NATURE OF PUBLIC POLICY

The concept of Policy

It may take the form of: A declaration of goals; A declaration of course of action; A declaration of general purpose; and An authoritative decision.

Uses of the term Policy(Hogwood and Gunn):

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.
7. 8. 9. 10.

As a label for field of activity; As an expression of desired state of affairs; As specific proposals; As decisions of government; As formal authorization; As a programme; As output; As outcome; As a theory or model; As a process.

Y. Dror defines policies as..

..general directives on the main lines of action to be followed.

Similarly, Peter Self defines policies as..

..changing directives as to how tasks should be interpreted and performed.

To Sir Geoffrey Vickers

..policies are decisions giving direction, coherence and continuity to the courses of action for which the decision making body is responsible.

Carl Friedrich regards policy as..

a proposed course of action, group, or government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realize an objective or a purpose.

James Anderson suggests that

policy be regarded as a purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern.

Taken as a whole
policy may be defined as a purposive course of action taken or adopted by those in power in pursuit of certain goals or objectives.

The following are the traditional views regarding the nature of public policy

1.

WOODROW WILSON

public policy is the laws and regulations which are made by legislative statesmen and implemented by public administration personnel This definition is characterized by the dichotomy between politics and administration, which narrows the scope and limits the range of public policy makers.

 First, public policy includes not only laws and regulations, but also

governments plans, instructions, decisions and other symbolic systems.

Secondly, those who participate in the making of public policy

include not only statesmen, but also representatives of citizens, experts and scholars.

2. HAROLD LASSWELL & ABRAHAM KAPLAN (1970) a projected program of goals, values and practices.

The aforementioned definition confuses public policy with programs, making the latter seem overly extensive. A program can be public policy, but not all policy are programs. As has been pointed out, public policy also includes instructions, decisions, laws, regulations, and other symbolic systems that government sends out.

3. THOMAS R. DYE (1987) Public policy is whatever governments choose to do or not to do.
Character of behavioralism reflects the practical discipline quality

of public policy analysis. Action means that government takes measure 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.

4. ROBERT EYESTONE(1971)
..public policy is the relationship between governmental organs and their environment. It is evident that Eyestone is influenced by the science of ecological administration. Public policy is the function of governmental system and its living environment, namely P = F(G,E) (P refers to public policy, G refers to governmental system, and E refers to the living environment).

5. DAVID EASTON (1953)

Defines public policy as the authoritative allocation of values for the whole society.
Furthermore, the nature of policy is that some things are owned by some people but not by others. This view points out the values of allocation function of public policy. There are however attendant concerns regarding this viewpoint.

First, what are values?

According to Easton, values involve not only tangible matters, such as capital, but also intangible matters. As a philosophic concept, values are the function and utility of object for subject. At the same time, values can be understood as all objects having utility for subjects. Interest are all the resources and conditions which are necessary for the survival, development, freedom, and happiness of people. As a matter of fact, the values for the whole society are public interests.

Second, does the allocation of objects of value or interest presume making alternatives?
According to Easton, the nature of policy results not only in beneficiaries, but also victims. There can be three situations in the values of allocation of public policy: a. There are both beneficiaries and victims; b. There are beneficiaries but not victims; c. There are victims but not beneficiaries.

Third, can all values in society be allocated?

According to David Easton, values are things that are valuable for people. Yet, there are too many things that have utility for people, including natural values and human values. Generally speaking, public policy can allocate human values but not natural values. Therefore, not all values in society can be allocated by public policy.

Finally, does public policy only have the function of allocation?

Richard Musgrave, like David Easton, espouses three economic functions of the government.
- Stabilizing the economy (maintaining a full employment economy) - Allocation (of income) - Redistribution (of resources)

 Chen Qingyun, a professor at Peking University, believes, Public

policy is the behavioral norms made by government (in pursuit of its goal, at any given time), to promote and allocate the public interest of society.
By this definition, public policy not only needs to allocate values,

but also bears the function and mission of promoting or producing values. In other words, besides the functions of allocating social values or public interests, public policy has the function of producing, exchanging and consuming public interest.

