POLICYMAKING PROCESS
LECTURER: MR. T.T MOLOBELA
DEPARTMENT: PUBLC ADMINISTRATION
EMAIL: molobelaterrance@gmail.com
 Policymaking is an extremely complex process with an
avalanche of ideas and influences from a wide range of
actors.
 The policymaking process helps to channel the
demands of groups into effective action and enable
government to make decisions in the face of those
competing demands.
Introduction
 Two important stages that follow in sequence and
crucial to the success of the entire process of
policymaking which eventually leads to the actual
delivery of services to citizens are agenda
setting and policy formulation.
 They are important because they establish the
parameters within which any additional consideration
of policies will occur.
 Policymaking begins with identification and definition of a
problem.
 Before government can make a policy choice, a particular problem
in the society must have been deemed amenable to public action
and worthy of the attention of policymakers.
 Whom a problem affects and to what extent, is a major aspect that
Agenda Setting
can influence the probability of the problem being placed on an
agenda.
 The more extreme the effects of a problem, the more likely it is to
be placed on an agenda.
 For example, an outbreak of a disease causing mild discomfort,
might not produce public action, but the possibility of an epidemic,
life-threatening disease, such as EBOLA or AIDS, is likely to
produce some kind of urgent public action.
 And again, the range of persons affected by a problem may also
influence the placement of an issue on an agenda.
 Generally, the more people affected or potentially
affected by a problem, the greater is the probability
that it will be placed on the agenda.
 However, there are other aspects which—for time
constraint—we’ll not be able to cover in this discussion.
Cont’
 Ultimately, the agenda setting is quite important
because it is only when an issue is brought to the
agenda that it is considered.
 If an issue is not placed on the agenda, it cannot be
considered, and nothing can possibly happen in
government.
 In the event of policy formulation, the policymakers
Policy
formulation
starts to narrow and structure consideration of the
problems on the agenda
 and then develop a plan of action which is approved
and adopted to rectify the problems.
 Implementation is a distinct stage in the policymaking
process, unique for representing the transformation of a
policy idea or expectation to action aimed at rectifying
the problems.
 Generally, policy implementation can be considered
the process of carrying out a government decision.
Implementation
 Ottoson and Green (1987), opines that “implementation
is an iterative process in which ideas, expressed as
policy, are transformed into behaviour, expressed as
social action” (p. 362).
 The social action transformed from the policy is
typically aimed at channelling the demands of groups
into effective action and enable government to make
decisions in the face of those competing demands.
 After a policy is implemented, comes the final stage of
the policy process, which is to assess what has occurred
as a result of the selection and implementation of a
public policy and, if necessary, to change the current
policy.
Evaluation
 In its simplest form, evaluating a public programme
involves cataloguing its goals,
 measuring the degree to which the goals have
achieved,
 and perhaps suggesting changes that might bring the
organization’s performance more in line with the stated
purposes of the programme.