ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the role of politics in making public policy, and how different social scientific disciplines contribute to our understanding of the policy process. It discusses the policy process as contained within a policy system and summarizes the many influences on public policy. The stages “model” of the policy process owes a great deal of its logic to the way in which people believe that policy “should” be made. The stages model of the policy process can be considered as a form of systems thinking. A black box in a systems model is something that performs a translating or processing function, but where the actual workings of that system are unclear. The basic structural features of American government are those taught in high school civics or introductory American politics courses. The social environment involves the nature and composition of the population and its social structure.