Policy cycle models

There is a long tradition of describing the process of public policymaking as a cycle of distinct, identifiable stages. Since the mid-1980s, however, this cyclical model has been increasingly rejected, most frequently on the grounds that it oversimplifies the complex iterative and political realities of much policymaking. Nevertheless, the cycle heuristic can still provide useful guidance for policy managers, not least because it presents policy making as a purposeful sequence of events and activities unfolding incrementally over time, as the actors involved strive to understand problems in the real world and identify and implement practical solutions to them.