⇒ Some policies can be confusing and contradictory e.g. governments may subsidise tobacco smoking but campaign to stop smoking

⇒ Public policy is all about trying to solve problems and this topic explains how policy is formed and the theories behind it

⇒ Politics is about how a society regulates and orders itself i.e. how it can be governed

⇒ This is something that people have been trying to work out for many years: from the Greek philosophers to modern theorists

⇒ However, these thoughts about how society is organised (or should be organised) doesn't really help us understand what exactly politics is

⇒ The Oxford English dictionary defines politics as ‘the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power’

⇒ Politics is also seen as a negative and inaccessible subject to many, so it is important to analyse why this many be and what makes politics particularly frustrating at times

⇒ The study of public policy is only about 50 years old, meaning our understanding of the fundamentals of public policy has come about fairly recently – debate still remains about whether or not there are a clearly defined set of rules about the public policy process

⇒ Defining public policy is difficult but it does have particularly features:

• Public policy is about finding solutions to society’s problems
• Public policy is – as the name suggests – for the public
• The final decision to implement a policy comes from government even if the idea comes from outside government
• Public policy doesn’t just mean what is implement but also what isn’t implemented

⇒ For example, a law that sends someone to jail for punching their spouse is a statement of government policy to crack down on domestic abuse

⇒ Policies are also not found in just a single form e.g. they can be a law, a regulation, or other text from government

⇒ ‘Problem’ is defined as ‘any question or matter involving doubt, uncertainty, or difficulty’

⇒ Public policy is about trying to solve the doubts, uncertainties, and difficulties faced by society

⇒ Classic liberalism is the dominant ideological foundation of many Western States

⇒ This says, inter alia, that power comes from the people – so when a Government acts, they are acting in the public interest

⇒ Public policy also affects everyone in some way, but not necessarily to the same degree

⇒ Governments are neither single minded with one set of goals nor are they completely neutral carefully balancing the pros and cons of policy

• Some people in the policy making process are obviously going to be biased towards one point of view