Policy Making Process Paper

Policy making can be a complex process depending on the policy and how the people this policy will affect feel about it. Health policy is a subset of public policy. These policies include issues that related to health and illness. There are three interconnected phases that complete the policy making process. The processes are formulation, Legislative and finally the implementation phase. I will attempt to show how these processes come together to form policies as we know them today. The policy making process includes many different models but one of the oldest and most common approaches to the study of policy-making derives from the early work of H. Lasswell (1951). This American political scientist was the first to have taken into account
Due to time constraints and resources policy makers must choose which problems to act on. Sometimes determining what’s on the agenda can be difficult, but once the agenda is set the proposals of the policy can be set. Formulation of the policy includes the development of pertinent and acceptable proposed courses of action for dealing with public problems. The people involved in this process are the president and his advisors who are the leading source of policy initiatives. Next are the government agencies, the presidential organizations such as specific tasks forces and or commissions next are the legislators and finally the interest groups. All of these individuals are key figures in the policy making process. This leads into the next phase of policy making which is the legislative
In order for a policy to have proper implementation it must not exceed the jurisdictional limits of the agency. An example of this is certain transportation methods that may lie in different states. Before implementation can begin policy makers must make sure adequate resources are available and ample time is given for implementation, certain policies have failed because it took too long to implement or the cost was too great, also adequate staffing must be available to carry out the policy. Putting a policy in place without having someone to ensure the standards and policy guidelines are enforced will be a disaster. Finally policies must be clear and understandable this is especially true with more complex policies. These policies can be misunderstood if all of the details are not clear and concise causing the policy makers to simplify it. Once the policy is implemented all parties must know their role carrying out the policy and everyone must be on the same page, miscommunication can cause many problems when trying to make sure all of the details of the are followed exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Training is needed to ensure that everyone has knowledge of the policy and its guidelines and standards. Agencies must ensure total compliance if they want the policy implementation to be