South Africa has changed over time and ever since the democratic elections lots of laws and policies have been changed as well. When a policy is being made it will always involve interaction between the population and the institutions that have to perform the policy making functions. Interaction takes place by means of elections, meetings between the people and officials, public opinion surveys, media campaigns, etc. No policy can be made in an disorderly manner, so if the information which is needed to decide on a new policy is not correct, no planning can be made. For example, if a policy must be made which involves the standards of schools, research surveys must be done in all the schools of the state. This must then be interpreted and evaluated correct by the person or persons doing it.
2. Public Policy
In any society, governmental entities enact laws, make policies, and allocate resources. According to Cloete (1993) a policy is a declaration of intent to do something or to have it done by specified institutions or functionaries as prescribed. There are a few steps that need to be completed successfully to have a policy such as a series of decisions have to be taken, the implementation of a policy means another series of decisions, and for policy analysis another series of decisions have to be taken. Cloete (1993:80) states that the constitution is a policy statement because it declares “the action to be taken by specified institutions and office bearers who follow stated procedures and respect prescribed conduct guidelines and values for the creation and maintenance of the state.” However, a policy statement is never static because of human society constantly moving and developing it causes a constant change in policy to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of the population.
Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic formed by
Bibliography: Anderson, J.E., (2006). Public policymaking, 6th Edition. Florence, KY: Cengage Learning. Chandler, J.A., 2000 Cliffs, E., Dye, T.R., (1987). Understanding public policy, N.J: Prentice-Hall. Cloete, J.J.N., (1993). Public Administration and Management, Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik. Dye, T.R., Khator,R., 2005. Public Administration in the Global Village. Westport,CT: Praeger Publishers. Farmer, D.J., 1995. The Language of Public Administration. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Gerston, L.N., (2008). Public Policy Making: Process and Principles, 3rd Edition. Chapter 1, p.7. Rainey, H.G, 2003. Understanding and managing public organisations. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Schuster, M.W., (2008). For the Greater Good: The Use of Public Policy Considerations, Vol.46, p.467, Carolina: Houston Law Review. Simeon, R, 1976. Canadian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 9, No. 4, p 548-580.