Agenda Setting
Identifying a social change problem is the first task in policy development. Agenda setting is the next step. The agenda setting process is to establish one or more problems, and then consider several policy solutions to the identified problem.
Based on your reading of Simon’s Public Policy text, Chapter 5, discuss how the process works to transform a social change problem into a proposed policy solution. In particular, emphasize the following:
- Explain how issues are framed.
- Identify who might be the major policy actor, given Simon’s Chapter 5 examples (choose one).
- Choose and discuss the policy theory most relevant to the issue framed.
Unit4Disc2
How Is Policy Formulated?
How policy is formulated is the focus of this discussion. In particular, from the human services perspective, how would policy be formulated on the specific social change problem in the government example Simon offers in Chapter 6 of Public Policy?
- Briefly describe how policy is formulated in a government situation, knowing that the process is very similar in a for-profit or a non-profit organization.
- Identify the principal actors in the process (consult the Ryser “Elements of a Standard Policy Statement” reading from your Social Policy Toolbox).
- Discuss policy development group theory, as applied to your analysis.
