Unit 1 Public Policy: Meaning and Nature: Objectives
Unit 1 Public Policy: Meaning and Nature: Objectives
Unit 1 Public Policy: Meaning and Nature: Objectives
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1.2
1.3
1.4
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1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.1
Objectives
Introduction
Relationship between Politics and Policy
Meaning of Public Policy
Characteristics of Public Policy
Types of Public Policy
Stages in Public Policy Process
Importance of Public Policy
Let Us Sum Up
Key Words
References and Further Readings
Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises
OBJECTIVES
1.3
I
t
INTRODUCTION
Before discussing the meaning of public policy, it would be better if we are clear
about the relationship between public policy and politics.
Policy making process is a part of politics and political action. According to Gabriel
Almond, political system is a set of interactions having structures, each of which
performs its functions in order to keep it like an on-going concern, it is a set of
processes that routinely converts inputs into outputs. Almond classifies inputs of
political system into generic functional categories like politica! socialisation and
The following points will make the nature of public policy more clear in your minds:
1) Public Policies are goal oriented. Public policies are formulated and
iplemented in order to attain the objectives which the government has in view
for the ultimate benefit of the masses in general. These policies clearly spell
out the programmes of government.
2) Public policy is the outcome of the government's collective actions. It means that
it is a pattern or course of activity oi the governmental officials and actors in a
collective sense than being term"d as their discrete and segregated decisions.
3) Public policy is what the government actually decides or chooses to do. It is the
relationship of the government units to the specific field of political environment
in a given administr.ative system. It can take a variety of forms like law,
ordinances, court decisions, executive orders, decisions etc.
4) Public policy is positive in the sense that it depicts the concern of the government
'and involves its action to a particular problem on which the policy is made. It has
the sanction of law and authority behind it. Negatively, it involves a decisions by
the governmental officials regarding not taking any action on a particular issue.
Policy and Goals
To understand the meaning of policy in a better manner, it is very important to
make a distinction between policy and goals. Goals are what policies aim at or hope
to achieve. A goal is a desired state of affairs that a society or an organisation
attempts to realise. Goals can be understood in a variety of perspectives. These can
be thought of as abstract values that a society would like to acquire. There are also
goals that are specific and concrete. Removal of poverty is a goal that the
government wants to pursue. Public policies are concerned with such specific goals.
They are the instruments which lead to the achievement of these goals.
If the government announces that its goal is to provide housing to all the members
of the deprived sections of society it does not become a public policy. It is a
statement of intention of what the government wants to do. Many a time the
government, for political reasons, announces goals that it has little desire to achieve.
In order to become a policy, the goal has to be translated into action. Programmes
have to.be designed to achieve specific objectives. As an illustration, let us look at
the policy of poverty alleviation. Several programmes have been designed for this, _
e.g., The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), The National Rural
Employment" Programme (NREP) etc. Each programme has certain goals to achieve
within a specified time and each programme is provided with financial resources and
administrative personnel. These become concrete efforts to achieve a goal. Policy
spells out the strategy of achieving a goal. Thus policy is essentially an instrument
to achieve a goal. Statement of a goal docs not make it a policy.
Public Policy :
Meaning and Nature
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Public policy is the broad direction or perspective that the government lays down
in order to take decisions. Each organisation or the individual is enjoined to take
a decision within a policy framework. Decision can be a one time action. Policy
consists of several decisions that are taken to fulfil its aims. A policy consists of a
series of decisions tied together into a coherent whole.
There can be some similarity in the processes involved in decision making and policy
making. Both are concerned with choice among alternatives and for both similar
processes can be followed in generating alternatives. But we should alway
remember that policy is a more comprehensive term, as it encompasses a series of
decisions and has a comparatively longer time perspective.
1.4
The l}leaning and nature of public policy will become more clear by throwing light on
different characteristics of public policy. Some of the major characteristics of public
policy making are:
Public Policy Making is a Very Complex Process: Policy ma king invol ves many
components. which are interconnected by communication and feedback loops and
which i nteract in d ifferent ways. Some parts of the process are explicit and directly
observable, but man y others proceed th rough hidden channels t hat the officials
themselves are often only partly aware of. These hidden proced ures are very
difficult, and often impossible to observe. Thus. g1idelines are often formed by a
series of single decisions that result in a 'policy without any one of t he decision
mak ers being aware of that process.
