Public Policy: Formulation, Enactment & Implementation - Essay Sample

Introduction

Public policies are actions which legal authorities creates and implements to improve the condition of citizens and to stimulate economic growth. The whole process of formulating, enacting, and implementing public policy is both analytical and political process that requires the participation of both the public and legal authorities. The purpose of public policy is to provide a solution to social problems requiring the state to formulate legitimate policies that can address such social issues (Ablon & Golay, 2017). The formulation, creation, and implementation transportation policies strategies have weaknesses and strengths that make it either successfully solve or not address the social problem it is created to address. The procedure for its implementation includes the incorporation of various stakeholders such as The Government, local government, citizen, judiciary, and other state agencies. The paper therefore seeks to provide comparative analysis of three potential strategies that addresses the policy problem by finding the potential internal and external impacts to project stakeholders and financing mechanisms and budgeting approaches used for formulation and implementations of the policy.

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Integration of Stakeholder's Strategy

The use of this strategy has various weaknesses and strengths that make it inappropriate or appropriate for use by the general public (Twum, 2013). Since the policymaking process is being undertaken by the municipal government but not by other stakeholders such as the citizen but by the mayor, elders, and city manager, it does not represent the interest of the public. Furthermore, it does not allow for the participation of the general public, making it a document that meets the interest of the Municipal Government but not the citizen. The formulation and implementation of this policy do not allow for the involvement of legislators which are meant to articulate the interest of the citizen. Because the policy formulation and adoption does not go through the legislature, it does not reflect the demand of various individuals such as youths, women, and people with disability.

The incorporation of other stakeholders as an essential strategy used in the formulation and implementation of transportation policy of Savannah does not include all the Government actors such as executives. It only has the city manager, elders, the mayor, and the public. The executives are not involved in its formulation and implementation. Top political officials, the cabinet and chief executive officers are allowed to participate (Ablon & Golay, 2017). Since it is the responsibility of the executives to implement the policy and ensure that they oversee the whole implementation process; their role cannot be executed by the city manager, elders, and mayor. These stakeholders who are involved in the creation and implementation of this policy only have the responsibility of discussing and making necessary changes (Rose & Cray, 2010). They are also responsible for collecting sufficient revenues for use during the implementation process. For that matter, the formulation and implementation process of transportation policy do not have the required individuals to oversee, supervise, and survey the whole process. Since there is no involvement of the executive body, there is poor initiation, enactment, and implementation process.

The executive has the power to influence the initiation process of transportation policies. It, therefore, means that the transportation policy in Savannah is not correctly drafted and formulated to meet the interest of the general public. The absence of executive in the formulation and enactment removes a major actor required in developing public policy (Twum, 2013). This result in poor articulation and drafting of the said policy before it is passed into the legislative bodies. As a result, it is not possible to mobilize leads and also to be unable to inspire legislators to support the policy by using the power received from the citizen.

The formulation and implementation process of transportation policy do not go through judicial interpretation. As a result, the strategy does not allow the system to undergo the process of judicial review and also lacks constitutional interpretation. This is likely to enable the formation and implementation of public policy that does not adhere to a legal requirement. For that reason, there is no constitutional body that can be used to decide conflicts arise between different interest groups. The absence of judicial process does not allow the action of the Government to endorse to the commitment and letters of the law. The effect of this is that it is possible to develop and implement transportation policy which is inconsistent with the constitution because there is no judicial body to review it and check its legality, fairness, and its constitutionality. There is, therefore, no statutory body to declare a section of the policies as repugnant, null and unconstitutional or have the ability to improve the choice of the system by asserting legality and also help in restraining execution activity especially the conduct of administrative officials (Rose & Cray, 2010). Its absence, therefore, does not allow proper moderation of the action of the state which may harm the public.

