One
cannot give the reasons while people are criticize polices and on the and, still
obey them without being given the meaning of public policies itself.
According
to J.A Egonnwan, public policy deal with
the under-listed. As a filed of study
public has a recent origin.
It
came into existence only in the
early 1950s and
here is not as yet any commonly accepted definition of the form while
policy studies remain a burgeoning field
of activity, its status to some is
itself problematic.
Generally, the term public policy is sometimes referred to as a government programme of action. It stands for various degrees of
goals articulation and normative regulation of government activities
that is what government intends to do or
achieve (goals) and how it intends
to do it (implements). The controversy in existing literature I.C
political science, however,
is over the boundary of what should constitute public policy should it be posited at the
level of decision making, intention or action of government? Some believe that public policy is whatever government choose to do or not to do .
Others
assert that policy is why government actually do… not what they
intend to do or say they are going to
do./ this dissension has led to various
definitions. A few of such
definitions are noted below and either utility for analysis commented
upon.
One
definition of public policy contends,
“public policy refers to important activities of government. This definition highlights action only and does not give a complete
picture of what policy entails.
Another definition states that policy is
“a purposive course
of action followed by an actor
or set in dealing with a problem or matter of concern”. Of
policy focuses attention This concept
of policy focuses attention of what is actually done (action) as against what is intended or proposed.
Implicit in this definition is that a distinction is made between a policy and
a decision which is a choice among competing
alternatives.
It
does not however, stipulate what is or
what is not important . Thomas dye on
the other hand has defined public policy to means “whatever
govenrmetn choose to do or not to do” . this definition does not
take into consideration the fact that the definition could be taken to include how action like staff
recruitment or giant of
licenses, which are usually not
regarded as policy matter
It
however, posits policy as the decision
of government. To some extent, the definitions of the school or thought, that is, policy as
decisions and intentions of government.
And policy as actions of governments are right in relating public policy
to the deliberate decisions or actions of government.
However,
it would be dangerous to accept them as a proper basis for policy analysis
because of narrow scope of the definitions. The
weakness of definitions are as follows:
1.
the notion is
encouraged that governments may do or retrain form doing whatever they like.
this is a totalitarian concept,. which may be
repulsive to modern government
support and encouragement or citizens
participation in public decision making is affecting them.
2.
nothing but
confusion and failure will
ensue from a situation where government
make polices arbitrarily and change them equally arbitrarily. hence
the need to ensure that every policy decision proceeded by a clear articulation
of its objectives and through examination of its implementation , its probable consequences and possible
remedies.
3.
the definition
fails to provide basis for
distinguishing policy formulated from. policy implementation. according to the definitions, all actions and decision of government are decision…”adding
that” the sense of continuous activity and adjustment involved in policy making is best conveyed by describing it as a process
rather them as single once
for all act
although
there is ambiguity in the definition of
Rose, it introduces an important notion that policy is a process in
pattern of activity and not simple a decision
to do something. In a similar vein, W.I
Jenkins defines policy as “a set of interrelated decisions by a political
actor or group of action deliberately
taken by government to solve a
social problem as essential taken by government to solve a
social decision makers where fully
aware of their choice of goals and the means to achieve.
It also suggests that the decision makers gave
consideration to one or more other proposals.
Asivre all, Jenkins sees public as aggregative decision making as against
single discrete decision. It recognized
the need for availability of means to achieve given ends as well as competence
of certain persons to take decisions on behalf of others . it also “ a government without a definite programmes
of action is like a travelers without destination. He may
cover many kilometers and yet not be able to say where he is going or how far he has
gone” this is to say that such government may not be
able to asses its performance based on feedback.
Like
that of Jenkins, the definition
recognized that there are a few people ic
the actors who have the authority and responsibility to develop policies
on behalf of the many in the society.
Why
do we study public policy form the forgoing, public policy can be regarded
as course of action aimed at finding solutions specific problem. As a course of action, we need to stfuy and understand both the content and process
of policy making include the
organizational setting of policy making.
The cause and
consequences of a public policy must also be studeied. We
need to know for examples, what the issue is ie the social decision making, how decisions are made, what
is done to achieve results (implementation strategies and how we evaluate what has been chosen to
achieve results (ie policy instruments) and the results them seles ie output and outcomes all these can
be broken down into a number of
categories as follows
1. policy demands
2. policy decisions
3. policy statements
4. policy out puts
5. policy
outcomes