UNDERSTANDING POLICY AND PUBLIC POLICY MAKING

Policy always matters. The policies which are introduced and being implemented by the

government have affected our daily lives. Just like our parents, our governments play a very

central role in our lives; they plan for us, they create budgets, they allocate resources and that

is part of the whole strategy in policy making (Tushabe, 2019).

The COVID-19 pandemic “raised the bar for governance in many ways” (Quimbo,2022).

It had prodded the Duterte government to push forward economic stimulus packages such as

Bayanihan I and Bayanihan II to cushion the impact of its imposition of enhanced community

quarantine (ECQ) on the vulnerable sectors, particularly low-income families, and the micro-,

small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Why does policy making matter? Policy has an “enormous effect” and impact on our

health, wealth, and well- being, including the amount of time we spend with our children

(Hanauer, 2015). “Public decisions shape and mold our private lives every single day.”

Knowing the concepts and definitions of the Public, Public Policy and Public Policy

Making is significant in understanding the policies being implemented by our government,

especially during these times that issues and problems are evolving and growing bigger. With

every policy, there will always be winners and losers (Tushabe, 2019). If we want to be winners,

we should arm ourselves with knowledge on the basic concepts of the Public, Public Policy and

Public Policy Making.

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS: PUBLIC AND POLICY

The word “public” comes from the Latin word publicus, which pertains to the people.

When we talk of public administration, public means “governmental.”

A policy, according to Edwards, is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions

and achieve rational outcomes. He defined it as “a statement of intent, and is implemented as a

procedure or protocol.” Birkland had coined another definition of policy: a statement by the

government of what it intends to do, such as law, regulation, ruling, decision order, or a

combination of these. The lack of such statements may also be an implicit statement of a policy

not to do something, he furthered. Birkland even listed down the characteristics of a policy: 1.

Policy responds to a problem; 2. Policies are made by governments; 3. The policy is made in the

public interest; Policies have goals; Policies are implemented by public and private sectors; and

6. Policy can be action or inaction.

Presidential executive orders, corporate private policies, and parliamentary rules of

order are examples of policies. The case in point is the Executive Order No. 43, signed by

President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2011, which organized the Cabinet into smaller groups called

as the Cabinet Clusters. The EO gave birth to various policies, programs, and projects. These

include the Public-Private Partnership (PPP), K to 12 Basic Education, Responsible Parenthood,

Sin Taxes, PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn (PAMANA) Program, Project NOAH (Nationwide

Operational Assessment of Hazards), and National Greening Program.

Some forms of policies include constitutional provisions, laws, and regulations (Birkland,

2021). Quoting Schneider and Ingram, Birkland included those that are “revealed through texts,
practices, symbols, and discourses that define and deliver values including goods and services

as well as regulations, income, status, and other positively or negatively valued attributes” as a

policy form.

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS: PUBLIC POLICY

Since we are affected by government’s action or inaction, and in pursuit of

understanding factors that affect government’s decision-making, the concept of Public Policy

shall also be explored. Dye defined public policy as whatever governments choose to do or not

to do. For him, the government is the agency of policy making. Peters, meanwhile, highlighted

public policy as a “sum of government activities” that “has an influence on the life of citizens.”

Public has also been defined as a system of “courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and

funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its

representatives.” It is commonly embodied in “constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial

decisions.” Ajitha also explored public policy as a premeditated action in pursuit of objectives

defined by those who have the power and authority. According to her, it should contain a set of

decisions, prescribed procedures and approval levels, suitability and rationality.

Ajitha tackled the nature of public policy as follows: a collective action for the fulfillment

of needs and aspirations of the people at large; a goal-oriented and result-oriented statement;

future-oriented; dynamic as it is continuously formulated and re-formulated in response to the

requirements of the people, situations and time; and may be general or specific, simple or

complex, explicit or implied, and qualitative or quantitative. She cited the public policy’s crucial

role in the development process of states, and its goal of promoting public interest.
TYPOLOGIES

In his article ‘Four systems of Policy, Politics, famous American political scientist

Theodore J. Lowi cited four types of policies namely, distributive, regulatory, redistributive, and

constituent. Distributive policies extend goods and services to members of an organization, as

well as distributing the costs of the goods/services amongst the members of the organization

(Edwards, 2017). “Government policies that impact spending for welfare, public education,

highways, and public safety, or a professional organization’s benefits plan” fall in this category

(e.g. Food Relief, Social Insurance, Vaccination).

Those policies that limit the discretion of individuals and agencies, or otherwise compel

certain types of behavior are regulatory (e.g. Speed Limit, Minimum Legal Drinking, Smoking

Age at 18, Drunk Driving Prohibition). Regulatory policies are likewise related with trade,

business, safety measures, public utilities, among others (Edwards, 2017). This type of

regulation is done by independent organizations that work on behalf of the government, which

include Water Districts.

