Philosophy In Public Policy

Public policy encompasses all the ways a government finds solutions to societal problems. As such, policy studies is the analysis of these solutions. Through data analysis and surveys, policy evaluation can help us understand the impacts of a policy. We can learn "what" policy does in the real world. Moreover, the study of public administration can help us understand the processes by which policies can be created. Through policy implementation, we see the "how" behind policy, and "who" is involved.

With the Agenda Setting and Policy Formation stages of the policy making process, we see a different dimension. This is when we ask, "why?" Why should one course of action be taken instead of another? Why do some beliefs conflict, while others seem to work in tandem? The conversation becomes one of ethics and morals, where ethics are the external beliefs and "rules" society sets for a conversation, and morals are the internal values that vary from personal to person.

As with any question, the interaction of ethics and morals shapes how we perceive and interact with policy. For example, a discussion on SBA loans may adopt a common ethical base of consequentialism, all the stakeholders may agree the best policy is the one that maximizes the utility between both businesses and tax payers. However, whether the small businesses utility or the taxpayer's utility is worth more becomes a moral issues. It will vary between different people, even if the ethical framework is the same.

Within this analysis, public policy philosophy is unique in the very definition of public, leading to a . Unlike the policy of a company or an NGO, public policy applies to everyone. As such, there is a whole philosophy of how the collective opinions of the public gets processed through public administration, and whether this process is correct to begin with. One can ask, if policy makers have access to superior information than the public, are they justified in going against moral judgements of an ill-informed majority? This question lives within the policy making process. More than that, its based in the wider philosophy of democracy and government, showcasing how even specific policy making questions are interdisciplinary at their core.

At the end of the day, within the current system, policy will still be most impacted by the political pressures what weigh on decision makers. However, systems of governance aren't static. The philosophy of public policy helps us understand why decisions in the current public policy process occur as they do, and in doing so it provides insights into how our system can and should change moving into the future.