Public Policy Making Issues in the Perspectives of Universal and Academic Discipline

International Journal of Engineering, Management & Sciences (IJEMS) ISSN-2348 –3733, Volume-2, Issue-6, June 2015

Public Policy Making Issues in the Perspectives of Universal and Academic Discipline Aphu Elvis Selase, Smile Phillis Gaewu  Abstract— The behavior of some actor or set of actors, such as an official, a governmental agency, or a legislature, in an area of activity such as public transportation or consumer protection is referred to as policy in general perspective. Public policy may also be viewed as whatever governments choose to do or not to.

Such definitions may be adequate for ordinary discourse, but because of the nature of this article, just two leaves are coined from the whole tree of public policy and focused on. Henceforth, the bone of contention in so far as this article is concerned is universal perspectives and policy making as an academic discipline. These two leaves are being tackled in a concisely manner so as to pave way for even a layman to assimilate with ease.

Index Terms— Policy, Public Policy, Universal Perspective, Academic Discipline, Issues.

I. INTRODUCTION Policy, both public and private, is a broader concept. The article on public policy doctrine discusses the use of the phrase 'Public Policy' in legal doctrine. Public policy is the principled guide to action taken by the administrative executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and substantial constitutional law and implementing legislation such as the US Federal code. Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations which are generally authorized by legislation.

Other scholars define it as a system of "courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives." Public policy is commonly embodied "in constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions."

In my country Ghana for instance, this concept refers not only to the result of policies, but more broadly to the decision-making and analysis of governmental decisions. As an academic discipline, public policy is studied by professors and students at public policy schools of major universities throughout the country. The Ghana professional association of public policy practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students is the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Public policy making can be characterized as a dynamic, complex, and interactive system through which public problems are identified and countered by creating new public Manuscript received June 02, 2015.

Aphu Elvis Selase, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.

Smile Phillis Gaewu, United Bank for Africa, Ghana.

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policy or by reforming existing public policy. Public problems can originate in endless ways and require different policy responses (such as regulations, subsidies, quotas, levies and laws) on the local, on the national level, or on the international arena.

II. UNIVERSAL PERSPECTIVES Universally, Public Policy Making is a continuous process that has many feedback loops. Verification and evaluation are essential to the functioning of this system. The public problems that influence public policy making can be of economic, social, or political nature. Each system is influenced by different public problems and thus requires different public policy.

In public policy making, numerous individuals and interest groups compete and collaborate to influence policymakers to act in a singular way. The large set of actors in the public policy process, such as politicians, civil servants, lobbyists, domain experts, and industry representatives, use a variety of tactics, strategies and tools in order to advance their aims, including advocating their positions openly, attempting to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue. Many actors can be important in the public policy process; however, government officials ultimately choose the ‘public policy’ in response to the public issue or problem at hand. In doing so, government officials are expected to meet public sector ethics and take the needs of all stakeholders into account.

Since societies have changed in the past decades, the public policy making system changed in accordance too. Today, as it stance, public policy making is increasingly goal-oriented, aiming for measurable results and goals, and decision-centric, focusing on decisions that ought to be taken with immediate effect. Furthermore, mass communications and technological changes have caused the public policy system to become more complex and interconnected. These changes pose new cankers to the current public policy systems and trigger them to evolve in order to remain effective and efficient.

III AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE As an academic discipline, public policy brings in elements of many social science fields and concepts, including economics, sociology, political economy, program evaluation, policy analysis, and public management, all as applied to problems of governmental administration, management, and operations. At the same time, the study of public policy is distinct from political science or economics, in its focus on the application of theory to practice. While the majority of public policy degrees are masters and doctoral degrees, several universities also offer undergraduate education in public policy.

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Public Policy Making Issues in the Perspectives of Universal and Academic Discipline

Policy schools tackle policy analysis differently. The Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago for instance has a more quantitative and economics approach to policy, the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon uses computational and empirical methods, while the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has a more political science and leadership based approach. The Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs provide traditional public policy training with multidisciplinary concentrations available in the environmental sciences and nonprofit management.

Moreover, the University of Illinois at Chicago offers public policy training that emphasizes the stages of decision-making in propagating policy (e.g. agenda setting), as well as the importance of framing effects and cognitive limits in policy formation.

The Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management course offered by Indian Institute of Management is a multidisciplinary course with special emphasis on select policy areas such as health policy, environment policy and developed on Economic and Quantitative approach. The Jindal School of Government and Public Policy in India offers an interdisciplinary training in public policy with a focus on the policy making processes in developing countries. In Europe, the School of Government of LUISS Guido Carli offers a multidisciplinary approach to public policy combining economics, political science, new public management, and policy analysis, while the French institute of political studies Sciences Po complements these core disciplines with organizational sociology, human security, political economy, and leadership.

Traditionally, the academic field of public policy focused on domestic policy. However, the wave of economic globalization, which ensued in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, created a need for a subset of public policy that focuses on global governance, especially as it relates to issues that transcend national borders such as climate change, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and economic development.

Consequently, many traditional public policy schools had to tweak their curricula to adjust to this new policy landscape, as well as developed whole new ones. The School of International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University, for example, was created as a response to a new transnational landscape. The School of International Affairs is grounded on international policy making, offering interdisciplinary training from various fields, such as law, political science, international relations, geography, sociology, and economics.

IV CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In conclusion, it can easily be deduced from the foregoing discussed that, public policy making is comprehended by all and sundry in so far as the world and the academics cum the existence of people are concerned. The policy-process approach helps present a dynamic and developmental, rather than static and cross-sectional, view of the policy process. It is concerned with the evolution of policy and requires that one think about what moves action on policy from one stage of the process to another. Moreover, it helps emphasize relationships, or interactions, among the participants in policymaking. Political parties, interest groups, legislative procedures, presidential commitments, public opinion, and other matters can be tied together as they drive and help explain the formation of a policy. Further, one can seek to

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discover how action at one stage of the process affects action at later stages. For example, how does the design and content of legislation ease or complicate its implementation? How does implementation affect its impact? Well, the policy-process approach is not "culture bound." It can readily be used to study policymaking in foreign political systems. It also lends itself to manageable comparisons, such as how problems reach governmental agendas, or how policies are adopted in various countries. Hence, the universal diverse perspectives cum as an academic discipline, encompassing public policy making.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Why can I deny the fact that, when you have a large heart, everything evil or good becomes a welcome spring-box for advancement? This presumption however, is irrevocable. For instance, in the case of this article, no sooner had it become evident that it was ready for publication, than I felt as if the whole galore of hopes, expectations and joy had been opened up to me in spite of the frictions encountered coupled with multifaceted attacks in clandestine.

It is in this blissful frame of mind that I wish to express my sincere gratitude to our Heavenly Host for seeing me through with ease.

Further, I am profoundly grateful to Mr. Laari Prosper and Mr. Ziggah Yao Yevenyo for their generosity in reading the early manuscripts by putting it under constant scrutiny and thereby, offering me useful suggestions, guidelines and words of encouragement. I say many thanks.

REFERENCES [1] John, Peter (1998). Analyzing Public Policy. Continuum.

[2] Thei, Geurts; Be Informed (2010). Public Policy [3] Hill, Micheal (2005). Public Policy Process. Pearson.

[4] Jackson-Elmoore, Cynthia. “How gender Impacts Who Gets to Influence Public Policy”. Gender and Public policy. International Csonference on Public Policy, 2013. Web. 6 May. 2013.

[5] This discussion leans heavily upon Keith Krehbiel, Information and Legislative Organization (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992); and Thomas W. Gilligan and Keith Krehbiel, "Asymmetric [6] Information and Legislative Rules with a Heterogeneous Committee," American Journal of Political Science, XXXHI (May 1989), pp. 459^90.

[7] Newman, Jacquetta., and Linda A. White. Women, Politics, and Public Policy: The Political struggles of Canadian Women. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.

[8] David B. Audretsch, Gilbert, Brett Anitra; McDougall, Patricia P. (2004), The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Policy, Small Business Economics 22 [9] Brian Czech and Paul R. Krausman, The Endangered Species Act (Baltimore: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 2001).

[10] Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, Vol. 53 (July 1, 1995), p.

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[11] Cohen, Nissim (2012) “Policy entrepreneurs and the design of public policy: Conceptual framework and the case of the National Health Insurance Law in Israel” Journal of Social Research & Policy, 3 (1) [12] Anderson, J. E. (2003). Public policymaking: An introduction. Boston: Hought Mifflin Company, pp. 1 – 34.

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