ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theory of policy making and outlines the processes of policy making which operate in Great Britain and Ireland. It considers how a social demand is translated into a political demand and ultimately into a policy. The chapter addresses the activity of policy making in Britain and Ireland and identifies the key actors in the process. It focuses largely on the processes of public policy making, some may ask why reference is paid to 'social policy', especially as social policy is often considered to be a sub-section of public policy. Whether cultural policy/arts policy constitutes a public policy or is an element of social policy, however, is a subject of much academic debate. Herbert A. Simon's synoptic/rational model and Charles E. Lindblom's incremental model were considered to be the main models available for the study of public policy making.