The strategy used also does not allow for the involvement of non-governmental actors such as political parties which is responsible for influencing enactment and formulation of public policy. Since there is no involvement of political parties, it is therefore not possible to gain control of state machinery. This is done through selecting a party leader that can mobilize the citizen to either support or reject the public policy. As a result, the views, perception, and opinion of a specific group of persons may not be reflected in the system. It is therefore not possible to articulate and aggregate policy issues available in the proposed method. Political parties are responsible for articulating the needs of their members and ensure that they are incorporated into the policy (Twum, 2013). This is not possible when this strategy is applied during the implementation of the transportation policy in Savannah. The effect of this is that it does not allow for the incorporation of the needs and interest of members of any political party within the country.

There are various strengths of employing the integration of stakeholders in the formulation strategy. The strategy used for implementing transportation policy in Savannah eliminates any form of political interference because it does not involve the participation of political officials such as legislators. Therefore its formulation and implementation take a few days to complete. Since the main stakeholders are the municipal government and the city manager and mayor, there is enough revenue to support the enactment and implementation process.

The strategy used in enacting and implementing transportation policy allows the involvement of the general public (Ablon & Golay, 2017). For that matter, the implementation process has a human environment where policy should go through, thus providing the opportunity for the participation of a major actor in policy formulation and implementation. Under this condition, the system constitutes perception, values, and preference of the public, which is essential in policy formulation and implementation. Furthermore, the strategy used allows the citizen to include their demand in the policy, thus ensure that their expectation and need is incorporated in the system (Rose & Cray, 2010). At the same time, the participation of the citizen also allows for the contribution of a sufficient amount of money required for the implementation process. Finally, the presence of citizen ensures that the public has the power to choose the kind of policy they stand for and reject which the government actors want to use to rule the people.

Finally, the strategy allows the participation of interest groups such as the municipal Government which wants to control the transport system. It also provides for the involvement of commuters, passengers, drivers, and other people using public transport. All these people or individuals have a common interest in ensuring that there are no accidents on the road and smooth flow of vehicles and passengers (Twum, 2013). These people are there to project and protect their interest so that they may solve their social problems. They, therefore, interact with other state agencies to ensure that their attention and perception are made part of the policy because their focus has an impact on the system.

Address the Stakeholders' Interests in the Policy Problem

Addressing the interest of all the stakeholders is very important in eliminating conflict which may arise when formulating and implementing transportation policy. The importance of implementing the strategy will improve economic condition of the people because it is meant to boost tourism. The new system will ensure that there is easy movement of people within the city thus supporting and enhancing economic activities. In addition the transport policy will ensure that there is easy management and supervision of most activities going on along the coastline (Siemens et al., 2017).

The only weakness of the strategy is that it may introduce rules and regulations which can easily suppress the movement of the people. At the same time those who have violated the policy can also be imprisoned for violating the rights of other people.

Determine the Effect of the Problem

Since there were several challenges that the people of Savannah are facing, new transportation policy overcome such problems. It solved the problem of poor infrastructure which hastens the movement of sellers and buyers within the region. It allows people to access various products from different parts of the country as this is important in improving trade within the area. The policy also opens up other economic activities which were not initially practiced in the areas and as such it improves the living standards of the people in the region (Siemens et al., 2017). The citizen could now get high quality foods and other basic materials that they require for their daily consumption. The government being one of the stakeholders also saves some resources which they may use to spur other economic activities. This is because when there are good roads the government uses little resources when repairing the roads. Other aspects are that it allows the government to collect high revenues through taxation and other revenue collection mechanism.

Transportation is a key aspect in the development of health care as it assists in the movement of various services in the sector (Bencomo, 2009). People can now easily access healthcare because the new transportation policy supports easy transportation and therefore there is no delay and frustration when moving to the hospital.

Conclusion

Public policy is a crucial instrument for the Government, citizen, and other social groups. For successful formulation and implementation, it is essential to apply integrations of all the stakeholders' strategies such as governmental actors, nongovernmental actors, and citizenry to ensure that the interest of all the stakeholders is incorporated into the policy. The involvement of all the policy stakeholders eliminates social and economic challenges such as corruption and conflicts that emerge during the implementation of public policy. Therefore it is recommended to have a social, political restructuring of the country that allows all government agencies to have the power to overcome social problems such as corruption. Finally, it is essential to have citizenry reorientation to ensure there is i...