JSB178 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Policy
Document Summary
The policy cycle is one way of organising the chaos within the government and legislation. It is descriptive, not prescriptive and is usually based around althaus, Ideal policy agenda of the government: who sets the agenda, skills for identifying issues. Policy agenda is the narrowing of all possible issues within policy to those that concern the government. It is politically motivated and decided but it can be changed by circumstance. What are the external factors: economic forces, either domestic or international, media attention on an issue, lobbyists and other interest groups, opinion polls, legal rulings, natural disasters. What are the internal factors: political realities, motivations of the ministers, emerging issues, monitoring other jurisdictions, regular and programmed reviews, the budget. The althaus, bridgman and davis approach: competing voices, decided politically, bias towards issues already receiving attention, often set by the elites. Government will consider the following: what is best in their opinion, policy of the party, financial prospects.
