Policy

A policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by the Board of or
senior governance body within an organization whereas
procedures or protocols would be developed and adopted
by senior executive ocers. Policies can assist in both
subjective and objective decision making. Policies to assist
in subjective decision making would usually assist senior
management with decisions that must consider the relative merits of a number of factors before making decisions and as a result are often hard to objectively test e.g.
work-life balance policy. In contrast policies to assist in
objective decision making are usually operational in nature and can be objectively tested e.g. password policy.[1]

a certain value must be performed through a purchasing

process. By requiring this standard purchasing process
through policy, the organization can limit waste and standardize the way purchasing is done.
The State of California provides an example of benetseeking policy. In recent years, the numbers of hybrid
cars in California has increased dramatically, in part because of policy changes in Federal law that provided USD
$1,500 in tax credits (since phased out) as well as the
use of high-occupancy vehicle lanes to hybrid owners (no
loew hybrid vehicles). In this case, the organization (state
and/or federal government) created an eect (increased
ownership and use of hybrid vehicles) through policy (tax
breaks, highway lanes).

The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, as well as individuals. Presidential
executive orders, corporate privacy policies, and parliamentary rules of order are all examples of policy. Policy
diers from rules or law. While law can compel or prohibit behaviors (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes
on income), policy merely guides actions toward those
that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

1.2 Unintended eects

Policies frequently have side eects or unintended consequences. Because the environments that policies seek
to inuence or manipulate are typically complex adaptive systems (e.g. governments, societies, large companies), making a policy change can have counterintuitive
results. For example, a government may make a policy
decision to raise taxes, in hopes of increasing overall tax
revenue. Depending on the size of the tax increase, this
may have the overall eect of reducing tax revenue by
causing capital ight or by creating a rate so high that citizens are deterred from earning the money that is taxed.
(See the Laer curve.)

Policy or policy study may also refer to the process of

making important organizational decisions, including the
identication of dierent alternatives such as programs
or spending priorities, and choosing among them on the
basis of the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, managerial, nancial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals. In
public corporate nance, a critical accounting policy is a
policy for a rm/company or an industry which is considered to have a notably high subjective element, and that
has a material impact on the nancial statements.

1
1.1

The policy formulation process theoretically includes an

attempt to assess as many areas of potential policy impact
as possible, to lessen the chances that a given policy will
have unexpected or unintended consequences.

2 Policy cycle

Impact

In political science, the policy cycle is a tool used for the

analyzing of the development of a policy item. It can also
be referred to as a stagist approach, stages heuristic
or stages approach. It is thus a rule of thumb rather
than the actual reality of how policy is created, but has
been inuential in how political scientists looked at policy
in general.[2] It was developed as a theory from Harold
Lasswell's work.

Intended eects

The intended eects of a policy vary widely according to

the organization and the context in which they are made.
Broadly, policies are typically instituted to avoid some
negative eect that has been noticed in the organization,
or to seek some positive benet.

Corporate purchasing policies provide an example of how One version has the following stages:
organizations attempt to avoid negative eects. Many
1. Agenda setting (Problem identication) - The recoglarge companies have policies that all purchases above
1

3 CONTENT
nition of certain subject as a problem demanding endorsement or signature of the executive powers within
further government attention.
an organization to legitimize the policy and demonstrate
that it is considered in force. Such documents often have
2. Policy Formulation - Involves exploring a variation standard formats that are particular to the organization
of options or alternative courses of action available issuing the policy. While such formats dier in form,
for addressing the problem. (appraisal, dialogue, policy documents usually contain certain standard comformulation, and consolidation)
ponents including :
3. Decision-making - Government decides on an ultimate course of action, whether to perpetuate the
policy status quo or alter it. (Decision could be 'positive', 'negative', or 'no-action')
4. Implementation - The ultimate decision made earlier
will be put into practice.
5. Evaluation - Assesses the eectiveness of a public
policy in terms of its perceived intentions and results. Policy actors attempt to determine whether
the course of action is a success or failure by examining its impact and outcomes.

An eight step policy cycle is developed in detail in The

Australian Policy Handbook by Peter Bridgman and Glyn
Davis: (now with Catherine Althaus in its 4th and 5th
editions)
1. Issue identication
2. Policy analysis
3. Consultation (which permeates the entire process)
4. Policy instrument development
5. Building coordination and coalitions
6. Program Design: Decision making

A purpose statement, outlining why the organization is issuing the policy, and what its desired eect
or outcome of the policy should be.
An applicability and scope statement, describing
who the policy aects and which actions are impacted by the policy. The applicability and scope
may expressly exclude certain people, organizations,
or actions from the policy requirements. Applicability and scope is used to focus the policy on only the
desired targets, and avoid unintended consequences
where possible.
An eective date which indicates when the policy
comes into force. Retroactive policies are rare, but
can be found.
A responsibilities section, indicating which parties
and organizations are responsible for carrying out individual policy statements. Many policies may require the establishment of some ongoing function
or action. For example, a purchasing policy might
specify that a purchasing oce be created to process purchase requests, and that this oce would be
responsible for ongoing actions. Responsibilities often include identication of any relevant oversight
and/or governance structures.

