PUBLIC POLICY

Basic Introduction
• Public administration was to some extent preoccupied with the
activities of administrative machinery, their structures and their
success in achieving their targets/goals.
• It hardly recognized the role of organizations that played towards the
formulation of policies as one of its main concerns. Yet the policy is an
important element of the administrative process.
• Policy implies a decision as to what should be done and how, when it
should be done.
Meaning
• Thomas dye, policy can be defined broadly as “whatever government
choose to do or not to do”.
• In other words, Public Policies are the governmental rules and
programmes, considered individually and collectively, formulated for
the purpose of affecting positive change.
• Public Policy is basically a set of rules and regulations set forth that
the public law is expected to adhere to.
• The term Public Policy always refers to the actions of the government
and the intentions that determine these actions.
definitions of Public Policy
• There are numerous definitions of Public Policy. Following are some examples.
• According to Brooks, “Public Policy is the broad framework of ideas and values within which
decisions are taken and action, or inaction, is pushed by governments in relation to some issues
or problems”.
• Marshall Dimock defines it as “consciously acknowledged rules of conduct a guide of
administrative decisions”.
• According Frederich, Public Policy is “A proposed course of action of a person, group or
government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy
was proposed to utilise and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realize an objective or
purpose”.
• Dodd, in a similar vein, defines Public Policy as “commitment to a course or plan of action agreed
to by a group of people with the power to carry it out”.
• James Anderson defined the Public Policy as a course of action followed by an actor or set of
actors to deal with a public problem.
Characteristics of public policy
1. Public Policy is what government actually decides or chooses to do and is the relationship of the
government units to the specific filed of political environment in a given administrative system.
2. Public Policies are goal oriented. In order to attain the objectives which the government has in
view for the ultimate benefit of the masses in general, the Public Policies are formulated and
implemented.
3. These are value laden and arise as sequel of the programmes of the government in action overtly.
4. Public Policy is a pattern or course of activity of the governmental officials and actors collectively
rather than being termed as their discrete and segregated decisions.
5. Public Policy is positive in the sense that it depicts and concern of the government and involves its
action to a particular problem on which the policy is made. Negatively, it involves a decision by
governmental actors not to take any action on a particularly issue unilaterally without deliberations.
6. Public Policy in its positive form has the action of law and authority behind it and that is why it is
called as authoritative.
7. Public Policy is a choice or decision made by government that guides subsequent actions in
similar circumstances.
8. Public Policy stems from a well defined procedure wherein the power control, gaming and
bargaining concepts play a significant role.
KEY FACTORS AND CONSIDERATIONS
IN PUBLIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT
• Public Interest: What is the interest of society as whole? How is the common
good balanced against any private or special interests? Is the process fully
inclusive, especially of those who are often overlooked or unable to
participate?
• Effectiveness: How well a policy achieves its goals? I
• Consistency: Degree of alignment with broader goals and strategies of
government with constitution, legislature and regulatory regime.
• Fairness and Equity: Degree to which the policy increases equity of all members
and sectors of society. This may link directly to consideration of public interest.
• Reflective: Of other values of society and I or the community, such as freedom
security, diversity, community, choice and privacy.
Agencies involved in policy making – Govt.
• Constitution - Constitutional Framework for Policy-Making Policy-making in
India is shaped within the framework of the constitutional system, of which
four features stand out most prominently: democratic and sovereign republic,
parliamentary system, the federal character of the Constitution and a broad
socio-economic philosophy - reflected especially in the preamble, the chapters
on Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of the state policy.
• Legislature - It enacts laws which will bring the policies into effect. It also
legitimises the policy decisions of the government. It influences public policies
through general discussions and debates. Most of the legislation in India is
prepared within the executive and introduced in the legislature by the minister
concerned. The executive is assured of a legislative majority for the policy
proposals it presents.
• Executive - It is the constitutional task of the executive to decide the policies which are
to be submitted to Parliament.
1. Cabinet: The real executive is the Council of Ministers consisting of the Prime
Minister, cabinet ministers, ministers of state and the deputy ministers. It is well-
known that the Council itself hardly meets, and all the policy functions are
performed by the Cabinet.
2. The Prime Minister: Within the Council of Ministers in general and the cabinet in
particular, the Prime Minister enjoys a special position in the realm of policy-
making. The Prime Minister is expected to exercise control over the cabinet
decision-making process.
3. Secretariat-Department and Ministry: The secretariat is an administrative
organisation to assist the government in the discharge of its executive and
legislative responsibilities. It is a complex of departments and ministries whose
administrative heads are known as secretaries and whose political heads are the
ministers. The secretary acts as the chief adviser to the minister. He assists the
