ABSTRACT
Global institutions, governments and organizations produce policies that range from the relatively simple to the more complex. Policy formulation and policy implementation are the terms used to refer to key stages in the policy process. Policy implementation involves micropolitical processes that take shape in organizations such as schools, workplaces, hospitals and so on. A critical understanding of the policy process is therefore central to contemporary public health practice. Instrumental approaches are based on the most effective way to reach desired ends and, in the public health field, draw on ideas relating to the use of evidence in policy-making. Individual strategies such as the use of health checks to screen for cardiovascular risk factors tend to widen inequalities because they rely of the mobilization of individuals' resources, which generally favour those better endowed with material and psychological reserves. Policies reflect political aspirations and may therefore be prone to the setting of unrealistic goals and targets.
