Public Policy within the United States - Term Paper Example

Public Policy within the United States Introduction The nature of public policy is that it reflects a cross section of ideas through which services through the public are put into action. Public policy is action that results in changes or reflections of the needs, beliefs, and agendas of both the public and government. Examples show that public policy comes into practice through the capacities of government to enact law, including the use of the Court to establish public policy as it is relevant to the rights within the Constitution. Public policy passes through a system of actions towards resolving issues that are presented within the public. In looking at public policy within the United States, it is clear that the public good is not always served, but that there is a distinct but complicated system in order to create public policy. Defining Public Policy Public policy reflects culture through defining what is important and how it is handled or conducted. Rushefsky (2008) defined public policy as “a course of action made up of a series of decisions, discrete choices (including the choice not to act), over a period of time” (p. 3). Rushefsky (2008) goes on to explain that the nature of public policy is to reflect values about “money, property, life, and health” (p. 4). Birkland (2011) offers a series of quotes about the definition of public policy which includes a rudimentary comment about how it is the struggle within government that will provide for who will get what they want. As well, Birkland (2011) quotes Charles L Cochran and Eloise F. Malone who state that “Public policy consists of political decisions for implementing programs to achieve societal goals. Public policy is a framework through which political decisions are made. The ideology of society provides for structures that inform government on how to operate and what to support. There are a great number of concepts that are supported in public policy and the public defines this through their opinions on social issues. An example is that of marriage. Public policy about marriage is that it is a union between one man and one woman which is defined through legal documents that provide for legal protections for that union. Public policy is shifting, however, to include unions between same sex partners. Law remains reflective of the conflict that exists about this issue as some states have begun to allow unions that are not configured traditionally, while others have yet to change the laws that define the issue. Public policy is not static, but a fluid and shifting set of ideals through which culture is defined in combination with the support of social expectations. Defining how a society chooses to treat its citizens and what rights it will support is essential in understanding the importance of public policy. Another example of public policy that is currently in conflict is that of the public policy of health care. On the one hand, society has deemed that hospitals cannot refuse medical care to those patients with emergent issues. Hospital bills may be high for the uninsured, but if they have an issue or injury that is immediate, they will be cared for without visible means to pay for it. If the issue does not require immediate care, the issue becomes more difficult to manage. Some people will qualify for aid from the government through Medicaid, but others will not qualify and need to pay for their own care. Those who cannot pay for their own care will have to suffer the consequences of poor health. Caring for people is often considered Socialism, which is a concept that runs contradictory to what most consider being American ideology. By defining public health care as Socialist, public policy suggests that health care should remain in the private domain rather than made a public responsibility. What this shows is that public policy does not always run along the lines of what is for the common good because that may come in conflict with what is common ideological ideas. Health care policies have yet to shift towards taking care of the masses because public opinion fears the change from privatized health care to public health care in that the government will be ineffective. In addition, there is the ideological belief that this would make the United States a Socialist state which is in conflict with the idealism of American self ingenuity. What is best for the people is not always perceived as what is best. What is best is an effective, preventative system through which illness and disease is caught in earlier stages so that treatment is less expensive and longevity is encouraged. In addition, expectations on lifestyle would contribute to a better society, but this too becomes subject to those who believe that how they eat, make choices about smoking and drinking, and how they exercise, and is not the business of the public sphere. Belief systems as they inform public policy do not always run in line with what is best for society. It is through ideology that public policy is developed. One of the more difficult problems in any government, and in particular in the United States, is that ideology is not a constant or a hard framework, which means that the ideologies of different factions and the interests of different groups do not always run along the same exact paths. Sometimes for more controversial public policies it is the Supreme Court that must dispassionately look at the issue as it relates to the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States is the one irrefutable document that provides frameworks for the discussions that arise about public policy. One of the best examples of how public policy was defined through Supreme Court intervention is that of Roe v Wade. The issue of abortion is a hot bed of controversy, both sides of the issue having valid and rich arguments that make it next to impossible for the government to create law through which to efficiently support the greater good. The court determined the issue of abortion through its position in relationship to the Constitution through placing it under the 14th Amendment and the right to privacy. The Court did not validate the lawfulness of abortion, but invalidated the ability of the state to set laws disallowing abortion, thus making abortion a legal consideration that occurs between a woman and her doctor. The Court did not completely release all public hold on the determination of when an abortion could be conducted, but it did establish that for the most part the choice to have an abortion was not the right of the state to place under full constraint. As the Court placed the right to have an abortion in the balancing test, the results were that according to the Constitution the state could not interfere in what was a private matter for a woman. Although this decision is constantly considered to be controversial, public policy was set by the Court so that the issue would be essentially resolved (Payment, 2004). Therefore, the answer as to how policy is made within the United States is related to a series of different concepts, most of which are centered on ideological concerns as they are balanced for societal needs. Policy is set through laws that support ideologies and when law cannot be determined through legislative action, it is determined through the Courts as they determine how they relate to the Constitution. The most constant ideas that are upheld for the development of public policies are the ideals that have been set by the Constitution of the United States through which all concepts are filtered in order to ensure that privacy, protection, and rights are fulfilled through those policies. The Policy Process The process through which policy is set comes in a series of steps that can be identified through problem identification, agenda building, policy formulation, policy adoption, budgeting, implementation, evaluation, and policy succession (Rushefsky, 2008, p. 5). This will take place through interpretation of the issues, which is then placed into an action of social constructionism. Through the concept of social constructionism, public policy is established by the interpretation of issues as they are filtered through the opinions of those who have the power to influence how the topic is framed. An example of