Public policies which have developed over past 10 to 20 years have included polices which deal with a whole range of issues from labour relations to health care and globalisation. However, key questions remain as to how the American system of government is informed of the need to take actions on such policy issues and who is responsible for developing solutions and setting the public policy agenda in government.
In considering a range of public policy issues, one cannot ignore the responsibility for the development of solutions and the setting of public policy agenda which comes right from the top of the political system in the form of presidential leadership (Grim, 2010). This can be seen time and again throughout American political history where presidents have taken the initiative to introduce large scale and sometimes radical reforms to public policy. Examples range from the historic Roosevelt’s New Deal (Zeng, 2009) programs designed to deal with the effects of a difficult economic period and antagonistic labour relations through to the more contemporary such as Obama’s healthcare and taxation reforms.
Despite the role of presidential leadership in informing public policy and developing solutions to such issues, if public policy is to be well informed and give genuine value to all American citizens, then there is a need for the involvement of a wider number of contributors than the president alone. As key example of this is seen in a case presided over by Mr Chief Justice Hughes in NLRB vs Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, in this case the judge gave a key ruling which made use of a system of “statutory interpretation” thus seeing that the law was applied in a way which was beneficial from a public policy perspective. As such, this case highlights the importance of the judicial system in informing and developing public policy on a day to day basis.
Leading on from the case above, one may also see that it is not only active members of government which contribute towards the development of public policy in the American system of government. Other key contributors may include those organisations which are set up to represent special interest groups such as labour unions or trade and industry associations. In this case, the primary role of such organisations from a political perspective may be seen as that of “informing” the government of the day through a process of lobbying and direct communications to those within the political establishment (Harris and Fleisher, 2007). Having stated this, one may see that some forms of non-political party representation such as trade unions have declined in importance of the past 10 to 20 years as membership of such organisations has fallen in the same period (Faber and Krueger, 1992). On the other hand, other lobbying and informing groups such as trade and industry associations have gained increasing levels of power over the period, an issue which is seen in a negative light by some (Thomson and John, 2007).
In conclusion one may see that the system of public policy in the United States represents a complex web of interests and is informed by a diverse range of both political and non-political figures and bodies.
Works Cited
Faber, Henry, Krueger, Alan. “Union membership in the United States: The decline continues.” NBER Working paper. 1992. Print.
Grim, Ryan. Obama’s anti-lobbyist policy causing unintended harm. Huffington Post. 2010 Web. 25.10.12.
Harris, Phil, Fleisher, Craig. The handbook of public affairs. LA: Sage Publications, 2007, Print.
Thomson, Stuart, John, Steve. Public affairs in practise. London: Kogan Page, 2007, Print.
Zeng, Gui. “The employment project of Roosevelt’s new deal and its revelation.” Journal of Hunan University of Commerce. 2009. Print.
