Policy making in South Africa

Policy – the deliberate course of action chosen by an individual or group in order to deal with a specific problem or issue.

What is government? Government is the governing body of nation, state, or community. Government determines the way any group of people are ran. There a several different types of government used all around the world. In the United States for example, uses a type of government that has three different branches of power. The Legislative Branch is the law making branch. The Judicial branch is the courts and the low enforcement. Lastly, the Executive branch is the presidential branch. “Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed.” (Osborne) Usually, governments break up the responsibilities into two or more groups. Two very influential writers wrote about their views on government; Lao-tzu and Machiavelli. These writers were in very different times which makes it very interesting to compare their views. Lao-tzu and Machiavelli had very different views on the ultimate purpose of government, the obligations of government leaders, and the main work of the state.

When looking up the definition of a government it says, “the governing body of a nation, state, or community”(dictionary.com). This helps to understand it a bit more, but what is the purpose of a government. Government has many purposes that keep its people safe and protected, this includes to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. There are so many ways that the government is use and there are so many sub categories and even those have categories. So when one is faced with a question like this there any number of responses, and but the main purpose of a

This article provides the audience with an adequately clear and convincing stance to explain what public policy is, and other academic literacy related to public policy, which included some famous theories. The main theme of this article is that public policy is intricate and no scholar can analyze any policies with one particular theory or model. In addition, the author argues that the public policy is multidimensional and it influences every citizen’s life profoundly.

This paper is a review of chapter’s one (1), two (2) and three (3) in Thomas A. Birklands (2016) fourth edition regarding policy process. The reading attempts to define and show what is meant by policy process, how government, politics and the public are intertwined, problems that are associated with the policy process and how we address the problems. Current day events as well as past history are applied to the practice of policy process which assists in defining the process and highlighting its connection and importance. Thomas A. Birklands refers to the Clinton administration, the Obama administration and the George W. Bush administration, the DARE Program, World War II, and the Vietnam War, in the chapters and leads us down a path discussing

The six purposes of government are to: keep order, provide security, settle conflicts, set policies, make budgets, and interact with other communities.

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.

Public policies are all of those things a government decides to do that ranges from taxation, defense, education, crime, health care, transportation, environment, civil rights, and working conditions.

What is Public Policy? According to (Merriam-Webster 2015), Public Polices are the governing policies that cover citizens, and are policies that can allow the government to stop any action that is contrary to the public good.

The role of a government in creating order in society is to establish a set of laws to protect the people, their property, and their rights;

Public policy is a system of laws that the government created for the citizens in order to maintain order. Public policy should be fair for all the citizens, however, on many occasions it is hard to accommodate for all races and social classes such as lower, middle, and upper class.

Simply defining policy is a plan of action, is a little too simplistic, the idea of policy must be explored at a greater depth if policy analysis is to have any real impact. Stephen Bell, (1993) states that policy exists in a number of formats. This first being “policy as text”, policies are the result of a great deal of debate and compromises that

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

Governmental policies and politics play a critical role in the realization of change in a public agency since the policies are developed and implemented at various levels (Dukeshire & Thurlow, 2002). Since these policies may range from formal regulations and legislation to informal guidelines in an agency, understanding them is important in the achievement of change in a public agency. A Public agency basically functions based on the established policies and politics in the government. Therefore, the accomplishment of the change in a public agency requires an increased understanding of the politics and policies of government.

This has been in my thoughts as I’ve been drafting my way into my own dissertation ideas. My background in critical social studies means I am very familiar with building arguments, so some of this uncertainty is expected. AT the moment, I know enough to say I am on the right track with my research ideas and know that public administration, and public policy in particular, is the right field for me.. However, I also feel rather critical of the policy process literature. It has been claimed, “public administration exists to realize the governance of society” (Raadschelders, 1999, p. 288). Yet, what society believes policy to be, and for whom, changes over time and across place. I feel at this moment public policy in the United States will change dramatically and I worry that our field is ill equipped to deal with these changing views of policy. Consequently, most of my underlying thoughts and reflections have been on understanding how can we adapt to this changing atmosphere.