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Most scholars define public policy as a system of courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives.
Robert EyeStone terms public policy as the relationship of government unit to its environment. Thomas R. Dye says that “public policy is whatever government chooses to do or not to do” Richard Rose says that “public policy is not a decision, it is a course or pattern of activity. In Carl J. Friedrich’s opinion public policy is a proposed course o: action of a person, group or government within a given environment providing opportunities and obstacles which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal and realize an objective or purpose.
It can also be said that public policy formulation and implementation involves a well planned pattern or course of activity. It requires a thoroughly close knit relation and interaction between the important governmental agencies viz., the political executive, legislature, bureaucracy and judiciary.
Public policy is commonly embodied in “constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions.
Public policy is the principled guide to action taken by the administrative executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues, in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs.
The foundation of public policy is composed of national constitutional laws and regulations.
Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations which are generally authorized by legislation. Public policy is considered strong when it solves problems efficiently and effectively, serves justice, supports governmental institutions and policies, and encourages active citizenship.
Public Policy/Public Administration is the scientific study of the politics of institutions, structures and organizations. The study of public policy focuses on the analysis and explanation of government and non-government responses to public problems. It seeks to explain how institutions, organizations, and the public interact within various governance structures to develop the policies that they do. It is also concerned with the evaluation and impact of these policies on citizens, governing institutions, and organized interests.
Public administration is concerned with the organization, activities, and behavior of administrative agencies and officials in the conduct of government. Public administration includes the study of how bureaucracies interact with other political institutions, the political and legal context of administration, and how organization structures and governance structures affect the actions of government. Both Public Policy and Public Administration cut across the traditional fields of American politics and comparative politics.
Public administration is the implementation of government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the public service (Lynn, 2006).
Public administration has a diverse scope its fundamental goal, is to advance management and policies so that government can function.
Public information is defined broadly as encompassing all information that is recorded and documented on the performance of public duties. Private persons who carry out public duties are considered holders of public information.
Public administration and public policy in Uganda are designed to meet the many challenges that the country faces for example Action Aid Uganda, (2015) Uganda’s widespread corruption is highlighted in the country’s poor ranking (139th out of 167 countries) in the Corruption Perceptions Index as well as in the recent Africa edition of the Global Corruption Barometer (Transparency International, 2015 a, b).Pernicious effects stretch from substandard public services through elections and the judiciary to stunted economic development. In 2012,four in 10 respondents (41%) in an Afrobarometer survey reported that they had been offered money or a gift in return for their votes during the 2011 elections. In petitioning Parliament last year to appoint a commission of inquiry, retired Supreme Court Judge Justice George Kanyeihamba said, “There is evidence of inefficiency, incompetence, and corruption in the judiciary and unethical conduct by members of the bar ” (Parliament of Uganda, 2015), The Black Monday Movement, a coalition of anti-corruption civil society organizations, estimates that between 2000 and 2014, the government lost more than Shs. 24 trillion to corruption–enough to finance the country’s 2015/2016 budget.
The relationship between public administration and public policy
Both Public Policies and public administration are goal oriented. Public policies are formulated and implemented in order to attain the objectives which the government has in view for the ultimate benefit of the masses in general. These policies clearly spell out the programmes of government. To understand the meaning of policy in a better manner, it is very important to make a distinction between policy and goals. Goals are what policies aim at or hope to achieve. A goal is a desired state of affairs that a society or an organization attempts to realise. Goals can be understood in a variety of perspectives. These can be thought of as abstract values that a society would like to acquire. There are also goals that are specific and concrete. Removal of poverty is a goal that the government wants to pursue. Public policies and public administration are concerned with such specific goals. They are the instruments which lead to the achievement of these goals.
If the government announces that its goal is to provide housing to all the members Public Policy, of the deprived sections of society it does not become a public policy. It is a Meaning and Nature statement of intention of what the government wants to do.
In order to become a policy, the goal has to be translated into action. Programmes have to be designed to achieve specific objectives. As an illustration, let us look at the policy of poverty alleviation. Several programmes have been designed for this, e.g., The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), The National Rural Employment’Programme (NREP) etc. Each programme has certain goals to achieve within a specified time and each programme is provided with financial resources and administrative personnel. These become concrete efforts to achieve a goal. Policy spells out the strategy of achieving a goal. Thus policy is essentially an instrument to achieve a goal. Statement of a goal docs not make it a policy.
Some of the examples of goals are UNDP goals which states that, In the past 20 years, hunger has dropped by almost half. Many countries that used to suffer from famine and hunger can now meet the nutritional needs of their most vulnerable people. It’s an incredible accomplishment. Now we can go further and end hunger and malnutrition once and for all. That means doing things such as promoting sustainable agriculture and supporting small farmers. It’s a tall order. But for the sake of the nearly 1 out of every 9 people on earth who go to bed hungry every night, we’ve got to try. Imagine a world where everyone has access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. Together, we can make that a reality by 2030 (UNDP, 2015).
Both public administration and Public Policy Making are Very Complex Process, Policy making involves many components, which are interconnected by communication and feedback loops and which interact in different ways. Some parts of the process are explicit and directly observable, but many others proceed through hidden channels that the officials themselves are often only partly aware of. These hidden procedures are very difficult and often impossible to observe, Thus guidelines are often formed by a series of single decisions that result in a ‘policy’ without any one of the decision makers being aware of that process.
Public administration and public policy both are involved in a Dynamic Process: Policy making is a process that is a continuing activity taking place within a structure; for sustenance, it requires a continuing input of resources and motivation. These are dynamic process, which changes with time. The sequences of its sub-processes and phases vary internally and with respect to each other. Most of the government policies may change due to emergencies for environment challenges and financial crisis may make the government design policy to help in the management of government programmes , According to the New Vision (10th August 2013), The landslide struck villages on the slopes of Mount Elgon, including Nameti, Kubewo, and Nankobe, with 85 homes being destroyed in Nameti. Many areas in the affected villages were buried by the landslides, with houses, markets, and a church destroyed; many roads were also blocked. Officials and aid workers have warned that there may be further landslides, as heavy rain continues to fall in the region., however during this period of the government desighned various policies to help be in position to curb an emergency situation however in the process the government also establishes administrative policies to help in the management of an unexpected occurrence of a calamity, this therefore brings to light that public administration and public policy are dynamic.
Both public administration and public policy are mainly formulated by Governmental Organs, they are also directed in part, at private persons and non-governmental structures, as ‘when it calls for a law prohibiting a certain type of behavior or appeals to citizens to engage in private saving. But public policy, in most cases, is primarily directed at governmental organs, and only intermediately and secondarily at other factors. Both public administration and Public policy is the outcome of the government’s collective actions. It means that it is a pattern or course of activity or’ the governmental officials and actors in a collective sense than being termed as their discrete and segregated decisions.
Some of the examples of the government formulated policies include the decisions taken by the military of a given country, the educational decisions of a give country and the Health decisions of a given country.
Both public administration and public policy are designed for the good of the citizens of the country for example environmental policies of a given country, Actually the scope of public policy is determined by the kind of role that the State adopts for itself in a society. In the classical capitalist society, State was assigned a limited role and it was expected that the State would merely act as a regulator of social and economic activity and not its promoter. With the advent of planned view of development, State began tp be perceived as an active agent in promoting and shaping societies in its various activities. This was considered as a great change in the role of a State. Public policies expanded their scope from merely one of regulation to that of development. Expansion in scope led to several other consequences like many more government agencies afld institutions came into being in order to formulate and implement policies. In India, the Planning Commission and its attendant agencies came into being in order to formulate policies and develop perspectives that could define the direction which the country would follow, So, the first major goal of public policies in acountry like india has been in the area of socio-economic development. Wide ranging policies were formulated in the area of industrial and agricultural development. Many policies were converted into Statutes. like Industrial Development and Regulating Act or Land Tenancy Act. Others were kept as directives in the various plan documents. For all policy directions, the Five Year Plans became the major source. These policies were of two types, one of regulation and the other of promotion. Laws laid down what could be done or not done by the entrepreneurs. This could be in the larger area like what goods can be produced by the public or whether certain goods can be tided only by government agencies. Laws also specified how State agencies themselves were to provide goods and services like electricity, transport etc. The State undertook similar responsibility in the social sphere, from the above findings it is therefore clear that public policy and administration are designed for the good of the citizens of a given country.
