OFFICIAL

POLICY-MAKERS
OLIVER M. ORNEDO
DONNABEl NUNEZ
MPA-OS
 OFFICIAL POLICY-
MAKERS
• Official policy-makers have the legal authority to
engage in the formation of public policy.

• These include legislators, executives, administrators,

and judges.

• Primary policy-makers (such as parliament) have

direct consitutional authority to act.

• Supplementary policy-makers (administrative

bodies), however, operate on the basis of authority
granted by others (primary policy-makers)
 LEGISLATORS
• They are engaged in the central political tasks of
lawmaking and policy formation in a political
system

• At the national level, policies on such matters as

taxation, civil rights, social welfare, economic
regulation and enviromental protection tend to be
shaped by Parliament through the enactment of
legislation.

• Parliament operates with the help of committee and

subcommitees.

• There are experts and consultants that help

parliamentary members in the enactment process
(staff assistance)
 LEGISLATORS
• Legislatures are more important in policy formation
in democratic than in authoritarian countries.

• In the democratic cathegory, legislators generally

have a larger role in presidental systems than in
parliamentary systems.

• Moreover, some countries have no legislature;

public policies are executive or monarchic
products.
 THE EXECUTIVE
• In presindential systems executive is formed by the
president, however, in parliamentary democracies
the executive formed by the government or the
cabinet.
• The president of the Philippines has the mandate
and control overall executive departments, bureaus
and office.
• The president has the power to give executive
issuances. Executive Issuances are means to
streamline the policy and programs of the
administration:
 KINDS OF ISSUANCES

• Executive Orders
• Administrative Orders
• Proclamations
• Memorandum Orders
• Memorandum Circulars
• General or Special Orders
 ADMINISTRATIVE BODIES
• Traditionally it is believed that politicians make decisions
and form policies, administrators implement them.
• But in practice, politics and administration are
inseperable, and administrative bodies are often
significantly involved in the formation of public policies.
• Especially in complex, industrial societies, the
tecniicality and complexity of many policy matters, the
need for continuing control of matters, and legislators’
lack of time and information have caused the
delegation of much discreationary authority to
administrative bodies.
• Consequently, administrative organizations make many
decisions and issue many rules that have far-reaching
political and policy consequences.
 THE COURTS
• The courts have often greatly affected the nature and
content of public policy by exercising the powers of
judicial review and statutory interpretation (yasal
yorum).
• Their selection, whether by appointment or election,
typically depends on their party affiliation and their
policy preferences and values.
• Today the courts are also playing a more positive role,
specifiying not only what government cannot do but
also what it must do with to meet legal or constiutional
requirements.
 NON-GOVERNMENTAL
PARTICIPANTS
• The official policy-makers are joined by many other
participants in the policy process, including interest
groups, political parties, research organizaitons,
communications media, and individual citizens.

• These parties do not legally have legal authority to make

binding policy decisions.
 INTEREST GROUPS
• Interest groups appear to take an important part in
policy-making in practically all countries.
• Groups express demands and present alternatives for
policy action.
• Groups supply public officials with much information,
often technical, about the nature and possible
consequences of policy proposals.
• Interest groups representing labor, agriculture, business,
education, health and other areas of society are a major
source of demands for public policy action.
• Groups that are well orginized, large in size, and skillfully
led are likely to be better than those that are poorly
organized, poorly financed and low in social status.
 INTEREST GROUPS
• Single-issue interest groups: Focus on one issue or set of
related issues such as gun control or legislation on abortion.
• Public interest groups are important players in the policy
process.
• The amount of influence that interest groups have upon
decisions depends on a number of factors:
• The size of the membership
• İts monetary and other resources
• Its cohesiveness (birleştiricilik)
• The skill of its leadership
• İts social status
• The presence or absence of competing organizations
• The attitudes of public officials
 POLITICAL PARTIES
• In the US political parties care more about power than
about policy.
• The Democrat Party draws disproportionately big city,
labor, minority and ethnic voters; the Republician Party
draws disproportionately from rural, small town and
suborban areas, fundemental religious groups, and
businesspeople and professionals.
• The parties often come into conflict on such issues as
welfare programs, labor legislation, business regulation,
public housing, taxation and agricultural income support
legislation.
 POLITICAL PARTIES
• In modern societies gnerally, political parties often
perform the function of interest aggregation, that is, they
seek to convert the particular demands of interest
groups into general policy alternatives.

• In one party systems, they are the predominant force in

policymaking.
 RESEARCH
ORGANIZATIONS
• Private research organizations, frequently referred as
think tanks, are important players in policymaking.
• These organizations are staffed with ful time policy
analists and researchers.
• Their studies and reports provide basic information and
data on policy issues, develop alternatives and
proposals for handling policy problems.
• They also engage in policy advocacy
• They provide expert but neutral information to policy
makers, hovewer pressure groups provide biased of self-
interested information.
 COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA
• The communications media (newspapers, news
magazines, radio, TV and internat) participate
policymaking as suppliers of information, as agenda
setters.

• Most of the people get information on public policies

with communications media
 THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN
• In some cases citizens can participate directly in
decisionmaking.

• In some countries citizen initiative process enables

citizens to vote directly on legislation.

• Initiative, referandum and recall are benefited to

transferring power from politicians to people.

• In practice policymaking process is dominated by

powerful interest groups.
THANK YOU …