PAP 2300 Lecture Notes - Basic Block, Amitai Etzioni, Policy Network
Document Summary
Examining and critiquing the various theories of policy making. Whatever governments choose to do or not to do. A course of action or inaction chosen by public authorities to address a given problem of interrelated set of problems. Public policy must be considered to encompass the actual activities undertaken by a government, whether or not a government"s objectives and strategies are explicit, or are congruent with its activities. A purposive course of action followed by an actor or a set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern. The systematic laying out of the objectives of a government as well as the practical measures that are proposed to achieve those objectives. Policy can be a case of action or inaction. It does not stop since government policies are virtually always in a state of change. Citizens make demands, government has to react. A simplified model of the policy making process: