Political Science: Policy Analysis
Introduction
Different countries in the world have formulated policies that are aimed at improving the social, political, and economic sectors. The process of examining and identifying policy options that could help address the problem in those sectors is referred to as policy analysis. It is a sub-discipline of political science that deals with decision making. Its origin in the united stated is entirely linked to social scientific development in the early 1960s. The policy-making and analysis process is a critical component of the democratic structures which are accounted for civic policies. Generally, there five primary approaches to policy analysis. These include: qualitative cost- benefit analysis, formal cost- benefit analysis, cost-effective analysis, and multi- goal policy analysis. Also, Public policies entail rules, regulations, laws, and government programs. Their nature is usually, viewed from three dimensions, that is, restrictive, facilitating and regulatory policies. The article herein seeks to several models of public policy and finally provide a model that seem to more useful. Key elements and implication of multi-stream theory and the social construction theories have been discussed at length. Further, the essay examines how implementation of public policy is achieved in the federal government of the United States. The relationship between the federal and local governments is discussed at large with regard to policy formulation and implementation
Models of public policies
Public policy models addresses how the policy making process is undertaken. They define how public policies are made in America. It is worth noting that these models are presented to fit onto four primary categories: groups, elite, incremental and process. Through political science, it possible to ascertain that there are model of policy making that are useful to specific sectors. The models which are mostly used include: institutional model, Elite- mass model, group model system model, and streams and windows model. In this case, the elite and group model are discussed and a comparison is made between the two models.
Comparison between the elite Model and the Group model of policy making
The elite model of policy making works in an environment in which there is a lot of apathy and information is distorted and policies flows from the elite down to the mass. Under this model, the society is divided into two categories; those who have the powers and those who do not. The Elites have common characteristics that separate them from the mass (ordinary citizens). They are normally concerned with preserving their status quo and the prevailing public policies will always reflect their values. Generally, elites exhibit a higher class in terms of education, income, wealth, and political status among others.
From the Elite model, public policy may be regarded as the values and preferences of the group. The mass is shaped by the elite more than the vice versa. Official and administrators executes the policies that decided by the elite group, which goes down to the ordinary citizen. This model assumes that the society is divided into few powerful individuals and many individual who are power. It also assumed that there is slow movement of non-elites to the elite position and after accepting the values of the elite. Moreover, changes in the public policy are normally incremental and revolutionary since the changes are reflected in the elite values.