number of subsidies given
? & ...