Summary understanding political behavior and participation (PLC2602)

PUB2602

PUBLIC POLICY

THEME 1: WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY

STUDY UNIT 1: WHY IS PUBLIC POLICY IMPORTANT?

POLICY DEFINITION

 Statement in which goals are set
 Programme developed by decision makers in response to conditions in a particular society,
determining how the conditions will be addressed, the principles underlying how conditions
will be addressed, the principles underlying the programme
 The criteria determining the implementation of the policy and the policy goals to be met
 Public policies refer to the policies determined in the public sector – made by state
departments, provincial departments, local authorities, cabinet and parliament
 Private policies – policies made by private institutions
 Public policies affect all spheres of life and society – economic, welfare, housing, monetary,
fiscal, immigration, education, transport, relations to other states and countries

PUBLIC POLICY

 The authoritative allocation of scarce resources
 Public policy is authoritative
 Means and power to implement and enforce policies
 Mostly concerned worth the allocation of resources and determining priorities
 Always limited by the scarcity of resources, there is always more needs in a society than the
resources available to address them
 The actions and inactions of government
 Inaction can be just as impactful on society as government action
 Policy – a projected program of goals, objections, purpose. A purposive course of action
followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern
 Intended to produce certain results and should be purposive/ goal orientated actions
 Policies are courses of action based on authoritative law

CONTEXT OF POLICIES IN THE 2000’S

 Studied from a multitude of perspectives – located in two traditions in political sciences
 Behaviourism – focuses on the bahavio9ur of political actors and political dynamics related
to the sense of communication, psychological motivations for public behaviour and political
values and culture are then emphasised
 Institutionalism – emphasis on role of institutions in policy making and implementation

PUBLIC POLICY ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL COMPONENTS OF GOVERNANCE

 States ability to take decisions and make policies for itself without external sanctioning or
interference is the ultimate in dictation of a state’s sovereignty
 Globalisation affects this limitation
 Heterogenous multinational states more common
 No more clear indication between pubic and foreign policy

PUBLIC POLICY AND DEMOCRACY

,  Public policy applied to any form of regime
 Depends on particular value system and institutional arrangements, such as the separation
of value systems, fair elections, sound practice of public accountability and collective
responsibility
 i.e constitutionalism
 system of accountability – parliamentary system where government is accountable for its
policies to parliament

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC POLICY AND POLICY STUDIES

 provide guidelines and frameworks on how to approach their tasks
 provide benchmarks by which their performance can be evaluated
 articulations by government about its goals and means used to take action

STUDY UNIT 2: THE SOURCES OF PUBLIC POLICY

OFFICIAL SOURCES OF POLICY

 new government will usually spend a lot of time drafting policies and converting them into
published policy documents
 the longer a document is in power it becomes more difficult to gain access to a concise and
comprehensive policy document on a particular issue
 the policies analysts’ tasks become increasingly tedious and complicated

ELECTION MANIFESTO

 sets out the policies a prospective party running for government would pursue if it were to
receive majority of votes and become government

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

 make proposals for key policy considerations that are published in government gazette
 if it needs improvement a white paper is prepared
 a white paper states official government policy an
 d should be approved by the executive – these are also published in a government gazette

LEGISLATION AND LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

 refers to acts of parliament
 parliament, ministerial and executive proclamations issued in terms of specific legislation]
 legislation is passed by regional authorities and the by laws of local authorities

THE BUDGET

 special type of legislation, expression of governments policies in numerical and financial
terms
 gives an indication into the priorities of the government and what the pressing needs in
society are and how they will be addressed, what the policy targets are
 what role government plays in economic activities
 \what fiscal and monetary policies are to be followed



POLICY STATEMENTS, SPEECHES AND ARTICLES