Public Policy in Local Government
In a general setting, the public policy is understood as a set of regulations implemented by the state in order to manage a specific issue within the parameters imposed by the current legislations. In a different formulation,
"Public policy can be generally defined 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" (Kilpatrick).
The public policies implemented by the United States government are numerous and complex, to target virtually every field of life, such as education, infrastructure, business regulation and so on. While all public policies are equally important within a democratic society, there are some policies which raise more interest from the public and this is due to their applicability in a specific context, or the impact they generate within the community.
Within the modern day society, some fields of recurrent interest for policy makers and their observers include environmental regulations, business regulations (with emphasis on prudence), health care regulation, employment policies or efforts to regulate the IT community. In the specific case of technology policies, the government has been rather intrigued, given the novel nature of the sector. In essence, the policies are still being developed and implemented, as the IT field evolves by itself.
In the context of a rapidly changing society and more and more demanding public, the governmental institutions have come to make more use of technology in order to improve the quality of their services, as well as create operational and cost efficiencies. But the integration of the latest technologies and their usage within federal institutions is pegged to a series of challenges, such as increased expenditures or the need for specialized staffs.
This change in public policy nevertheless generates a series of impacts within the community. Some examples of impacts include the following
Improved quality of the public services offered, as the federal institution comes to outsource IT operations and focus on the provision of its core services (health care, education, public administration and so on)
The creation of a context which supports the development of the private IT sector by creating opportunities for further development, demand for services and competition for federal contracts. In other words, this supports market equilibrium and further development of the IT community (Auriol, 2009).
A tradeoff at the level of employment opportunities, as these decrease in the public sector but increase in the private sector. As the public agency renounces in house completion of IT operations, it downsizes the staffs responsible for these tasks, decreasing as such public employment. Nevertheless, if these operations are transferred to a tertiary party in the same community, more jobs are created in the private sector; problems nevertheless arise when the operations are outsourced to foreign regions and this costs the jobs of Americans in favor of more cost effective foreign labor.
At the level of the federal institution, the change in public policy regarding IT outsourcing is also generating a series of effects, which are both positive as…
Public Policy Analysis There is a sense that politics operates on a continuum scale whose extremes are rationality and irrationality. Politicians make laws that can be seen from both perspectives depending on the particular position of the person judging whether the particular statute is good or bad. Public policy can be judged by either rational choice theory or the converse of that. The difference in the two can be seen in
This focus on tribal or familial loyalty over loyalty to the state makes bribery and nepotism seem normal, rather than shocking. One reason that party machines are often associated with particular ethnic groups is that loyalties and communities that have banded together to sustain themselves in a new environment often use the opportunities provided by politics to find a foothold in society. Corrupt, intransigent, and non-functional governments that fail
" (CRT, p. 1) According to the U.S. Department of State, Costa Rica has been a Constitutional Democracy since 1949, which makes it the oldest and most stable democracy in all of Latin America. Its partnerships with the global community are therefore a matter of some inherency. But this inherency cannot be accepted without some caution. This is demonstrated by a study produced Boo (1992). Here, at the early outset of
Introduction Fraud in local government is a serious and pervasive issue that can undermine public trust, waste taxpayer funds, and damage the integrity of public institutions. This illicit activity can take various forms, ranging from embezzlement and kickbacks to bribery and conflicts of interest. Local governments are particularly vulnerable to fraud due to a combination of factors, including: Limited resources: Local governments often operate with tight budgets and limited staff,
S. General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates' in 1991 stated that nearly 30% of those incarcerated had used drugs daily in the month before committing the offense for which they were in prison. By the year 2003 there were approximately 6.9 million individuals either on probation, in mail, or in prison which equals 32% of all U.S. adults residents or 1 out of every 32 adults. (U.S. Bureau of Justice Corrections
The trial lasted seven months and Justice Leland Degrasse rendered his decision, 719 N.Y.S.2d 475 on January 10, 2001, in favor of plaintiffs and ordered the state to ensure that all public schools provide the opportunity for a sound basic education to their students." (Hunter, 2004) Entered, as part of this decision was a "costing-out study as the threshold task in developing a new school funding system." (Hunter, 2004)
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now