Cagayan State University College of Public Administration

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INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Chapter-1 An introduction to Public Policy

1.1. Meaning and concept of public policy
What is Policy?
A policy often comes in the form of general statements about priorities, written regulations or guidelines,
procedures and/or standards to be achieved. At its simplest, policy refers to a distinct path of action which
is suitable for the pursuit of desired goals within a particular context, directing the decision making of an
organization or individual.
Policy is a code of conduct, behavior, framework, or guideline. It is a set of ideas or a plan of what to do
in a particular situation that has been agreed officially by a group of people, a business organization, a
government or a political party.
Policy is a purposive course of action taken or adopted by those in power in pursuit of certain goals or
objectives. It a process of making important organizational decisions, including the identification of
different alternatives such as programs or spending priorities and choosing among them on the basis of
the impact they will have.
In short, policy means:

 intended or unintended action or activities

 standards of conduct (behavior)
 guidance of actions
 a set of political purposes
 norms, social practices
The main aim of the policy is to solve the problems
What is public policy?
Generally speaking public policy is what the government chooses to do, or not to do. It is a decision made
by government to either act, or not act in order to resolve a problem.
Public policy is a course of action that guides a range of related actions in a given field. They rarely tackle
one problem, but rather deal with clusters of entangled and long-term problems. Public policy provides
guidance to governments and accountability links to citizens. Decision making is clouded by values, rather
than based purely on objective data.
Most issues tend to involve deeply held values/ interests and large amounts of money, making the policy
process very complex.
Public policy can be defined as the system of laws, regulatory measures, course of actions, and finding
priorities concerning a given topic formulated by a governmental entity and its representatives. It is as
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INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
means by which a government maintains order, or addresses the needs of its citizens through actions
defined by the constitutions.
Public policy is considered as the set of inter-related decisions taken by the political actor or group of
actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation.
Public policies are conceived as programs of actions promoted by the public authorities.
According to Thomas R. Dye, Public policy is what government chooses to do and not to do.
According to David Easton,Public policy is authoritative allocation of values for the whole society.
Thus public policy means:
Policy is purposive or goal orientation actions rather than random or chance behavior.
It consists of courses or pattern of actions of governmental official rather than their discrete decision.
It is concerned with what government actually do and don’t do.
It may be in positive or negative form.
It is based on law and it is authoritative.
Public policies are developed by government bodies or officials.
Policies are formulated by authorities in political system
1.2. Nature of public policy
1.3. Nature of public policies can be explained as follows
Nature of public policies can be explained as follows
Public policy is a purposive course of action not random or chance behavior. It is a problem solving
behavior and also has pre-determined behavior.
It is also a process- policy making and problem solving process.
Public policy is a principal instrument for moving society from past to the present and for future.
Policy is an output or product of a political system as well as cause of changes in the environment.
Public policy is what government chooses to do or not to do. There may be general or specific policies in
each level of government.
It is authoritative as well as legal coercive in nature. Therefore public policies are legislature policies.
Hence, no one can escape from consequences of public policy.
It may be negative or positive in form.
It may be narrow covering a specific area and activity. It may be broad as they can be applied to all
people in a country or society.
It emphasizes cause and effect. It is problem related but sometimes policies are made without problems.
The problems and demands are defined in the policy making process.
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INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
A public policy system has a bias. Social system or capital system may differ making policy. (related
ideological concept)
People in the environment have different degree of access in the policy making process.
Sometimes public policies do not only consider the public interest. (sometimes private sector)
1.4. Typology of Public Policy
Regulatory Policy:
Regulatory policies involve the imposition of restriction on the behavior of individuals or groups. They
are adopted by independent organization having legal personality and administrative and financial
autonomy. They either can provide access to certain business or they deny access. It can be two sides:
looser side (who avoids policy) and winner side (who implement the policies). It may be both for action
or non-action.
In Nepali context Nepal Rastra Bank, Nepal telecommunication authority, Insurance committee,
Electricity Authority etc. are some examples of regulatory institutions,

