preview

The Rational Comprehensive Model Of Public Policy

Satisfactory Essays

Difficult Process Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives (Kilpatrick). There are six steps in which how public policy is formed in the American system of government. Realizing the problem, agenda setting, formulating the policy, adopting the policy, implementing the policy, and evaluating the policy are the steps public policy moves through to become official. The foremost step is knowing the problem, this is when people realize that the topic at hand can be and should be identified as a problem that government can help them with. This forces the policymakers to apply the rational-comprehensive model. The rational-comprehensive model is a theoretical model of how public policy decisions are (or perhaps ought to be) taken. All possible alternatives or approaches to solving the problem under study are identified and the monetary values and benefits of each option are assessed and compared with each other. The option that promises to yield the greatest net benefit is selected (Johnson). The following step is agenda setting, which entails the government wants to assist and resolve the matter at hand. This usually finds as part as a larger trend, later on a major consequence, through an interest group, or speeches. Agendas exists at all tiers of government. There are four levels of agenda setting, which are:

Get Access