Public Productivity - Essay Example

Policy and Decision Making in Public Sector The size of the government has an impact on how people can trust or fail to trust the government. Larger governments are able to meet their obligation to the people and this gives confidence to the people. The people can trust that they will count on the government to provide such services as protect them from external aggression, provide health services, provide public education etc. However, this does not happen exponentially. As the government becomes bigger and is able to meet so many of people’s needs, its power over the individual citizens increases and this means that the government can control the citizens in a much easier way thus affecting the liberty of the individual (Nicholas, 2010).

At such a time, this will only diminish the people’s trust on the government. Follow the money is a phrase that is used to refer to the corruption in government offices. This indicates that sometimes policy makers don’t put ahead the needs of the people but rather their personal interest. The “follow the money” phrase can be traced back to the Watergate scandal. This shows that sometimes people in offices of power are likely to make selfish decisions which are not helpful to the taxpayers but that will help them achieve their personal interests.

Setting budgetary priorities for policy implementation is important in a number of ways. To begin with, it helps in making sure that decisions will be based on rational list of priorities and will not be based in other priorities. Secondly, it will also mean that the individuals will not put their interest before the interests of the public. Public funds are rarely at excess and there is always some part of the budget which will need to be denied in order to make sure that others are met. Therefore, it is important for priorities to be considered in the budget to make sure that the most pressing needs in the public expenditure are met first.

The budget is the spine that holds up all government policy. It translates the government’s policy into decision making and is then the source of all the decisions such as how much revenue the government intends to raise. It also plays the central role in determining how the government will be able to actualize it promises and commitments to the people. Different situations require different decisions making strategies in order to reach the optimum decision. For the policy makers of a country to be able to reach the best decisions which will lead the best service to the public, they must be able to understand this and apply the various decision making models such as the comprehensive rational model, the Science of Muddling Through and Etzioni’s Mixed Scanning.

A good way to make sure that proper policy making is integrated with decision making is by looking at the issue of the budgetary priority and then knowing what is the most important thing that the government wants to accomplish for its people (Kennedy & Shultz, 2010). For instance, during an economic recession, the policies may be geared towards helping the economy to recover. With this in mind, the decision making process should focus on that and make sure that everything is given its weight of importance.

However, all policy making and budgeting process must consider how the individual will benefit.ReferencesKennedy, S. & Shultz, D. (2012). American Public Service, Constitutional and Ethical Foundations, . New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett.Nicholas, H. (2010). Public Administration & Public Affairs, Henry, Nicholas,. London, UK: Longman Publishers .