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 deals 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 programmer 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 government 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. Aspire all, Jenkins sees
public as aggregate 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 i.e. 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 study 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 studied. We need to know
for examples, what the issue is i.e. 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 (i.e. policy instruments) and the results them sales i.e. 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
Policy demand: this is the claims made upon public officials by other actors,
private or official in political system for action[n or inaction on some
perceived problem
The demands
that help give rise to public policy and
which it
is designed to satisfy, at least in part are important items for
consideration in the study of public
policy.
Policy
decision; decision are made by public
officials that authorized or give direction and
content of public actions are studied in public policy. Included in the study are decisions to enact
statutes, issue executive orders or edicts, promulgate administrative rules or
make important judicial interpretations of laws.
Policy statements:
formal expressing or articulation
of public policy, which include, legislative statues, decrees, presidential orders, administration rules and
regulation and court opinions,
statements and speeches by public
officials indication the intentions
and goals of government and what will be done to realize them. As indicated earlier policy statement is
sometime ambiguous and conflict policy
out puts: these includes tangible
manifestations of policies,, namely those things actually done in pursuance of policy
decisions and statements. This means what a government does as distinct from
what it says going to do eg actual taxes collected, number of high ways constructed,
amount of drugs purchased for the hospitals, trade liberation, import restrictions, tariff s
imposed etc . this also included the new organizational units set up or renovation
of existing ones done for the purpose of implementations policy out come: they
are the intended or unintended
consequences of policies that flow from action or inaction by government.
Take the case of the structural adjustment programme
in Nigeria (sap) the consequences are intended gains, important in rural
incomes and local sourcing of needed raw
materials for industries and unintended pains hardship for families because of
prevailing high rate of inflation, low disposal income and poor purchasing
power of Nigeria. In all these, is need
to know whether or not policies a
complies what they are intended to a
accomplish, it is also the task of
policy evolution