It is a l>ynamic Process: Policy making is a process, that is a continuing activity
taking place within a structure; for sustainance, it requires a contin uing i n put of
resources and motivation. It is a dynamic process, which changes with time. the
sequences of its sub-processes and phases vary internally and with respect to each
other.
Policy Making Comprises Various Components: The complexity of public policy
every substructure makes a different, and sometimes uniq ue, contribution to public
policy. What sort of contribution substructures make, depends in part on their formal
and informal characteristics which vary from society to society.
Decision-Making: Policy making is a species of decision-making because it lets us
use decision-making models for dealing with policy making.
Lays down Major Guidelines: Public policy, in most cases, lays down general
find out what the ''public interest'' may crn , tcly refer to, the term never the less
conveys the idea of a "general" orientatio11 and seems therefore to be important
and significant. Furthermore, there is good evidence that the image of ''public
interest" influences the public policy making process and is therefore at least, as
conceived by the various public policy making units, a "real" phenomenon, and an
important operational tool for the study of policy making.
Use of Best Possible Means: In abstract terminology, public policy making aims at
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achieving t he maximum net benefit. Benefits and costs take in part t he form of
realised values and impaired values, respectively , and cannot in most cases be
Public Policy :
Meaning and Nature
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i'i) Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
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Having explained the characteristics of public policy making, we wiil now explain the
different types of public policy. There are various types of public policy like
substantive, regulatory, distributive, redi ::-ibutive etc.
Substantive: These policies are concerned with the general welfare and development
of the society , the programmes like provision of education and employment
opportunities, economic stabilisation , law and order enforcement, anti-pollution
legislation etc. are the result of substantive policy formulation. These policies have
vast areasof operation affecting the general welfare and development of the society
as a whole. These do not relate to any particular or privileged segments of the
society. Such policies have to be formulated keeping i n view the prime character of
the constitution socio-economic problems and the level of moral claims of the
society.
Regulatory: Regulatory policies are concerned with regulation of trade, business,
safety measures, public utilities, etc. This type of regulation is done by independent
organisations that work on behalf of the government. In Indi:::, we have Life
I nsurance Corporation. Reserve Bank of India, Hindustan Steel, State Electricity
Boards, State Transport Corporations, State Financial Corporations, etc.. which are
engaged in regulatory activities. The policies made by the government , pertaining
to these services and organisations rendering these services are known as regulatory
policies.
Distributive: Distri butive policies are mea nt for specific segments of society. It can
be in t he area of gran t of goods, public welfare or health services, etc. These mainly
include all public assista nce a nd welfa re progra m mes. Some more examples of
d ist ri buti ve pol icies arc adult ed uca tion program me, food relief. social insurance,
vacci na tion cam ps etc.
Redistributive: Redistri butive policies are concerned wit h t he rea rra ngt:ment of
policies which are concerned wit h bringing about basic social and economic changes.
Certain publ ic goods and welfare services are disproportionatel y divided among
certain segmen ts of the society , t hese goods and service are stream lined t hrough
redist ri butive policies.
Capitalisation: Under the capi talisation policies fi na nci c1l subsidies arc given by the
Union government to t he state u nd local govern ments, such subsidies are also
granted to t he central and state busi ness u ndertaki ngs or some other important
,;phere if necessary. Capitalisation policies arc d ifferen t i n nature tha n the
substantive, regulatory. distributive and redist ributive policies as no provision for
public welfare services is made t hrough these.
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A brief highlight on t he va rious stages of public policy will clarify the act ual process
of pu blic policy in India.
Policy form ulation is the first st;igc in public policy process. Through this process
the demands of the sytem are converted i nto policies. But before this it has to be
clearly established as to which demands req uire to be converted into policies. At
the policy interpretation stage, t he form ulated publ ic pol icy is further clarified and
i nterpreted in order to make i t fully understa ndable. The next stage in pu blic policy
process is policy education . The government through various channels of mass-media
attempts to make the masses aware of the form ulate(,! policies. After this comes the
stugc of policy implementation , when the policies arc systematically executed by t he
different adm i n ist rative agencies at t he centra l . late and local levels. To ascertai n
the impact of policies, it is very essential to keep an eye on the implemen ta tion
process, to see t hat expendit u re does not exceed the resources available and to see
that policies are P.Ositively affecting t hose for whu n1 t hey are bei ng made. For t h is
proper mon i toring of policy implementation has to be done. and policy evaluation
stage is the fi nal stage in policy process. Proper and a ppropria te adm i n ist ra't ive and
adjudicati ve functions are needed for keeping a complete control over thi: public
policies.
