Dr. Kerstien's Public Policy Analysis

The U.S. government’s expansive role in public policy is caught in a swirl of conflicting cross-currents. On the one hand, popular expectations about government’s

Public policies are choices made by government officials to deal with public policy (Policy & Politics in Nursing & Health Care, 6th edition)

Deborah Stone begins her book, Policy Paradox, by stating, “a theory of policy politics must start with a simple model of political society, just as economics starts with a simple model of economic society.” Deborah Stone examines two policy-making models to describe the paradox’s of the process model for public policy. The two models include: the market (rational model) and the Polis (community) model. Stone states she contrasts these two models to “illuminate some ways the market model distorts political life.” As discussed in class, the market model follows five steps:

Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality,

Being two of the most respected and qualified academicians on public policy, Charles Murray, and Robert B. Reich have never been short of making controversial and contradicting statements which arguably serves only their interest of getting an audience. Public policy as it is has been subjected to lots of changes throughout the history leading to different reactions and opinions from different individuals. “What it means to be a Libertarian-A Personal Interpretation” written by Charles Murray, explicitly describes how the society should view the government by claiming it can help in achieving overall happiness and allowing members of the society to have a right to individual freedom when coping with the changes brought by public policy. On the other hand, Robert B. Reich’s “Aftershock the next Economy and America’s Future” talks about overcoming our problems by keeping a tier of classes. This paper discusses the contradicting views of these two writers.

This is when the public has the chance to get involved in the policy making process.

In this paper we will discuss the final stages of how a topic becomes a policy. The paper will discuss formulation, implementation, and the legislation stage. These stages must be done in this order to ensure the policy is being formed the correct way and not scattered around. This paper will also consist of the evaluation stage, analysis stage, and revision stage and describe the purpose and methodologies process for evaluating and revising a public policy.

Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2015). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. ISBN:

Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2015). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. ISBN: 9781483345789.

This definition, however, focuses not only on what the government does, but also on what it does not do. Simply put, not all public policy issues are considered or made into laws. Usually, public policy is created when an issue or problem is brought to the attention of the government and the issue is important enough—both to government officials and to the public—to mandate a solution. Issues like the need for Homeland Security are brought about by unforeseen disasters, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11. Others policies are based on research and information from organizations, associations, and ordinary American citizens.

An example of an effective method to utilize that influences public policy is civil disobedience. Let’s use the policy that imposed high taxation on tobacco and alcohol to demonstrate one’s ability to impact the government. First and foremost the policy is beneficial for the government because it generates revenue that is earned from the products, however the consequence is that it encourages illegal activity. There

Policy adoption/ legitimation involves the actions of government officials, laws, executive orders or budgets. In can involve legislative approval, executive approval, as well as consent through discussion with interest groups. This step can be problematic because the actors involved often have well-defined agendas of their own as policy choices often benefit some citizens and not others. At this stage, political influence is dominant while evidence may carry less weight. (“Policy Statement Development Process”’, 2016).

Throughout times, democracy has emerged as the best political way to rule a country. Within democratic systems, citizens have to vote for people who will represent them in the decision-making system. The question that John Kingdon wanted to understand in his writing of How Do Issues Get on Public Agendas? is how the legislative process and the public policies are made. John Kingdon well illustrates the processes by which an issue becomes policy issue, named the Cohen-March-Olsen, and the coming together of three processes. In the Cohen-March-Olsen, Kingdon proposed three stream: problem-recognition, policy stream of proposals and political stream.

My difficult questions surround the doing and the reading of the policy process. There are three areas that I would like further explore: the role of citizen participation in the policy process, importance of critical and postmodern perspectives in understanding public policy, and the role of government.

Thomas R. Dye (1987) stated that, “Public policy is whatever governments choose to do or not to do”. Dye focuses not only on government action, but also on government inaction. In this definition, “Action” means that government takes measures or uses symbols openly in order to solve some public problem. “Inaction” means that government does not take measures or express active symbols, abiding by the principle of noninterference. Both are important solutions to public problems.