Policy Process free essay sample

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 and analyzed policy as a process, which is, as a set of phenomena organized in time and led by a number of specific and self-induced mechanisms. The model that he helped build is usually known as the stages model of policy, since it separates policy-making into its component steps, or stages, and analyses each in turn. We will write a custom essay sample on Policy Process or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The original version of the model included seven stages, though more recent versions have reduced the process to fewer steps, varying between four and six. The beginning stages of a policy include the identification of issues, through public demands for action (Porter Hicks, 1995). It is then up to the appropriate person or committee to decide whether the problem is recognized by society as a whole or is limited to a certain interest group. Sometimes in the beginning stages of a policy the policy makers realize a problem exists but they must be willing to address them all.Many times public figures cannot address the problem because they do not possess the necessary instruments to carry out a policy response. For example public figures cannot bring effective change to certain environmental problems. A time scale must be in place, Policy makers attempt short term mandates depending on how pressing the problem is, the need to correctly identify the problem. Once the problem is identified the policy makers must be in agreement the issue the can be addressed by a policy. For example healthcare reform there was a public outcry for reform, the issues was identified policy makers agreed there was a problem and this issue can be addressed by a policy. As with any policy health care reform is seen differently by different groups for one reason or another with many opinions thus bring about the formulation of policy proposals, their initiation and development, by policy-planning organizations, interest groups, and the executive or legislative branches of government.Formulation stage A policy should be formulated for example a national health research policy should be formulated based on the national health policy, basically policy formulation is the crafting of alternatives or options for dealing with a problem. 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 pol icy 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 stage. Legislative stage The next stage of the policy making is the legislative stage.This stage incorporates activities associated with rule making and policy operation; mobilization of human and financial resources to comply with the policy (Longest, 2002). Each legislature develops a series of steps through legislation proceeds to the floor of the legislature, which is then subject to an up or down vote. The policy outcome in that period is the proposed policy if it receives the support of a â€Å"decisive† coalition of legislators, once a bill is voted on and becomes law it is given a public law number and becomes United States code, this process continues ad in finitum.