how this can be a problem can be seen through the example of welfare. People on welfare are one faction for which the welfare issue is relevant. However, welfare recipients are not typically well organized and depend on advocates to support their cause. As a result, Rushefsky (2008) states that welfare tends to be punitive as those who are not in support of welfare are highly organized and have a great deal of power. One of the problems with public policy is that it responds to organized efforts to influence the issue which may or may not be in the best interest of those involved. Public policy is often seen as a set of opinions, but essentially it is a set of actions that define how a problem or issue will be addressed. Defining and interpreting an issue is the first step in creating public policy, but challenges to that perception will prolong solutions while also providing for fertile ground through which to more acutely define the issues and the people that are affected by changes in public policy. In defining and interpreting the issues, Rushefsky (2008) defines the approaches through two different forms of discovery. The first is that of the narrative with the second being that of numbers. Both have their own problems where defining an issue is involved. The narrative is the story on which the issue is dependent for identifying who, what, where and when the issue has an effect. In order to examine the development of public policy, Rushefshy (2008) uses the example of poverty. In looking at poverty, the narrative is very relevant to how the issues are identified. One side of the story reflects the desperation and despair in the lives of the poor, the hunger, lack of services, and lack of connectivity to mainstream society. The other side of the narrative portrays people in poverty as lazy and without ambition, their lives the result of their own inability to rise above their situation. The narrative provides reasons for which to act. The numbers are no more revealing than the narrative as the numbers reflect what the statistical analysis seeks. In the instance of poverty, an example of how the numbers can be manipulated is simply by looking at where the poverty line is set. If it is set low, then the number of people who are in poverty is a lower number, but if it is set at a higher mark, then the number of those living in poverty increases (Schram, 1997). While one may believe that the numbers would be absolute and revealing, but what they are is a determination that is defined by parameters with the goal of supporting or denying a hypothesis. How they are defined will reveal their strict relevance to the issue. It is perception that will define an issue. Using the example of poverty once more, the issue of perception is relevant to how poverty has been experienced. People with no experience with poverty may be more critical of it using their own successes as a barometer in relationship to the status of poverty. Assumptions about how life is conducted are based upon urban myths, whether they are true or not, and the ideas about how welfare systems should be established is defined by those perceptions. In addition, poverty is in direct conflict with the myths about American independence and the ability to rise through the social classes. There is a belief that if one does not rise above their station, they have failed, thus this belief system informs the emotional state of creating public policy. Interrelationships that contribute to formatting public policy are complex and multi-layered, creating a system that is slow to respond and constantly shifting. Public opinion is a strong factor in public policy. The media performs both a service and a detriment to the formation of public opinion. The ‘court of public opinion’ can be shifted through sensationalized details that may or may not be true. A recent example of this, although not directly related to public policy as of yet, is in the Casey Anthony trial where the news used the emotion filled story of how there was a heart sticker on the duct tape that was around her mouth. If one listened to the trial, however, the sticker was found somewhere under the bag in which the child’s body was found and the duct tape, while assumed around her mouth and circumstantial evidence suggested it was there, had no evidence of that sticker having been on the tape. Inferences led to that conclusion because the narrative was more interesting than saying that a heart sticker was found under the bag. The American media likes a good story and details are sometimes exaggerated or taken out of context in order to heighten the emotional context of a narrative. Connected then to the media is the public. The public will be moved through the stories and opinions that they hear and read, leading them towards conclusions based upon their own experiences and how they connect to what they are led to believe. In addition, as in the example of abortion, politicians will use the highly emotional state of the public over an issue to sway their votes, providing access to governmental power in order to assert their own agendas. The interconnections that provide for the development of public policy are through the emotions of the public as they are incited by the media and then used by the politician in order to put law into place. The interconnections for public policy are defined by Rushefsky (2008) through problem streams, policies streams, and political streams that become an agenda. The problem stream is in identifying the problem. The policies stream is developed through experts on the problem who write and research about the problem in order to support the changes to public policy that are intended in creating an agenda. The political stream is the most complicated in that it includes “swings in national mood, changes in public opinion, election results, changes of administrations, shifts in partisan or ideological distribution in Congress, and interest-group pressure campaigns” (Rushefsky, 2008, p. 7). When these elements come together and meet a window of opportunity, public change comes to pass (Rushefsky, 2008). In the future the high level of information will serve to create a larger number of factions with interests in the various issues that face the American people. Issues such as abortion, poverty, and marriage will face changes as the need for addressing these issues have emerged in recent history. The issue of health care is at the forefront of American policy change and is in the process of being transformed. As the millennium is entered into and the issues that are carried over into the new era are addressed, technology is creating a whole new world through which decisions will be made and the concepts that are emerging on that front will provide for even more discussion in the public and in government. Conclusion Policy in the United States is made through systems of influence that shift opinion towards the enactment of agendas into law. The proliferation of information that has emerged in the last century has greatly changed the nature of public policy and the system has become increasingly complex as different interests become represented in the discourse about an issue. The Constitution of the United States is the most constant filter through which public policy is created, although public interpretation of the document sometimes means that law is changed over time to accommodate public opinion. The interrelationships within the various streams as they are affected by the media and the proliferation of information will both support and delay the process of creating public policy. The future will hold a great number of decisions for public policy and the system in place will need to meet those needs. Resources Birkland, T. A. (2011). An introduction to the policy process: Theories, concepts, and models of public policy making. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. Payment, S. (2004). Roe v. Wade: The right to choose. New York: Rosen Publishing Group. Rushefsky, M. E. (2008). Public policy in the United States: At the dawn of the twenty-first century. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. Schram, S. F. (1997). Tales of the state: Narrative in contemporary U.S. politics and public policy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Read More