-Self-regulatory policy:
Self-regulatory policies are developed by the organization or groups by themselves for their welfare and
control of their behavior. They are basically concentrated or motivated for protecting and promoting their
own interest. It is mainly for business security, promotion of occupational safety. It protects certain
business, occupation like Medical Council, Bar Council etc.
-Distributive Policy:
Distributive policies provide goods and services to a particular segment of people for example, providing
low interest loan to small farmers.
-Re-distributive Policy:
Redistributive policies are related to the transformation of wealth and property in some percentage to
deprived groups of the society. They involve the government efforts to shift the allocation of wealth,
income, property among the haves not from the haves. For example progressive tax system, land reform
reduces inequality.
-Substantive Policy (Broad Policies) Mega Policies:
Substantive policies are concrete policies which take in to account the general welfare and development
of society. They are for the whole society, not to a particular segment of the society. It gives attention
national goals and policy content economic stability employment opportunity educational development
sustainable development. It makes no discrimination on the basis of cast, color, region, sex, race, religion
in providing and services.
-Capitalization Policy:
The policies which help to generate capital by giving subsidies organ to various level of government are
capitalization policy. Those policies give emphasis at maximizing productive capacity of society’s
institutions. Its main goal is increment of productivity. Tax subsidize, credit subsidize etc.
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INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
-Ethical Policy:
It is mainly concerns with code of conduct for promoting the ethical values of the persons, community or
institution. for example, Social Behavior Reform Act (SamajikByabharSudhar Yen)

Who Makes Public Policies?

Policy comes from those who have legitimate authority to impose normative guidelines for action. It is
made by elected officials acting in concert with advisors from the higher levels of the administration.
Government ministers are the elected officials at the apex of government who have the right to articulate
policy. Non-elected officials then are required to implement the policy through programs.

What is a Policy Framework?

A policy framework is a broad set of policies that governs the actions of groups and organizations. The
broad set of policies forms a web and impacts new policy development and policy amendments. The
presence or absence of a policy affects all other policies within the web (both existing and new).

What is the Public Policy Cycle?

Public policy development is an iterative process, rather than a linear one. There are five key phases
which result in public policy:
1. The emergence of a problem that requires the attention of the public and decision makers.
2. Placing this problem on the government’s agenda in order to find a solution.
3. The formulation of various alternatives to resolve the problem.
4. The adoption of a policy.
5. The implementation and evaluation of the policy.
In reality, the process is less orderly than this: the idea of a ‘cycle’ facilitates more organized thinking
about policy.
Who is Involved in the Policy Cycle?
The policy cycle links a variety of key players in the policy process through their involvement with the
different stages. Individuals, institutions and agencies involved in the policy process are called actors.
Government is often thought of to be the only entity involved in policy making. Government does have
the ultimate decision making and funding power, but there are many other actors that contribute to public
policy, often in a network on which government relies for the delivery of complex policy goals.

 Government: social control of behavior, power of coercion Cabinet: monopoly over supply of
legislation, locus of power- few people make decisions
 Public Servants: technical knowledge and policy advice, service providers
 Political Parties: develop relationships in exchange for political support
 Media: report information to the public, generate interest, shape public opinion
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INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
 Interest Groups: seek to advance interests of members, can have a major influence can force
policy network to react
 Legal system: interpret laws, acts independently
 Public: elects government, forms opinions, joins interest groups and coalitions, relies on the
media for information

REFERENCES :
Public Health Associations as Key Players in Influencing Public Policy
http://rhpeo.net/reviews/2007/23/index.htm#Anchor-Lemieux-48213
Expertise and the Policy Cycle: http://www.gdrc.org/decision/policy-cycle.pdf
Pal, Leslie A. Beyond Policy Analysis: 3rd Edition. 200