Public Policy

The single greatest concern of public policy is how to achieve societal goals. As the modern state has assumed the responsibility, through some form of social contract, to advance societal goals, public policy becomes a question of what government chooses to do or not do. One of a society’s goals can be the alleviation of poverty, which closely connects with public policy. In the distribution of resources, the public policy approach places central agency on the state, as the collective space of citizens, to advance the common good, compared with the market approach, which emphasizes the self-interest of citizens. In this endeavor, public policy examines both the intentions (as delineated in the constitution, legislation, administrative orders, parliamentary debates, election manifestos, policy documents, discourses in the ...