where changes and other
developments naturally occur.
Chapter 3:
Models & Categories
of Public Policy
Models & Public Policy
 One of the critical areas that its
students should consider is the
practical model or approaches that
are often used in explaining the
discipline of policy science.
 These models typically provide the
students with the necessary
introduction to the intricate
theories and concepts of public
policy and offer them the best
foundation in the study of the
discipline.
Models
 The simplified representation of
some aspects of the real world.
(Thomas Dye, 2010)
 A concept or an idea that serves to
explain the characteristics and
features of the actual environment
 It may be an actual physical
representation.
 Refers to theory, conception,
premise, or assumption that
simplifies our understanding of
public policies.
Uses of Models in Public Policy
1. Simplify our thinking of public
policy;
2. Identify important aspects of
most policy problems that exist in
the community;
3. Focus on the essential features
of public policy;
4. Suggest explanations for public
policy; and
5. Direct the effort to crafting
better public policy, which is
normally the objective of the
institutions involved in enacting
appropriate rules and regulations.
Models in Public Policy
1. INSTITUTIONAL MODEL
- Government institutions as
the source of public policies,
which are considered the
government's rational
response to the demands of
the people.
 legislators, bureaucrats,
2. PROCESS MODEL interest groups, parties, and
- Public policy as a product governments seek to
of a series of steps or maximize their benefits in
processes. politics and the marketplace.

3. GROUP PRESENTATION MODEL 8. SYSTEMS THEORY MODEL

- Public policy as a result of
the competition between
several groups that try to
sway the government's
actions in their favor.
4. ELITE THEORY MODEL
- Reflects the governing
elite's values and preferences.
- Responds to a political
system to the demands
arising from its environment.
- Plays a vital role in
transforming the inputs to
considerable outputs.
Characteristics of a Good
Policy Model

5. RATIONAL MODEL According to Daniel McCool (1995)

- Public policy as something - Validity
that results from the best - Economy
alternative. - Testability
- Organization
6. INCREMENTAL MODEL - Heuristic
- Public policy must not - Causal Explanation
result from the "hurry and - Predictability
strife" of life. - Relevance
- Usefulness
- Provide the people with - Power
incremental gains focusing - Reliability
more on public policy - Objectivity
contributions. - Honesty

7. PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY MODEL

- Policy actors like voters,
taxpayers, candidates,
According to Thomas Dye (2010)
- Order & simplify reality
- Identify what is significant
- Be congruent with reality
- Provide meaningful communication
- Direct inquiry and research
- Suggest explanation
Categories of Public Policy
1. CONSTITUENT POLICY
- Explicitly concerned with the
establishment of the structure of the
government.
- Type of policy that is nonetheless
concerned with state-building.
2. DISTRIBUTIVE POLICY
- Allocating services or benefits to
the particular segments of the population.
- Involves the use or allocation of
public funds to selected individuals,
groups, or communities.
3. REGULATORY POLICY
- Impositions of restrictions or
limitations on individuals and groups'
behavior.
- Reduce the freedom or discretion
to act of those regulated.
4. SELF-REGULATORY POLICY
- Very similar to the regulatory
policy.
- Some sectors in society resort to
self-regulation to contain the conduct of
its members.
5. REDISTRIBUTIVE POLICY
- The government's deliberate
effort to shift the allocation of wealth,
income, property, or rights among broad
classes or groups.
Chapter 4:
Policymakers & their
Environment
Policy System
- Concept of the policy system
describes the study of public policy
as a complex web of
interconnected elements that are
composed of the environment,
political system, and public policy.
- the public policy system is the
overall institutional pattern within
which policies are made (Dunn, 2010)
- Involves three major elements:
(a) Public Policies
(b) Policy Environment
(c) Policy Stakeholders
- Policy system synthesizes the
interrelationships of the major
components of the system. (Mendoza, 2002)