7. Policy Implementation
8. Policy Evaluation

Policy statements indicating the specic regulations, requirements, or modications to organizational behavior that the policy is creating. Policy
statements are extremely diverse depending on the
organization and intent, and may take almost any
form.

The Althaus, Bridgman & Davis model is heuristic and

iterative. It is intentionally normative and not meant to
be diagnostic or predictive. Policy cycles are typically
characterized as adopting a classical approach, and tend
to describe processes from the perspective of policy decision makers. Accordingly, some postpositivist academics Some policies may contain additional sections, including:
challenge cyclical models as unresponsive and unrealistic,
preferring systemic and more complex models.[3] They
Background, indicating any reasons, history, and
consider a broader range of actors involved in the policy
intent that led to the creation of the policy, which
space that includes civil society organisations, the media,
may be listed as motivating factors. This informaintellectuals, think tanks or policy research institutes, cortion is often quite valuable when policies must be
porations, lobbyists, etc.
evaluated or used in ambiguous situations, just as
the intent of a law can be useful to a court when deciding a case that involves that law.

Content

Policies are typically promulgated through ocial written documents. Policy documents often come with the

Denitions, providing clear and unambiguous definitions for terms and concepts found in the policy
document.

Typologies

Theodore J. Lowi, famous American political scientist

proposed four types of policy namely distributive, redistributive, regulatory and constituent in his article 'Four
systems of Policy, Politics and Choice' and in 'American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies and Political
Theory'. Policy addresses the intent of the organization,
whether government, business, professional, or voluntary.
Policy is intended to aect the 'real' world, by guiding the
decisions that are made. Whether they are formally written or not, most organizations have identied policies.

Broad ideas and goals in political manifestos and

pamphlets
A company or organizations policy on a particular
topic. For example, the equal opportunity policy of
a company shows that the company aims to treat all
its sta equally.

The actions the organization actually takes may often vary

signicantly from stated policy. This dierence is sometimes caused by political compromise over policy, while
in other situations it is caused by lack of policy implementation and enforcement. Implementing policy may have
Policies may be classied in many dierent ways. The unexpected results, stemming from a policy whose reach
following is a sample of several dierent types of policies extends further than the problem it was originally crafted
broken down by their eect on members of the organiza- to address. Additionally, unpredictable results may arise
tion.
from selective or idiosyncratic enforcement of policy.
Types of policy analysis include:

4.1

Distributive policies

Distributive policies extend goods and services to members of an organization, as well as distributing the costs
of the goods/services amongst the members of the organization. Examples include government policies that
impact spending for welfare, public education, highways,
and public safety, or a professional organizations benets
plan.

4.2

Regulatory policies

Causal (resp. non-causal)

Deterministic (resp. stochastic, randomized and
sometimes non-deterministic)
Index
Memoryless (e.g. non-stationary)
Opportunistic (resp. non-opportunistic)
Stationary (resp. non-stationary)

Regulatory policies, or mandates, limit the discretion of These qualiers can be combined, so for example you
individuals and agencies, or otherwise compel certain could have a stationary-memoryless-index policy.
types of behavior. These policies are generally thought
to be best applied when good behavior can be easily dened and bad behavior can be easily regulated and pun- 5 Specic policy types
ished through nes or sanctions. An example of a fairly
successful public regulatory policy is that of a speed limit.
Company Policy

4.3

Constituent policies

Constituent policies create executive power entities, or

deal with laws. Constituent policies also deal with Fiscal
Policy in some circumstances.

4.4

Miscellaneous policies

Policies are dynamic; they are not just static lists of goals
or laws. Policy blueprints have to be implemented, often
with unexpected results. Social policies are what happens
'on the ground' when they are implemented, as well as
what happens at the decision making or legislative stage.
When the term policy is used, it may also refer to:
Ocial government policy (legislation or guidelines
that govern how laws should be put into operation)

Communications and Information Policy is under

Information policy
Human resource policies
Privacy policy
Public policy
Defense policy
Domestic policy
Economic policy
Education policy
Energy policy
Environmental Policy and National Environmental
Policy Act
Foreign policy

8
Forest policy

7 See also

Health policy

Blueprint

Housing policy

Distributive tendency

Information policy

Iron triangle

Macroeconomic policy
Monetary policy
Plan

Mandate (politics)
Overton window
Pattern language
Policy alienation

Population policy

Policy analysis

Public policy in law

Policy Governance

Science policy

Policy studies

Security policy
Social policy
Urban policy
Transportation policy
Water policy

NOTES AND REFERENCES

Political science
Program evaluation
Public administration
Public health
Public policy (law)
Public policy schools
Public services

Other uses of the term

In enterprise architecture for systems design, policy
appliances are technical control and logging mechanisms to enforce or reconcile policy (systems use)
rules and to ensure accountability in information systems.
In insurance, policies are contracts between insurer
and insured used to indemnify (protect) against potential loss from specied perils. While these documents are referred to as policies, they are in actuality
a form of contract - see insurance contract.
In gambling, policy is a form of an unsanctioned lottery, where players purport to purchase insurance
against a chosen number being picked by a legitimate lottery. Or can refer to an ordinary Numbers
game
In articial intelligence planning and reinforcement
learning, a policy prescribes a non-empty deliberation (sequence of actions) given a non-empty sequence of states.
In debate, the term policy is slang for policy or
cross-examination debate.