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1.7
Public Policy :
Meaning and Nature
It is clear from the above sections of the Unit that policy is a purposive course of
... action
in dealing with a problem or a matter of concern within a specific tinle frame.
Before going into the question of importance which is attached to policy formulation,
implementation and monitoring, it would be better to recapitulate the components
of public policy.
4) Policy also delineates a time frame in which its goals have to be achieved.
5) Policy follows a defined course of action viz. formulation, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.
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These c:lays policy analysis is acquiring a lot of importance in the realm of the study
of public administration. This trend is obser vable all over the world. The success
of policy formulation, execution and monitoring ultimately depends on the success
of policy analysis. In India, this trend emerged with the launching of our Five Year
Plans: .,/\s the years passed by, one Five Year Plan was followed by another and
disillusionment started setting in. Goals of socio-economic development could not
be achieveq. Those who were supposed to benefit from the development effort
began to lose. Attention shifted to the management and administration in order to
find out why the policies were failing to achieve their objectives. This investigation
did not ii:tclude the questions of policies being right or wrong.
k: took the crises of the 1960s to raise the issue of correctness of policy.
Disenchantment with the development processes followed the two wars in 1962 and
. 1965. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforced a dev'l.!uation of the rupee in
1966 and a terrible drought ravaged the land during 1966-68. It became evident
that the development policies were in trouble. In the early 1970s another war,
drought and the oil crisis gave a jolt to the plan that had been followed uptil then.
The culmination was the imposition of national emergency in 1975 to cope with
the rising dissatisfaction.
It was the emergence of the turbulent period that I,ed 10 the questioning of the
policies that had been followed. Itwas no more a question of implementation alone.
The argument that began to gain the popular view was that policy itself was faulty
and all the blame could not be put on administration. The first to pick up this line
of reasoning was the discipline of economics. The economic failures dominated the
scene and therefore it was natural that economists were the first ones to raise
questions ;ibout the appropriateness of policy. Students of public administration
began to emphasise that implementation failures could also emanate from
inadequacy of public policy and therefore policy analysis should also be included in
the area of study of public administration. This argument got support from certain
developments in the discipline of public administration. In view of the everyday
experience, it was becoming difficult to sustain the classical concept of separation
of politics and administration. This distinction categorised policy formulation and
implementation as two distinct activities. Policy formulation was regarded as a
political activity and policy implementation an administrative one. But this
distinction got increasingly blurred and it was not an easy task to determine where
policy formulation ended and where policy implementation began. It came to be
accepted that _both were interactive processes and had to be -seen in an integrated
way. With this change in view students of public administration began to devote
greater . attention to the problems of policy formulation and influence of policy
design on implementation.
Jt is in this way that policy analysis has become an important focus of study. Policy
makers have also shown great interest in: it because it ultimately helps in improving
the effectiveness of policy. Many universities and research institutes are involved in
policy analysis. The government provides for a lot of funds in this area.
Check Your Progress 2
Note : i) Use the space given below for your answers.
ii) Check your answers with those given atthe end of the Unit.
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Public Policy :
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1.8
LET US SUM UP
It is clear that public policies are the activities that the government undertakes in
order to pursue certain established goals and objectives. In this Unit we discussed
the meaning and iti1portance of public policy and the difference between a public
policy, a goal and a decision. An attempt was also made to explain the relationship
between public policy and politics. The Unit also highlighted the different types of
public policy, the stages involved in public policy process and the various
ch;Jracteristics of public policy. Some of these aspects of public policy will be
discussed in detail in the subsequent Units of this Block.
1.9
KEY WORDS
such decisions definite procedures can be worked out. Each decision need not be
dealt with separately. In such type of decisions, habits, skills and knowledge about
the problem is important. Mathematical models and computer can help the decision
makers to arrive at rational' decisions as far as these decisions are concerned.
1.10
13
I.
Introduction to Public Policy
1.11
demands act as inputs which are continuously fed in the political system.
these inputs get converted into programmes, policies and decisions.
2) Your answer should include the following points:
public policies ,are governmental decisions.
public policies are the result of the activities which the government undertakes
in persuance of certain goals and objectives.
public policies have expanded their scope from merely of regulation to that of
development.
policy
the failure of our Five Year Plans has pressurised the government and research
institutions to go deep into research on policy analysis.
realisation that when policies fail only policy implementation should not be
Public Policy :
Meaning and Nature