Components of Policy System
1. POLICY ENVIRONMENT
- Includes the forces and conditions
in the environment that affect
policymaking.
- Consists of specific contexts in
which events surrounding a
particular policy issue occur.
- A continuing process and persists
through times as long as the
government and the public exist as
it supplies the feedback whether or
not the government’s actions are
meeting the demands of the
general public.
2. POLICY STAKEHOLDERS
- They are also known as the
“policy actors”, “policymakers”, or
“policy implementers”.
- Refer to the individuals or groups
which have a stake in policies
because they affect and are
affected by governmental decisions.
- The final product of the entire
policymaking process is certainly
considered the reflection of the
influential policy actors' interests.
- Policy stakeholders as the official
and unofficial policymakers.
(a) The official policymakers are the
actors who are directly involved in
the policymaking process,
(b) while the unofficial policymakers
are members of civil society.
(Anderson, 2010)
3. PUBLIC POLICY
- A long series of more or less
related choices.
- Made by governmental bodies and
officials.
- Public policy as a policy system
component is described as either as
"output-oriented" or "process-
oriented" concepts.
(a) As an "output-oriented"
concept, public policy is viewed as
a series of related choices or
decisions that the government
renders in providing effective
solutions to the community's
problem.
(b) The "process-oriented"
concept of public policy is an
extremely complex political process
with no beginning or end and
transcends even the unknown
boundaries.
Characteristics of
Policymakers
1. ACCORDING TO ANDERSON
(a) Legislative Dept.
- It is the primary institution
involved in the formulation of public
policies in the government.
(b) Executive Dept.
- Plays an indispensable role
in the formulation of public policies
and makes the final signature in the
government's entire process of
policymaking.
 (c) Judicial Dept.
- Performs this function
through its power of judicial review.
(d) Administrative Agencies
- Also considered primary
institutions in the policymaking
process in the government. Their
involvement in drafting the
proposed public policies at the
committee level.
(e) Interest Groups
- Perform an interest
articulation function that demands
from the government the resolution
of a particular policy problem.
(f) Political Parties
- Perform their function of being
unofficial policymakers during an
election.
(g) Communications Media
- Provider of information and
transmits them in a fast, efficient
and reliable manner to the public.
(h) Individual Citizens
- “Option of last resort”
- They are so powerful that the
constitution recognizes them to
perform some functions relative to
the policymaking process.
2. ACCORDING TO BIRKLAND (2011)
(a) Legislative Dept.
- considered the major policy
actors in the government whose
primary function is to propose and
enact public policies.
(b) Executive Dept.
- The president heads it in
many democratic countries, which
serves as a conduit to the
legislative department in the
government's policymaking process.
(c) Judicial Dept.
- Function is manifested
through the power of judicial
review, which guarantees all law
remains within the constitution's
boundaries.
(d) Individual Citizens
- Not as viable as the other
policy actor because only a handful
of them are seen participating in
community discussions and
meetings.
(e) Interest Groups
- Rapidly expanded to the
point that they are now considered
one of the fundamental unofficial
participants in the policymaking
process.
(f) Political Parties
- Considered as yet another
important unofficial participant in
the policymaking process.
- Functions in the policy loop are:
(a) Provide the voting public
with the ideas in exercising
their right to suffrage by the
label or personality which
political parties are known.
(b) Provide how a shift in the
preferences of the voting
public are reflected in the
government.
(c) Venue for the articulation
and aggregation of the
interests of its members and
supporters which can be used
in the future to shape
legislation in the government.
(g) Think Tanks & Research Orgs
- More solution-oriented on the
issues presented to the government
and are equipped with capabilities
that can provide the government
with the needed information.
(h) Communication Media
- An avenue of providing useful
information to the different policy
actors in the government.
- It communicates relevant
information in an efficient and fast
manner with little or no cost at all
to the general public.
Policy Environment
1. STRUCTURAL ASPECT
- Attributes which the government
exhibits. It includes the features of
the government, like separation of
powers between the branches of
government.
2. SOCIAL ASPECT
- Composition of the population and
the social structure that describes
a specific community's social profile.
- The composition of the
population.
- The way the population is
structured in society creates an
impact on some of the
government's policies.
3. ECONOMIC ASPECT
- Economy's growth, the distribution
of wealth in a society, the size and
composition of industry sectors, the
rate of growth of the economy,
inflation, and the cost of labor and
raw materials.
4. POLITICAL ASPECT
- Opinion of the general public that
serves as the basis of several
government policies.
 Policymakers in the
Philippines
1. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT
- Leading policy participant in the
country's policymaking process. It is
distinguished to be the formal
lawmaking body in any political
system. In the Philippines, the
bicameral legislative department
(Senate and House of
Representatives) can pass and
repeal laws.
2. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
- It performs the chief legislator's
function in the government as it
initiates the policymaking process
through a policy proposal that the
institution sends to the legislative
department.
- In the Philippines, it is headed by
a president who is the head of
state and head of government.
- There is a vice-president who is a
"spare tire" but may assist the
president in the executive
department's administration when
4. LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS
provided with the opportunity.
- Under the president are the
cabinet secretaries who head the
different administrative agencies
and act as the chief executive's
alter-ego in their respective offices.
3. JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT
- Another policy participant that
engages the other policy actors in
the government's policymaking
process.
- Assigned to interpret the laws.
- In the Philippines, the judicial
department is divided into regular
and special courts.
(a) Regular courts (such as
the Supreme Court, Court of
Appeals, Regional Trial Court,
Municipal Trial Court)
- Perform the regular
functions of the counts, from
resolving conflicts among the
different parties to ruling on the
constitutionality of a specific policy
of the government.
(b) Special courts (Court of
Tax Appeals, Sandiganbayan,
Sharia Court)
- Have technical functions
given to them by the statute that
created them.
- Considered official participants in
the Philippines' policymaking
process.
- Important because of their
proximity to the general public and
 the different services that they 4. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
regularly provide at the local level.
- Population size, age distribution,
- The local chief executives like the and social divisions, which can
governors, mayors, and the affect government policies.
barangay captains are crucial local
officials in the formulation of
policies at the local level as they
are considered as the chief
legislators of their localities on the
account that they give the final
ascent to the policies before their
implementation.

Policy Environment in the

Philippines

1. POLITICAL CULTURE
- Basic values, attitudes, beliefs, and
orientations that people share in
common on how the government
should relate with the public by
enacting important policies and
delivering the needed programs.
2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS
- Combination of social and
economic qualities that
characterize a particular
community's people.
3. TECHNOLOGY
- The application of science in
producing goods and services.