Public Policy Cycle

As stated earlier, policies are created by elected entities of the government such as the legislature and executive bodies. However, external non-elected entities such as policy analysts, experts, civil societies, NGOs, pressure groups, media, and political leaders evaluate these policies.

The policy formulation goes through the following stages:

• Identification of Problem: Identification of the problems in which government intervention is required is the first step. The government does this by paying attention to public opinions, public protests, media discussions, etc.
• Setting of the Agenda: Types of agendas include:

⇒ Systematic Agendas – Identification of all the issues that require policymaker’s attention.

⇒ Institutional Agendas – the timebound analysis of problems and finding of their solutions.

⇒ Discretionary Agendas – legislatures discretionarily identify some problems and consider them during policymaking.

⇒ Decision Agendas – all the issues in policy are finalised and made ready for the next stage.

• Formulation of the Policy: In this stage, policymakers discuss the issues involved and suggest measures to solve these issues. Different ways and options for policy framing are considered and the most effective among them is chosen. This is done with the help of two criterias:

⇒ An effective policy, which is reliable and can be implemented to solve issues.

⇒ The policy which is politically sound.                     

• Adoption of Policy: In this stage, the finalised policy is adopted by the government bodies. It should be done by relevant government machinery.
• Implementation of the Policy: In this stage, the theoretical policy comes into reality and its practical implementation starts.

⇒ The successful policy implementation depends upon

⇒ Accurate communication between policy creators and implementers.

⇒ The ease with which people can interpret the policy clearly and concisely.

⇒ Absence of disruption or conflict with the existing processes and agencies during resource utilisation.

• Evaluation of Policy: Evaluation can be done at various levels through research and extensive studies. Various entities such as civil society, media, policy analysts play an important role in the successful evaluation. A policy can either be successful or unsuccessful. A policy may have a poor outcome when:

⇒ There is an error in the problem identification.

⇒ Faults are present in formulating the policy.

⇒ Implementation of the policy has been inadequate.