Public Policy
Table of Contents
Public policy can be described as the actions that government takes that are goal oriented or purposeful those are put in place to enable the government deal with the arising social issue or problems in the society. Public policies can be directed to deal with long term problems or those issues arising in short run. These policies can have positive or negative effects depending on their effectiveness in dealing with the problems at hand or future problems. Policies can, therefore be, argued to have the capability to either positively or negatively impact on the society. Public policies can emanate from governmental institutions such as the executive branch, the judiciary or from the legislative bodies .Additionally, policies can emanate from private action by either interest groups or individual citizens. The American society is one of the most informed in the world, and some of the policies in this country have been as a result of legal suits seeking to change or redress some of the laws that are used to govern the country. As a result of the many freedoms that are enjoyed in this society, the society is especially informed on matters that have far reaching consequences in their daily lives. As a result, some of the policies changes that can be found in America are often generated y public opinions, legal actions or lobbying by interest groups putting pressure on the executive or their legislative bodies.
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Formulating public policy in American
In America, policies are formulated by governmental institutions such as the executive branch, the judiciary or from the legislative bodies. They can also emanate from private action by interest groups, corporation or individual citizens. Public policies that arise of judicial rulings emanate from legal suits that are either instituted by private individuals, governmental departments, interest groups or private individuals. The legal suits often set precedence to be followed when legal action is in question and normally set the guiding principles to be used to settle disputes. The can also emerge as a result of the courts interpreting the constitution, thus enabling the other arms of government apply the laws or enforce them. Legislative policies normally emerge from issues arising in the society due to the policies gaps. In order to effectively serve their electorates, law makers’ seal these gaps by formulating policies aimed at responding to the arising issues. In addition, policies can be formulated by legislative bodies out of pressure from interest groups or through outright lobbing by private enterprise. Policies can be directly aimed at dealing with domestic issues or foreign affairs
Identifying policy problems
When formulating public policies the first step is to identify a problem then solutions to mitigate the issue are formulated. Problems can beidentified by doing research, out of personal interest or existing issues are recognized. Legal suits can also be a good source or recognizing existing problems since in mitigating these issues the society is forced to examine their effect on personal level or in the society in general. Court cases also have the tendency of getting into the public limelight through the publicity that they generate and in the process bring out the policies gaps that exist in any given society. Depending on how sensitive the issue is, the public is forced to participate in seeking the solutions that can effectively address the problem whether through lobbying or from the arising debates that can be generated. This leads to research, debates in various forums that analyze the issues in detailed manner raising societal awareness in the policy gaps that exist in the society. Public debates often aid the policy makers in gauging the collect changes required to formulate solutions. Societal problems that need policies to resolve can, therefore, emanate from the society, interest groups or governmental institutions such as the courts or law enforcement agencies. Policy gaps or problems that require policies to be formulated to mitigate are therefore often indentified through information available. These problems can indicate how certain existing or lacking policies can affect an individual or the society in general. This raises the need for politicians, government officials, the judiciary and other responsible bodies to seek solutions to by formulating public policies aimed at addressing these gaps, issues or problems.