The Policy-Making Process

Public policy is both complex and inter-organizational (Peters, 2004), typically involving both decisions and execution at numerous levels. Thus, understanding it can seem overwhelming, and discourages public participation. Some demystification of the policy-making process may be helpful.

Policy making is essentially an attempt to address problems, so that its starting point is typically perception of a problem, with further steps being aimed at formulating a solution. The following sequential model clarifies the policy process: (Anderson, 1979):

1. Problem formation – What is a policy problem? What makes it a public problem? How does it get on the agenda of government?
2. Problem formulation – How are alternatives for dealing with the problem developed? Who participates in policy formulation?
3. Adoption – How is a policy alternative adopted or enacted? What requirements must be met? Who adopts policy? What are the processes used? What is the content of the adopted policy?
4. Implementation – Who is involved? What is done, if anything, to carry a policy into effect? What impact does this have on policy content?
5. Evaluation – How is the effectiveness or impact of a policy measured? Who evaluates policy? What are the consequences of policy evaluation? Are there demands for change or repeal? (Anderson, 1979)

This chain of events, along with both formal and common sense descriptions, are depicted in Table 1 (from Anderson, 1979, p. 25).

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