7th February, 2011

THE PUBLIC POLICY PROCESS

Public policy is what government decides to do or not to do. It involves both actions and inactions of government.

 In this topic, our focus is on a six (6) stage model usually considered as the conceptual tools designed for the policy making in political systems including that of Ghana. This 6 stage model is an analytical device used by academics to study public policy.

 It is not a literal description of the policy making process.

It is only in rare cases that government march methodically from stage to stage in given policy area. Most of the time government are matching on all fronts simultaneously, continually shifting gears from the identification of problems to the creation of potential solutions and then back again.

If we take the are of health policy for instance at any give time there are hundreds of health issues that different citizens want to se addressed either directly or indirectly by public policy.

Some people are concerned about the supply of certain health care options, others want government help improve the quality of care for different health situations still others are concerned about the cost of health care, others are interested in the doctor-patient ration, expansion of health facilities etc.

At the same time, many competing policy proposals are floating around that deal with each issue by the bureaucracy, the executive and the legislature.

Studies of public policy and policy making examine not only government intentions but also specific government actions and the consequences of those action.

Such studies commonly examine policy output or what governments actually do to implement and enforce their policies.

Policy output include the amount of money a government spends on education, health, the number of police officers it hires, the tax code provision it passes to subsidize health care and penalty for violating environmental laws.

When we want to assess the consequences of government activity we undertake the study of policy outcomes or what the public policy has produced.

 The assessment involves evaluating a given policy short term effect and its long term and unintended consequences.

Analysis of policy outcomes examines whether policy outcomes have improved literacy rate, school enrolment figures, reduced crime rates, made health care more accessible and affordable to the poor, reduce air pollution or improve sanitation situation.

There is no single process through which public policies are made in the world.

Different institutional framework procedures and traditions result insignificant variation in the style and mechanism of policy making.

In spite of these differences it is possible to identify 6 stages of policy making that are common to most countries:

1.       Agenda setting	4. Policy implementation
2.       Policy formulation	5. Policy evaluation
3.       Decision making/ policy adoption	6  Policy termination or Policy Change