What Do Successful Policies Teach Us About Our Politics And Ourselves?

Chapter one of American Public Policy, by B. Guy Peters, gives an in depth explanation of what American public policy is. The definition that Peters gives of Public policy is the” sum of government activities whether pursued directly or through agents, as those activities have an influence on the lives of citizens” (4). This definition of public policy can be categorized into three levels that will make differences in citizen’s lives. The first level is policy choices. This level is when, “decisions made by politicians, civil servants, or other granted authority that are directed toward using public power to affect the lives of the citizens” (4). All of these choices that are made by the president, congressman, or others can evolve into a

There are a number of ways the policy can make it on the agenda but usually the agenda is priority oriented. “Once a proposal has been added to agenda, policy adoption begins” (Jillson, n.d., p.1). The policy can be changed in various ways or adopted as is along the process. After adoption the policy is implemented by government agencies and carried out by legislative acts, rules and regulations. Lastly, there will be an evaluation of the public policy to decide whether it was successful in achieving its designed purpose (Jillson, n.d.).

Since the policymaking institution only selects important issues the government will not always “ act on any issue until it is high in the policy agenda.” (Government in America, 12)

The first two lectures, the introduction to policy making and agenda setting, gave a good background to the topic and laid a good foundation on which to discuss more specific issues. The policy triangle and the basic policy making sequence both were easy to understand and gave a good overview of this complex process. The further discussion of agenda setting opened my eyes to the importance of deciding what even makes it to the table to be discussed. It is easy to forget that before topics can even be debated and addressed, someone has

The American government makes many decisions, which are influenced by many things. Occasionally these policies work out, but some of these policies that do not have the attended effect on the country. The Americans that have get the bad side of these policies have to fight to be heard and have their daily lives drastically altered. A great example of the downside of interests creating policies is the Flint Michigan water crisis. This incident occurred because interests were held above the the ideas and institutions of the public.

One thing I have to remind myself of, occasionally, anytime we are discussing policy, is that what we are talking about actually affects

(A) Examples of policy change in America would be the elections. If we elect a new president we create a sense of policy change due to the new president aspiring to accomplish one thing different on their agenda, even if the new president remains in the same political party as the previous president. The campaigning candidates usually listen to their respective public opinion, thus promising certain things in order to get them elected. If the elected president fulfills the wishes of public opinion, then we partake in policy change.

Domestic Policies show how policies strike home for example when the US joined the Vietnam War it was not only fought over seas but it was also fought here in America between citizens and government.

A public policy is defined as an important course of action, which is designed to resolve some of the most compelling issues that American citizens are currently facing, or have faced in the past (Uhistory.com, 2014). Most public policies revolve around the spectrum of laws that were implemented by individuals that are not legislators (Uhistory.com, 2014). Anyone including members of the government can be penalized for not abiding to the rules of a public policy (Uhistory.com, 2014). However, the process associated with a public policy infringement, can be often times predicted (Uhistory.com, 2014).

The second step in putting a policy into effect is agenda setting. This involves the government listing a broad amount

Policy is define as: ‘a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed officially by a group of people, a business organization, a government or a political party’ (Cambridge Dictionary, 2011, http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/policy_1?q=policy).

Making or studying public policy looks like an ocean when being compared with other social sciences because it contains a combination of regulations and laws (Stanford University). Making public policy is very important because the rules and regulations should work for people’s benefits, otherwise, the policies will be considered old or insufficient to fulfill their aims or duties, but, in my opinion, not all public policies are beneficial to people because public policies do not reflect people’s or individual’s ideas, and they are initiated with maybe a sense of humor or feelings of persons, who would like to make that public policy. We study this because it focuses on how to analyze and know the ingredients of it, if it is useful to people, if it is still valid to use, and if people have got the benefits from it.

Leading change is a significant part of the policy process. It is not enough to identify policy issues, develop potential solutions, and allocate the

How can the public policy be modified to be even more effective for the public at large?

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