Social contract
Social welfare
Social work
Think tank

8 Notes and references

[1] http://sydney.edu.au/legal/policy/what/index.shtml
[2] Robert T. Nakamura, THE TEXTBOOK POLICY PROCESS AND IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH: Review of Policy Research Volume 7, Issue 1, pages 142
154, September 1987 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
10.1111/j.1541-1338.1987.tb00034.x/abstract
[3] Young, John and Enrique Mendizabal. Helping researchers become policy entrepreneurs, Overseas Development Institute, London, September 2009.

Blakemore, Ken (1998). Social Policy: an Introduction.

Althaus, Catherine; Bridgman, Peter; Davis, Glyn
(2007). The Australian Policy Handbook (4th ed.).
Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

5
Mller, Pierre; Surel, Yves (1998). L'analyse
des politiques publiques (in French).
Paris:
Montchrestien.
Paquette, Laure (2002). Analyzing National and International Policy. Rowman Littleeld.

Greenberg, George D.; et al. (December 1977).

Developing Public Policy Theory: Perspectives
from Empirical Research. American Political Science Review. American Political Science Association. 71 (4): 15321543. doi:10.2307/1961494.
JSTOR 1961494.

Howard, Cosmo. The Policy Cycle: a Model of

Post-Machiavellian Policy Making?" The Australian
Journal of Public Administration, September 2005.

Dye, Thomas R. (1976). Policy Analysis. University

of Alabama Press.

Jenkins, William (1978). Policy Analysis: A Political and Organizational Perspective. London: Martin
Robertson.

Stone, Diane."Global Public Policy, Transnational

Policy Communities and their Networks, Journal
of Policy Sciences, 2008

Lowi, Theodore J.; Bauer, Raymond A.; De Sola

Pool, Ithiel; Dexter, Lewis A. (1964). American
Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory. World Politics. Cambridge University Press. 16 (4): 687713. doi:10.2307/2009452.
JSTOR 2009452.
Lowi, Theodore J. (1972). Four Systems of Policy,
Politics, and Choice. Public Administration Review.
American Society for Public Administration. 32 (4):
298310. doi:10.2307/974990. JSTOR 974990.
Feltus, Christophe (2008). Preliminary Literature
Review of Policy Engineering Methods - Toward
Responsibility Concept. Proceeding of 3rd international conference on information and communication technologies : from theory to applications
(ICTTA 08), Damascus, Syria; Preliminary Literature Review of Policy Engineering Methods - Toward
Responsibility Concept. External link in |publisher=
(help)
Lowi, Theodore J. (1985). The State in Politics.
In Noll, Roger G. (ed.). Regulatory Policy and the
social Sciences. Berkeley: University of California
Press. pp. 67110.
Spitzer, Robert J. (June 1987). Promoting Policy Theory: Revising the Arenas of Power.
Policy Studies Journal.
15 (4): 675689.
doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.1987.tb00753.x.
Kellow, Aynsley (Summer 1988). Promoting Elegance in Policy Theory: Simplifying Lowis Arenas
of Power. Policy Studies Journal. 16 (4): 713724.
doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.1988.tb00680.x.
Heckathorn, Douglas D.; Maser, Steven M. (1990).
The Contractual Architecture of Public Policy: A
Critical Reconstruction of Lowis Typology. The
Journal of Politics. Cambridge University Press. 52
(4): 11011123. doi:10.2307/2131684. JSTOR
2131684.
Smith, K. B. (2002). Typologies, Taxonomies, and
the Benets of Policy Classication. Policy Studies Journal. 30 (3): 379395. doi:10.1111/j.15410072.2002.tb02153.x.

9 Further reading
K. Cummins, Linda (2011). Policy Practice for Social Workers: New Strategies for a New Era. Pearson. ISBN 9780205022441.
Hicks, Daniel L.; Hicks, Joan Hamory; Maldonado,
Beatriz (January 2016). Women as policy makers and donors: female legislators and foreign aid.
European Journal of Political Economy. Elsevier.
41: 4660. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.10.007.

10 External links
Policy institutes at DMOZ
Policy Studies Organization

11

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Text

Policy Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy?oldid=739399382 Contributors: Zundark, Mjb, Michael Hardy, Ike9898, Dysprosia,
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FirstPrinciples, Shanes, Balok, Jonathan Drain, Bobo192, Charlesg, Ziggurat, Borisblue, Kurieeto, Jaw959, Hubriscantilever, Snowolf,
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Saimhe, Prolog, Bondag, Stesso~enwiki, JAnDbot, Leuko, Husond, Barek, Thunderfox933, Policymaker~enwiki, Mburrell, Bubba hotep,
StuFifeScotland, Gomm, Edurant, JaGa, Philg88, Rwilkin, War wizard90, Zevnik, R'n'B, Greg G, RockMFR, J.delanoy, Mrg3105, HiLo48,
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