1. The function of production

(Joseph E. Stiglitz) The government itself directly participates in production when it influences private production through the legal system, legal mechanisms, direct and indirect allowances, credit activities and supply of public service. It is supply of public goods that is the calling of government. Government directly produces such public goods and services as national defense, environmental protection, public order, and public infrastructure by implementing public policy.

2. The function of exchange

According to Peter Blaus theory of social exchange, each process of social intercourse can be looked at as an exchange of resources between people. Social exchange refers to voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring from others. Indeed, there is social exchange among governments as there is among individual groups. Social exchange differs in important ways from strictly economic exchange. The basic and most crucial distinction is that social exchange entails unspecified obligations.

3. The function consumption

In reality, besides the three positive functions mentioned above, public policy has a negative consumption function. It can lead to political disorder, reduce the legitimacy of the political system, and even destroy the production, allocation and exchange functions of public policy. However, the government can appropriate and consume public interest which were originally meant to be shared by the public. The government has to limit the negative self-consumption function of public policy by constructing systems, a democratic credo, or transparent policies.

Public Problems as Reasons for Public Policy

Public policy and private policy differ, given the public nature of the former. Public policy should reflect the public will. As an output of political system, the fundamental value of policy lies in the effective and timely solution of public problems. In other words public problems are the cause and reason of public policy. A problem is the deviation between is and ought or the difference between the existing state and the expected state of a system. Problems are defined in accordance with individual interests, values, knowledge and convention.

A private problem is one where the cost and income only influence a single individual or a limited number of people. Its beneficiaries and victims are specified and limited. In private affairs, an individual has adequate initiative to maximize his or her interests without any exterior regulation, supervision, and adjustment for the symmetry between income and cost of problem.

A public problem is a problem which influences the whole society and is socially-shared. After recognition of the problems existence, the public must have the intention to resort to government, which is the public sector for the whole society. But intention is not action. The public must take action to press government to bring the public problem into its policy agenda.

Action can be taken under the following conditions:

A strong civil society makes the public dare to mobilize and appeal to government; A receptive democratic government is willing to listen to the voice of the public; Even if its not democratic, government wisely brings the public problem into its policy agenda, otherwise, social turbulence may ensue, undermining its own legitimacy.

A public problem that is not addressed by government may result from the following:

Civil society is weak, meaning that there is a shortage of resources and lack of courage, which are necessary for a public appeal to government; An autocratic government can neglect social needs; Even if it is democratic, government has its own interests, or rather is the broker of specific interest.

Public policy can solve public problems in two ways: reducing subjective and objective indifference. 1. Reducing subjective difference
(Reducing or diverting public expectation and mitigating public dissatisfaction.) Government neither takes action aimed at the solution of the public problem, nor does it adjust social interest relations. Rather, it uses propaganda machines to make the public feel as though the problem is not as serious as we thought and will be solved in a very near future..

All public problems result from competing interests, Public policys interest and process-natures vitiate governments attempt to avoid solving public problems by reducing subjective difference. Contradictions accumulate until social turbulence, thereby increasing the likelihood of revolution. After mitigating the public problems temporarily and superficially by reducing the subjective difference of the public, public policy should turn to the complete solution of public problems without hesitation, by reducing objective difference.

2. Reducing objective difference

Public policy directly accepts the challenge of public problems and focuses on the adjustment of social interest relations. Government can predict the problems and trends that may appear during a long period through some methods-for instance the historical analytic approach, judgment by intuition, matrix analysis, and prediction analysis. In so doing, government can choose to produce, allocate or exchange public interests. At the same time, the negative consumption function of public policy must be guarded and restrained. Through the production, allocation and exchange of public interests, public policy can reduce objective difference and achieve a solution to public problems.

CONCLUSION:
Public policy has the power to reduce subjective or objective difference in order to bring solutions to public problems. The nature of public policy, therefore, is government; and government takes its own interests and public interests into consideration as it chooses to reduce objective or subjective difference in order to solve public problems effectively and expeditiously. Public policy can directly adjust social interest relations to reduce objective difference by exercising three positive functions: production, allocation, and exchange of public interest. However, it also has the option of setting public interests aside and merely mitigating public dissatisfaction by reducing or diverting public expectation to reduce subjective difference. Furthermore, government must guard and restrain public policys inherent negative consumption function of public interests.