Both public policy and administration Results in Action, Decision-making can result in action, in changes in the decision-making itself, or both or neither. The policies of most socially significant decision-making, such as most public policy making are intended to result in action. Also policies directed at the policy making apparatus itself such as efficiency drives in government are action oriented.
These policies are concerned with the general welfare and development of the society, the programmes like provision of education and employment opportunities, economic stabilisation, law and order enforcement, anti-pollution legislation etc. are the result of substantive policy formulation. These policies have vast areas of operation affecting the general welfare and development of the society as a whole. These do not relate to any particular or privileged segments of the society. Such policies have to be formulated keeping in view the prime character of the constitution socio-economic problems and the level of moral claims of the society.
Good public administration is an essential prerequisite for governments and institutions to achieve competitiveness and growth and fully functioning national public policy is also a prerequisite for effective democratic system. When a country has a strong public policy and administration it is able to achieve better economic performance and growth , this can be observed in the instances of some economies like in Botswana which has a strong and effective model public policy . In Botswana, the political leadership has been committed to the conception that proficient management of the economy depends on the quality of the public service. To achieve their development objectives, the political leadership made efficiency and effectiveness their major overriding goal. They set out to build a strong nucleus of top and middle level managers. Botswana’s system of public management has been commended as one of the most successful in Africa. Since its independence in 1966, the government of Botswana adopted various reforms in the form of decentralization, computerization of personnel management systems and human resource development under the ambit of New Public Management (NPM) (Dzimbiri, 2008). This led several studies to conclude that although Botswana is still a developing country, its bureaucracy stands out in several aspects (Hope, 2002; Dzimbiri, 2008; Marobela and Boy, 2012). Botswana has been commented for establishing a sound democratic system, separation of powers clearly specifying lines of authority, accountable bureaucracy and a strong foundation for prudence in the management of public finance.
It is therefore evident that effectiveness in public administration and executing the public policy well is essential in enabling a country achieve growth and development.
Both public policy and public administration encourage transparency in the economy , According to Freedom House, (2012), The lack of transparency and accountability regarding how the money is spent, combined with the government’s failure to investigate and punish high profile corruption cases, has raised doubts among donors as to whether direct budget support can generate the reforms and improvements the country badly needs. For instance, in August 2012, the Office of the Auditor General reported that approximately 12 million Euros in aid channelled through direct budget support were allegedly transferred to private bank accounts of officials from the Ugandan Prime Minister’s Office (Auditor General, 2012; Transparency International, 2012b). These funds were supposed to support the Ugandan government’s plan for peace-building and development in the Northern region. As a result, Denmark, Norway, and Ireland suspended their assistance to the country, requiring the Ugandan government to repay the allegedly stolen money (Foreign Policy, 2012). Therefore the above shows that both policies in public administration and public policy are desighned to encourage transparency in the system.
Weak public policy and public administration leads to corruption in the government institutions, for Uganda weak public policy and administration has led to corruption this was stated by Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Uganda 130th out of 176 countries and territories, with a score of 29 out of 100, indicating a perception of widespread and endemic corruption. The country ranks 30 out of 48 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Uganda has also consistently scored poorly in the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). In 2011, it scored 19.9 on control of corruption, on a scale from 0 to 100 and it has shown no improvements across the years. Uganda scores relatively better, but still below the 50th percentile, on the rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and voice and accountability indicators.
The police are seen as the most corrupt in Africa at 47%. The police are followed by business executives, who are seen as the second most corrupt group (42% say most or all business executives are corrupt).Government officials and tax officials rank as the third and fourth most corrupt groups(38% and 37% respectively). Peter Wandera, the Executive Director of Transparency International Uganda, told The Independent on Dec.04 that the rate of corruption in institutions like police, lands, courts, health and private companies in Uganda is way above the average in Africa. He said corruption had gone down only in the Uganda Revenue Authority. Corruption in Uganda has been getting worse, according to the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Uganda was ranked 127th in 2010, 143 in 2011, 130 in 2012, 140 in 2013, and 142 in 2014. In terms of CPI, the higher the corruption, the higher is the ranking. It should be noted that the CPI does not measure actual incidents of corruption but rather the extent to which citizens think corruption takes place. Uganda’s bad perception figures could be as a result of the many stories of theft in public offices.
