There is an increasing upsurge of interest among political scientists, and public administration scholars and practitioners in the study of public policy- to the description, analysis and explanation of the causes and consequences of governmental activity.
Since public policy affects the lives and well- being of citizens of any country, it becomes necessary and justifiable to study it in order to understand why governments do what they do or what they choose not to do; and to offer advice. Dye (1981) has advanced three reasons why the study of public policy it necessary.
Scientific Reasons
Public policy can be studied in order to gain a greater knowledge about its origins, the processes by which it is developed, and its consequences for society. This in turn increases our comprehension of the political system and society generally.
Professional Reasons
The study of public policy promotes professionalism. As we noted earlier, this study of public policy enables us to know the causes and consequences of public policy. Once these are known, it becomes possible for us to prescribed and give professional advice.
Such advice can be directed toward indicting either what policies can be directed toward indicating either what policies can be used to achieve particular goals, or what political and environmental factors are conducive to the development of a given policy.
Political reasons
Public policy can be studied for “political purposes: to ensure that governments adopt the right or ‘appropriate’ policies to attain the “right” goals.
In other words, the aim is to improve the quality of public policy in a desirable way, notwithstanding that substantial disagreement exists in society over what constitute “correct policies or the “right” goal or policy.
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