Policy: Public policies are defined as “authoritative decisions made in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of government intended to direct or influence the actions, behaviors, or decisions of others” (Longest, 2005, p.11 ;Shi & Singh 2004, p.534). Public policies pertaining to health are called health policies (Shi & Singh 2004). Health policy is “the aggregate or principles, stated or unstated, that characterize the distribution of resources, services, and political influences that impact on the health of the population” (Longest 2005, p. 11; Shi & Singh 2004, p.534).
Actions of policy formation: There are four forms of actions which can lead to policy creation. The actions are as follows:
1. Laws: A law enacted…show more content… Policy process is a complex and cyclical in nature and forms a continuums through which decisions undergo modification if the need arises or circumstances change (Longest, 2005; Shi & Singh 2004, p.544). Policy making process is an open system, which interacts with the forces of external environment especially those greatly affected by the change such as interest groups. The policy agenda of interest groups characteristically reflect their interests (Shi & Singh 2004, p.540).
Interest groups refers to the group of people or organizations possessing similar policy goals/interests, who in fact are the most effective/powerful demanders of the policies, who influence the policy making process through the collection action and draft proposals on how the problem should be addressed (Longest 2005, p. 90; Hill & Hupe, 2002). Interest groups play a major role in shaping the way policy is crafted (Lundin, 2007). According to U.S constitution, interests groups reserve the right to assemble peacefully and to petition the Government for their specific common needs/problems (Longest 2005, p.…show more content… There can be unintended consequences or unfunded mandates, which call for policy modification. Policy modification results when the consequences find their way back to agenda. As already described that the policy making process is a cyclical process as it goes through the evaluation process to ascertain whether the policy is working by determining whether it is solving the initial problem. If it does not, it is modified as deemed necessary. It is important to know that modification can occur at four points of policymaking process such as at the time of agenda setting, legislation development, rulemaking, and operational process (Longest,