As an aid dependent country, Uganda needs a sound public financial management system, to ensure donors’ funds are spent wisely and leakages are avoided. In spite of reforms, there is still room to improve the level of transparency and accountability of the country’s public financial management system still.
Therefore the government has to implement effective public policy and administer them well to ensure that there is elimination of corruption.
Furthermore the weak public policy and administration in Uganda has also sparked more frauds in government institutions like Uganda revenues Authority this was reported by (daily monitor Monday 23 may 2011), which stated that in Uganda as a country before the period of 2000, the level of fraud was not pronounced like it is happening now where there are many cases of fraud running on the media such as news papers, radios, televisions and magazines.
High profile cases of corruption over time include the CHOGM saga in 2007 which became public in 2011 when high profile people including then-Vice President Gilbert Bukenya were implicated for mismanaging billions of shillings meant for the CHOGM summit, the Global Fund scandal in 2008 when money meant for malaria and tuberculosis drugs ended up in the pockets of a few, the NSSF Temangalo land purchase put then Security Minister Amama Mbabazi on spot, the Pension scandal of 2012 where Shs169 billion meant for pension was swindled, and the Kazinda scandal in Prime Minister’s Office in which billions of shillings was swindled in a syndicate involving several ministries. John Saturday, the Director Capacity Building at Public procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) says in 2014 up to 118 procurement audits were conducted in 118 entities and found that contracts worth Shs3.1 billion were corruptibly awarded to pre-determined bidders. In other cases of corruption, Shs11.4 billion was advanced to providers without the required Advance Payment Guarantee of Security. John Saturday said this put the government resources at risk in case the provider defaulted, that money would be lost because there will be no back up to recover the resources. He said Shs74.8 million was lost in contract awards in 2014/2015 financial year (Independent Dec, 2015).
Both public policy and administration require transparency in executing, without proper transparency and consideration of the citizens a public policy adopted by the government can be a failure. Policy makers should use a range of tools to help them think through and understand the need for, and consequences of, proposed policy interventions and assist the Government in weighing up relevant evidence on the likely impacts of such interventions and consult with those affected. A system and structure that explicitly values and makes best use of available evidence is key to developing policies and legislation. A continuous process should be in place that emphasizes the importance of effectively implementing policy and legislation and ensures the ability to monitor and evaluate impacts and whether the objectives are being achieved this will enhance transparency in the system.
Both public policy and administration requires assessing the likely costs and benefits and associated risks to the public, private or civil society organizations, the environment and society at large over the long-term. Evidence that the policy is necessary and that it will solve the issues it was created to address should exist from the outset.
It is commonly accepted that the organization of a public administration has a deep impact on its overall performance and, hence, on its democratic legitimacy in relation to citizens’ expectations.
The search for efficiency, the need for further specialization, the constitutional/legal context and administrative tradition, the system of control in place and the political conjuncture all influence the organizational model adopted by each country. As a result, no single pattern exists regarding how public administration is structured and operates in different countries.
Both public policy and administration are designed to ensure efficiency in service delivery by the government to the people, according to (Mampe, 2012), Service delivery is a contemporary issue for most governments and researchers alike. Most scholars are in agreement that public service delivery is critical to ensuring the national welfare and stimulation of economic development. This is because often governments undertake a number of activities to provide citizens with services and at the same time guarantee that these services are provided in accordance with the service delivery requirements within the rule of law.
Government parastatal bodies in Uganda are realizing that efficient service delivery improves value for money, accordingly, parastatal bodies must find ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.In public administration, service delivery management is concerned with meeting fully the deliverables that were agreed upon in the contract.
