Policies and Models of Politics, Essay Example

The United States’ government has established a number of policies to address various issues within the country and various issues encountered during international interactions. Policies are established using one of eight established models of politics. These eight models are: the Institutional Model, the Process Model, the Group Theory model, the Elite Model, the Rational Model, the Incremental Model, the Game Theory model, and the System Model.

Each model has its own distinct characteristics. The institutional model creates public policy by lending legitimacy and universality to policies, and allowing for coercion regarding the policies. The process model outlines process identification, policy formulation, policy legitimization, policy implementation, and policy evaluation as activities that have been grouped with public policy. The group theory model manages group conflict by establishing rules, arranging compromises, and enacting policy. The elite model suggests that mass citizens are ill-informed and uninterested about public policy and as a result, public policy is formed by preference of a group of elites who share consensus on basic values of the social system. (Munir)

Established U.S. policies can be used to examine a few of these models in more depth. The United States’ official drug policy, international policy, and environmental policy can each be related to a different one of the eight models of politics.

Drug policy in the United States is established by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. According to the official white house website, the office’s goal is to form and implement policies, priorities, and objectives toward ending illegal drug use, production, trafficking, and related violence and crime. (Whitehouse.gov) The drug policy in the U.S. can be related to the Institutional model of politics. All U.S. drug policies are created by the governmental Office of National Drug ControlPolicy; to be legit, drug policies must be formed through the Office of National Drug Control Policy. U.S. drug policy is universal in that it applies to all people within the United States of America. Violators of U.S. drug policy can be imprisoned by officers and agents acting with the authority of the U.S. government; the U.S. government can exercise coercion over violators of its drug policy.

International policy in the U.S. defines how the United States will interact with foreign nations. The security of United States citizens and promotion of international order are the two main focuses of U.S. international policy. The political model of Game Theory can be related to how U.S. international policy making works. This is mostly because international policy is an area where the decisions and outcomes do not depend on only one side. The actual outcome of a decision depends on the choices of both player A and player B. Policy makers on either side can never be completely sure how the players on the other side will react. International policies are always being re-evaluated and reformulated according to decisions and ‘moves’ made by the other side, or other country. Hence the ‘game’ connotation.

Environmental policy in the U.S. seeks to regulate all activities that impact the environment with a goal of protecting and preserving environment for future generations. Environmental policy making in the U.S. can be related to the Process Model. Most often, environmental policy is a result of a call for governmental action by activists, lobbyists, and special interest groups. Policy is formulated by staff, think tanks, and government appointed committees, then endorsed and legitimized through political actions of Congress, the president, and the court system. Those policies are implemented through bureaucracies and public expenditures and then later evaluated by government committees, press, and the public. (PinkAlert)

Bibliography

Munir, Sana. Seminar in Public and Business Policy. 2012. 14 October 2012  <http://www.scribd.com/doc/6505726/Public-Policy-Models->.

PinkAlert. Models for Policy Analysis. 2012. 14 October 2012  <http://www.scribd.com/doc/6505727/Public-Policy-Models>.

Whitehouse.gov. Office of National Drug Control Policy. 2012. 14 October 2012  <http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/>.