Usually public policy is originated in different ways in different countries. There is the concept according to which there are certain subjects within a given country who can make legislative initiatives. However, given that the United States is a democracy, it is very noticeable that a great number of initiatives comes from the grassroots. Initially there is a problem that needs to be solved. Then the people self-organize, create labor unions and what not, strike, demand, lobby etcetera. Then the government of the United States elaborates on the given problem. In general there are five steps in the process of making public policy. These are:
Formulation;
Adoption;
Implementation;
Evaluation (The Public Policy Process).
Let us take a closer look at specific examples. For instance, let’s take the issue of entitlement society. The concept of it originates back from times of Great Depression, i.e. from the early 1930s. The idea consists in the fact that there are those who are unprotected in each society. For instance, children, disabled, elderly. They do not participate in the taxes and benefits exchanges in the country, but they need to be taken care of. Therefore, the country has special programs that provide them living costs. But there are several problems with this concept too. First of all, it needs to be adjusted once in a while because of demographic changes taking place in societies. What I mean is that baby-booms around the world lead to the increase of people who need to be taken care of by the state and paid for by the state cynically thought his may sound. Therefore, a country faces a serious problem of having or not enough resources to do that (DiNitto, 74). Otherwise, it will need to cut mentioned programs or raise taxes for the remainder of the population to provide money for these groups of people. The second problem is very similar to the one that had happened earlier to labor unions: the latter combatted for abolishment of children labor, increase of wage and so on and so forth but eventually their demands became unsupported and unreasonable. The same here – in order to stay an effective state the United States need to see a very clear line to which it as a country can let it go.
Another questionable issue is corporate welfare. How much should businesses be subsided? Of course, subsidies stimulates business, but this stimulation happens at the expense of taxes of private people.
Therefore, I think the responsibility for determining solutions and setting the public policy agenda is shared. On the one hand, as I mentioned this above, the grassroots play a primary role here. However, everybody, every subject involved in the process should act in good faith within the framework of that responsibility for the state to operate effectively. For instance, people uniting in trade union should know the limit of their demands because demanding too much would end up in excessive state expenditures which would eventually negatively lead the same people that are striking. Subsiding businesses should also be very careful. Excessive steps on the part of the state risk to leave population outside the economic and social benefits basket. However, some stimulation is needed for the economy to grow.
Works Cited
“The Public Policy Process.” The University of Texas at Austin. N.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
DiNitto, Diana M. Social Welfare. Politics and Public Policy. Seventh edition. New York: Pearson, 2011. PDF
