Government policy is how the broader public and their elected representatives seek to harness ideas, resources, and other assets in a coordinated and effective manner to change society for the better. It’s a daunting task that’s almost always under pressure to keep pace with the societal needs that seem infinite in number.
While policies are often based on a range of factors, their primary purpose is to ensure that the people who govern and those who they serve get the best results for the most time with the least effort and risk. They also seek to provide a clear roadmap of how things should be done, even in the face of uncertainty.
The most common and visible forms of government policy include laws and regulations that direct behavior. They can be direct and involve a financial component such as imposing taxes (Make), or they may be indirect by providing subsidies and other incentives to encourage certain behaviors over others (Buy).
Policy makers face the challenge of creating policies in highly complex areas, such as developing new technologies and social systems. This requires an understanding of how human behavior works, in particular that people seek to maximize their own self-interest. This creates unique problems for policy making and demands a different approach to creating policies from the more standard model that looks for better outcomes through more control, information, prediction, and evaluation. This article outlines the steps that go into designing and implementing such policies.