Policy making

1. Policy making process varies due to governmental structure

1.1. How much of the decision making is influenced by groups outside of the government

1.2. Active vs reactive

1.2.1. radicalism and innovation vs reacting to issues already at hand

1.3. Liberal-pluralist vs etatist vs neo-corporatist

1.3.1. market place-competing for decision making power vs state solution vs involved organisations/interest groups

1.4. Adversarial vs consensual paternalistic

1.4.1. Coercion vs consultation

1.5. Legalistic vs pragmatic

1.5.1. formal/regulations and rules vs flexible and informal

1.6. Comprehensive vs incremental

1.6.1. large plan vs step by step

2. People involved

2.1. Politicians

2.2. People-power/general public

2.3. Non-government organisations

2.4. Political parties

2.5. Interest groups

2.6. Media

2.7. Researchers/scientists

3. Policy cycle/process

3.1. Agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation and evaluation

3.2. continuous cycle of decisions that affect future policy

3.3. Response to the identification of an issue that needs addressing

3.4. various policies are proposed before adoption

4. Policy analysis triangle

4.1. Context

4.1.1. values, structure, objectives

4.2. Content

4.2.1. legislation, existing policy, regulations, knowledge

4.3. Actors

4.3.1. institutions, individuals, groups

5. Long, convoluted process

5.1. Competing interests

5.2. Finance

5.3. Agenda setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation

5.4. Priority/importance of issue to be addressed

5.5. Revision of policy at many stages

6. Cyclical

6.1. Policy making is largely influenced by previous policy, how that was structured and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy

7. Types of policy making models

7.1. Elite theory

7.2. Group theory

7.3. Institutional theory

7.4. Rational choice theory

7.5. Incremental theory

8. Facets of policy making

8.1. Health policies

8.2. Public policies

8.3. Government wide policies

8.4. National policies

8.5. Organisation specific policies

8.6. Department policies

8.7. Family policies

8.8. International/global policies

9. How to study/understand policy

9.1. Recognise that models/theories of policy making are perspectives on the decision making process

9.2. Study policy in the context of a county

9.3. Study policy in the context of a particular policy i.e. maternal care, obesity, carbon tax etc.

9.4. Policy making varies across types of governments which can affect how policies are shaped and implemented