Public Policy Process in the United States

Stephanie Johnson

Pol/115

June 12, 2017

Public Policy Process in the United States

Public policy is a specific course of action that government takes to address a problem. There are three types of public policies and they are distributive policy which a public policy such as Social Security that provides benefits to all groups in society.  A redistributive policy a policy that provides to one group of society while taking away benefits from another through policy solutions such as tax increases to pay for job training. And a reverse distributive policy a policy that reduces benefits for all groups, often by imposing regulations or taxes that govern everyone, rich or poor.

There are (8) steps involved in the public policy process and they are (1) making assumptions about the problem at the beginning, (2) setting the agenda of problems to be addressed, (3) deciding to act, (4) deciding how much to do, (5) choosing a solution to the problem, (6) deciding who will deliver the goods or services, (7) passing a law and making regulations for implementation, and (8) final implementation as an ongoing policy. Each step has its own process and the way its breakdown is in making the public policy. Every government decision starts with assumptions about the future. Choosing the problem to be solved is the essential decision in setting the policy agenda. Some problems help policy makers achieve their personal or political goals, such as reelection or a place in history, in which case they decide to act, whereas others do not, in which case they pick other problems to solve. Once the federal government decides it wants to do something about a problem, the next difficult decision is how much to do. As noted, the federal government generally uses three tools to solve most public problems: (1) making regulations to encourage or prohibit behavior through standards, incentives, or penalties, (2) using taxes both to raise money and encourage certain behaviors, and (3) spending money to purchase goods and services or provide benefits to the public or specific populations such as the elderly or children. Part of selecting a solution to implement a policy is deciding who will implement the program. Once Congress and the president have decided to act and constructed a policy proposal, they must pass the proposal into law.

Public policy is not made in a vacuum. Rather, it takes place in a complicated political process that engages citizens, interest groups, political parties, legislators, judges, and government institutions. Citizens are often anxious about participating in this process, not only because it can be complex, but also because they have many levers that give them influence. They can certainly vote—the higher the participation, the more the process will heed their voice.  Making public policy is an often-unpredictable process. It can start with any step and skip back and forth as politics shapes everything from the decision to act to running the program. The result is a policy-making process that is almost always in flux. Some political scientists such as Kingdom even think of this process as taking place in a “primordial swamp” of competing problems, solutions, political actors, citizens, pressure, and resources such as dollars, public support, and administrative energy. These policy “streams” are shaped by citizens, interest groups, presidents, and members of Congress and move through the institutions in search of each other. Some policies are efforts to terminate a program. As opposed to a no decision, which stops a policy before it can be made, termination stops a policy that is already running. Because members of Congress, interest groups, citizens and agencies often benefit from a program’s existence, even one that is no longer necessary, termination is typically very difficult. Citizens cannot vote based on their policy positions if they do not have an opinion or if candidates do not tell the electorate where they stand. And because voting is a blunt instrument of participation that does not convey precise information about what they want, citizens must also find other pathways to influence, including joining interest groups, writing letters, sending e-mails, confronting legislators at community meetings, and even running for office themselves. They can also join public interest groups that support or oppose government policy action.