minister(s) in the formulation of public policies. As policies can be framed only on
the basis of availability and adequacy of data, the secretariat makes relevant
information available to the minister, thus helping him to formulate policies.
• Judiciary - The judiciary in India also plays a constructive role in
shaping and influencing public policies in two ways: a) by its power of
judicial review, and b) judicial decisions. The Constitution empowers
the Supreme Court, and High Courts at the state levels to exercise a
judicial review of legislation. Judicial review is the power of the courts
to determine the constitutionality of actions of the legislature and the
executive. They are not only specifying the government’s limits with
regard to certain actions, but also stating what it must do to promote
public interest. Besides, the higher judiciary is also exercising its
influence through its decisions in Public Interest Litigation cases.
Non-Governmental Institutions influencing
public policy
• Political Parties and Pressure Groups
The pressure exerted by pressure groups and political parties is an important factor in the
making of policies. The political parties provide impetus to policies through their election
manifestoes, and by enlisting support at the time of elections. Pressure groups strive to
influence the decisions of the government in manifold ways. Often, these groups are found to
have conflicting values on a particular policy issue. Obviously, well-organised and active pressure
groups have more influence than groups whose members are poorly organised and inarticulate.
The Individual Citizen and the Media
The people initiate the process of legislation and policy-making by voting for candidates with
specific policy preferences. A democratic government is supposed to reflect the wishes of the
people. Yet, in reality citizen’s participation in policymaking is very negligible. Acting alone, the
individual citizen is rarely a significant political force. The media can also influence public opinion
in a situation. Media influence, however, depends upon the level of responsiveness from the
government.
• External Agencies Influencing Policy
External agencies and non-state actors are a an important source in the
initiation of new public policies or modification of pre-existing policies,
especially in Third World countries like India. They include agencies
such as the United Nations and its allied agencies (WHO, ILO, UNEP,
UNDP, etc.) the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and
other multilateral agencies is of critical importance in shaping policy
outcomes
THE POLICY PROCESS: HOW POLICIES ARE
MADE - There are six levels of public policy process
• IDENTIFYING POLICY PROBLEMS - For an analytical approach the first
step is to identify why and weather there is a problem at all. Defining
the problem involves moving from mundane description to more
abstract, conceptual plan. Here the attempt is made to diagnose the
form of policy failure, which is confronted.
Steps : 2nd - Agenda Setting
This is the troubleshooting stage where the challenge impacting the public is
discovered and laid bare for the legislators to address and come up with solutions.
Agenda setting itself also has sub-stages to be followed i.e:
Systemic Agenda - Public officials brainstorm (based of interactions with the
constituencies they represent) all the issues they deem fit to address.
Institutional Agenda - Issues shortlisted from the systemic agenda are awarded
time for policymakers to articulate and initiate action on.
Discretionary Agenda - Lawmakers are responsible for this list of issues without
influence from the afore mentioned agendas.
Decision Agenda. When this one comes out, it has the agreed upon list of issues
policy makers ought to act upon.
many factors which play an important role in
agenda setting:
• There are many factors which play an important role in agenda setting. These
are as follows:
1. Role of the political leadership
2. Crisis as the basis of agenda setting
3. Protest or violence work as a basis of agenda setting
4. Affective role of media
5. Role of the political parties
6. Role of bureaucrats
7. Role of individual citizens
8. Past experiences
2. Policy Formation and Decision Making
• Options of policies are developed within government and from a wide
range of options, the least effective are taken down.
• Relevant authorities in government single out a particular course of
action towards the remaining policy choices. This action should
ideally be of the greatest public benefit resonating with the rout that
led to the process of trying to come up with the policy.
• involves adopting the policy. Depending on the nature of the policy,
this could involve a new law or an executive order.
POLICY LEGITIMATION
• Ensuring that the chosen policy instruments have support of the law
and authority. It can involve one or a combination of: legislative
approval, executive approval, seeking consent through consultation
with interest groups, and referenda. Basically, it is concerned with
selecting a proposal and developing a political support for the same.
After getting the political support, the policy proposal is enacted into
law and its constitutionality is established. The main actors who are
authorised to provide legitimacy to the policy proposal are Courts,
President and Congress.
3. Policy Implementation
At this stage, government rolls out the policy and through public
administration tools public officials for the distribution of government
resources in whatever form they take. Changes implemented should
reflect the plight of affected parties which becomes the first step
towards embracing a new policy.
4. Policy Evaluation

Here both government and all stakeholder follow up on the account of

the policy from its impact on the issue that led to its formulation. They
also determine whether or not, the policy is bringing desired
results. Policies have a tendency to rub on to each other such that this
may result in changes in existing policies or even an alteration of the
new one to minimize negative impact on existing policy.