The Contemporary Language of Public Policy: Starting To Understand
This article provides the audience with an adequately clear and convincing stance to explain what public policy is, and other academic literacy related to public policy, which included some famous theories. The main theme of this article is that public policy is intricate and no scholar can analyze any policies with one particular theory or model. In addition, the author argues that the public policy is multidimensional and it influences every citizen’s life profoundly.
At the beginning of this article, the author brings up the fields of policy studies, how to understand the policy making and how they illustrate public policy. Then the author provides a few primary definitions of public policy, which included the most perceivable elements and concepts. At the same time, the author introduces the reason to study public policy and several theories of public policy that are more commonly subscribed to than other different theories. Furthermore, the author emphasizes that when students study public policy, their purpose should focus on analyzing policies instead of advocating them.
Correspondingly, according to personal experience, a public policy from Taiwan can be a reliable example. In 2011, the Ministry of Finance of Taiwan modified the income tax rate. Basically, there were 5 different income tax rates, which were 6%, 13%, 21%, 30%, and 40%, and citizens had to pay the tax based on their total amount of income. The former Minister of Finance claimed that if they reduced the income tax rate, they would simplify the administrative procedure and reduce the citizen’s tax burden effectively. In fact, they indeed reduced the first three rates by 1% (5%, 12%, 20%), but the last two still remained the same. Take my husband for example; he originally had to pay around 50,000 NTD for annual income tax, but after this modification, he