ABSTRACT
Public policies are the result of efforts made by governments to alter aspects of behavior – both that of their own agents and of society at large – in order to carry out some end or purpose. They are comprised of complex arrangements of policy goals and policy means matched through some formulation and decision-making process. These policy-making efforts can be more, or less, systematic in attempting to match ends and means in a logical fashion or can result from much less systematic processes. Formulation through policy design lies at one end of a spectrum of formulation styles and implies a knowledge-based process in which the choice of means or mechanisms through which policy goals are given effect follows a more or less logical process of inference from known or learned relationships between means and outcomes. This includes both design in which means are selected in accordance with experience and knowledge and non-design in which principles and relationships are incorrectly or only partially articulated or understood. Formulation efforts stemming from bargaining or opportunism, on the other hand, lie at the opposite extreme where any relationship between means and goals may be more or less fortuitous.
