TOPIC- PUBLIC POLICY

Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They
set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make
sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic
research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves
life for everyone.

-BILL GATES

'Public Policy', as an academic pursuit emerged inthe early 1950s and

since then it has been acquiring new dimensions, and is now attempting
to acquire the status of a discipline. As a study of products of the
government policy forms a significant component in several social science
disciplines like political science, public administration, economics, and
management. So rapid is the academic growth of public policy that many
researchers, teachers, and public administrators now feel that it is increasingly
becoming complex. The disciplines associated with public policy cut right across
the old academic lines of demarcation. Indeed it is this quality which makes
the field of public policy intresting and thought provoking.

Public policy is the process by which governments translate their

political vision into programmes and actions to deliver ‘outcomes —
desired changes in the real world’. The ‘real world’ is constantly
changing and this has resulted in the movement towards greater use of
evidence in policy design, making and implementation. Rational choice
theory, or now more frequently known as evidence-based policy, argues
that focusing on scientific evidence, instead of history and culture,
should guide our public policy making.