Redistributive Policies, on the other hand, “are associated with the rearrangement of

policies that is concerned with bringing about specific changes in the economic and social status

of the state or the institution” (e.g. Progressive Taxation which means lower tax rate on low-

income earners and a higher tax rate on those with a higher income). The Philippines imposed a

progressive personal income tax rate of up to 35 percent. Republic Act (R.A.) No. 10963,

otherwise known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, reduced
personal income tax on all taxpayers except those in the highest income bracket. The law took

effect on January 1, 2018.

Known as self-regulatory policies, constituent policies “create executive power entities,

or deal with laws” (e.g. Creation of the Department of Migrant Workers or DMW). These

policies also deal with Fiscal Policy in some circumstances.

Apart from the Lowi’s four types of policies, substantive and capitalization policies were

included in the list. Substantive policies “focus on those actors of the society or economy which

are affected by various public policies like educational policies, agricultural policies, urban

policies, health policies, defense policies, among others” (e.g. Provision of Education,

Employment, Anti-Pollution legislations). Under capitalisation policies, financial subsidies are

provided to the local and the state governments by the union government, and there is no

provision of public welfare services.

SPECIFIC POLICY TYPES

Edwards enumerated 27 specific policy types. These include Company, Communications

and Information Policy, Human resource, Privacy, Defense, Domestic, Economic, Education,

Energy, Environmental, Foreign, Forest, Health, Housing, Information, Macroeconomic, Science,

Security, Social policy, Urban, and Transportation policies.

POLICY CYCLE

Policy cycle, referred to as a “stagist approach”, “stages heuristic” or “stages approach”,

is a tool used for the analysis of the development of a policy item (Edwards, 2017). Edwards
cited that the tool was developed as a theory from Harold Lasswell’s work. The five stages are:

Agenda setting (Problem identification), Policy Formulation, Decision-making, Implementation,

and Evaluation.

POLICY DELIVERY TOOLS

A program is described as a policy delivery tool to provide goods and services. Its

procedures are well defined, and its budget is sharply allocated. The program’s timing and

target population are defined, but its beneficiary is not specifically identified.

A project is a part of the program, and is integrated in a specific policy. It is a set of ex

ante determined action, and has its own specific objectives linked to Programme and Policy

strategy. A project has sharp costs, identified beneficiaries, timing, and output/outcome.

PUBLIC POLICY MAKING

Public policy making “can be characterized as a dynamic, complex, and interactive

system through which public problems are identified and countered by creating new public

policy or by reforming existing public policy” (Edwards, 2017). Edwards further described it as

“a continuous process that has many feedback loops.” He cited that “in public policy making,

numerous individuals and interest groups compete and collaborate to influence policymakers

to act in a particular way.”

Policy making is “a collective enterprise, as the product of the interaction between many

policymakers and influencers” (Hughes, 1998). The actors in the public policy process include
politicians, civil servants, lobbyists, domain experts, and industry representatives (Edwards,

2017).

The different actors participating in the governance and policy decision-making at the

state and local government levels are classified as institutional and non-institutional actors

(Simon et al., 2018). The government and its agencies that deal with public affairs are

considered as institutional actors. These include legislative bodies such as the Senate and

House of Representatives, executive departments, and the judicial branch, and even

constitutional Commissions such as the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

Included in the diverse list of non-institutional actors involved in the policy process that

are “independent of government influence” (Simon et al., 2018) are political parties, interest

groups, social movements, non-governmental organizations, and the mass media (e.g. print,

radio, television, and online), and individual citizens.

Edwards noted that “the large set of actors in the public policy process use a variety of

tactics and tools to advance their aims, including advocating their positions publicly, attempting

to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue.” Amid the

presence of many actors in the public policy process, government officials ultimately choose

public policy in response to the public issue or problem at hand. (Edwards, 2017).

Foundation for Economic Education (FEF) president Lawrence W. Reed laid down the

“Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy” which he called as “eternal principles that should form

the intellectual backdrop to what we do as policymakers inside and outside of government."

These are the following:

  Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.

 What belongs to you, you tend to take care of; what belongs to no one or everyone

tends to fall into disrepair.

 Sound policy requires that we consider long-run effects and all people, not simply short-

run effects and a few people.

 If you encourage something, you get more of it; if you discourage something, you get

less of it.

 Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.

 Government has nothing to give anybody except what it first takes from somebody, and

a government that’s big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take

away everything you’ve got.

 Liberty makes all the difference in the world.

With these “eternal principles” in mind, the major actors in the political process and all

stakeholders should take part and be part of public policy making. We cannot just sit back, and

wait for the government to devise strategies to address the burgeoning problems and issues

being faced by our country. Policy not only matters, but also the voice of the people. United

States President Barack Obama, in one of his speeches, said, “If the people cannot trust their

government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common

welfare - all else is lost.”

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