TEST ASSIGNMENT PUBLIC POLICY

Test Assignment Public Policy

Public policy is a very important but often ambiguously defined term in the fields of law,

sociology, political science, and many other similar fields dealing with large groups of people.

This premise was supported by Cochran et al. (2009) who eventually provided their own

definition of public policy stating that it is an “intentional course of action followed by a

government institution or official for resolving an issue of public concern.” Meanwhile,

Kilpatrick (2000) defined public policy as a “system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of

action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or

its representatives.”

These two given definitions of public policy pose an ambiguity in its real meaning and

raises the issue of whether governmental entities dictates the public policy or the public policy

dictates the actions of the governmental entities. Hence, there exists two possible points of

argument. However, it is more reasonable to consider public policy as dictated by the public

itself to compel the government authorities to act in accordance to the former and not the other

way around. Therefore, public policy shall be defined as a set of rules, written or unwritten,

dictated by the consensus norms and opinions of the general public which may be concretized by

the legislation. This definition seeks to emphasize that public policy need not be written into

laws and that it is the general will of the public for the attainment of their purposes.

Consequently, public policy may be defined as the compilation of the public opinion, norm,

morals, and customs.

In the daily lives of the people in a large group, public policy is very important as it

serves as an embodiment of their ideals, aspirations, opinions, customs, morals, norms, etc. as

discussed in the preceding paragraph hence the effects may be considered direct. However, for

TEST ASSIGNMENT PUBLIC POLICY

an individual, the effect may be considered to be only indirect since public policy affects the

course of legislation and other governmental actions which then eventually compel him/her to

act in a certain way or avoid some actions (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2000).

In the recent past, several aircraft related tragedies dominated the headlines of

newspapers, websites, news segments, blogs, social media or the mass media as a whole. First is

the unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 and in the past week, the wreckage

of Air Asia QZ8501 which took the lives of hundreds of individuals. Both of these airlines are

majorly operating within the Southeast Asian region and are similarly based in Malaysia. These

events will change how people travel through air, will instigate revamp in the security measures

in the airports, and will re-structure the manner on how aircrafts should be maintained. These

kinds of series of events call of the investigation and eventual regulation as dictated by public

policy inspired by the public’s attitude towards air travel. Moreover, these aforementioned

changes caused by the recent events in the aviation industry will affect the individuals indirectly.

References

Cochran, C.E., Meyer, L.C., Carr, T.R., & Cayer, N.J. (2009). American Public Policy [pdf].

Retrieved from:

https://www.eeducation.psu.edu/drupal6/files/geog432/images/American%20Public%20

Policy%20Chapter%201.pdf.

Denhardt , R.B. & Denhardt, J.V. (2000). The New Public Service: Serving Rather than Steering.

Public Administration Review 60(6)

Kilpatrick, D.G. (2000). Definitions of Public Policy and the Law. Retrieved from:

https://mainweb-v.musc.edu/vawprevention/policy/definition.shtml