Globalization has affected public policy and public administration in most of the countries in Africa including Uganda, the movement toward greater interaction, integration, and interdependence among people and organizations across national borders is increasing transactions among countries in trade and investment and in the international flows of capital, people, technology, and information. It is evident in the growing levels of international political interaction and widespread social and cultural interchange that have occurred over the past quarter of a century. Globalization has brought both benefits and challenges to countries around the world. Globalization offers new economic opportunities but also imposes new political, social, technological, and institutional complexities, especially on poorer countries, that governments must address in order to stimulate more equitable economic and social development. In order to benefit from more open and widespread economic interaction, governments must support an economic system that promotes and facilitates the ability of business enterprises to compete effectively in international markets and of people at all economic levels to earn a decent livelihood.
But rapid globalization over the past two decades assured that governments could no longer carry on as usual, at least in terms of the functions and roles many of them played in the 1960s and 1970s. As the OECD has pointed out, by the 1980s governments were widely “criticized for their lack of capacity to respond quickly and effectively to strategic issues and for failing to leverage off opportunities in emerging markets offered by, among others, new technologies. Conflicts inherent in combining multiple roles (for instance, policymaker, regulator, monitor, competing service provider, funder), often with conflicting objectives, became obvious.”10 Globalization and technological advances have been and will continue changing the “rules of the game” for government. The roles of the government as a central planner and controller of the national economy, as the primary provider of goods and services, and as the engine of economic growth, have largely been discredited as functioning effectively in countries seeking to promote national competitiveness. Indeed, even the ability of states to exercise sovereign control over internal economic activities and transactions across their borders is changing in the face of relentless globalization.
Globalization has therefore had an effect into the way the government desighns its public policies and the way they are administered.
The need to improve governance and public administration and to enhance the State’s capacity to carry out new functions and roles is now widely recognized. The United Nations Millennium Declaration calls for respect for human rights and the promotion of democracy and good governance (including efficient and effective public administration). Good governance is a necessary condition for the achievement of each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and promoting global partnership for development. Governments in developing countries and their international development partners have significantly increased their financial support to strengthen governance and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration.
Both public policy and public administration are designed to help reduce poverty and improve the standard of living , according to Shan (2005) In an interrelated global society, governments must take on new roles in creating and sustaining viable economies, reducing poverty, and raising standards of living. Over the past decade, an increasing body of knowledge has emerged to describe a set of fundamental roles or functions that innovative governments perform effectively in a globalizing society. These roles and functions can all contribute to achieving the equitable, sustainable, and participative economic and social development reflected in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and in other international declarations of human aspirations. The Millennium Development Goals define the fundamental role of governments as achieving sustainable economic and social progress that leads to higher standards of living for all people. The United Nations sustainable development goals Declaration calls for states and international organizations to promote freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility in working towards these goals. Although governments have a crucial role in achieving sustainable human development and reducing poverty, they cannot achieve these goals alone. Effective governance in a global society implies cooperation or partnerships in which national governments work collaboratively with lower levels of public administration, the private sector, organizations of civil society, other states, and international organizations through democratic, transparent, and participative processes.
Both public policy and public administration face a challenges with bureaucracy , which has hindered efficiency in public administration Uganda however In a dynamic and turbulent environment where social, economic and political problems mount and the demands of society increase faster than the capacity of available resources to provide for, government, especially the administrative organization for carrying out policies and implement projects and programs, is called upon to adopt appropriate mechanisms to cope with this concerns.
Colonialism in Uganda has an influence in the way it has executed it public policy and administration this was observed by Lubanga (1996) who stated that British rule of Uganda, as a British Protectorate was on the basis of what came to be known as indirect rule. The colonial system of administration relied upon traditional local chiefs to run the local government system. At independence in October 1962, the country inherited a dual system of local government. The country was divided into 13 administrative units: four kingdoms (Buganda, Ankole, Toro, Bunyoro) which had a federal status and nine districts. The kingdoms had council ministers who with their assemblies ruled their areas of jurisdiction with considerable autonomy. The districts had district councils with the central government exercising considerable control over them through district commissioners. Notwithstanding the dual system, the district and kingdoms had local authorities which were by and large directly elected and accountable to the people. In addition, they enjoyed corporate status; they locally raised substantial revenue in addition to central government grants and employed their own staff. In 1996, following a political crisis concerning the issue of local autonomy between the Buganda Kingdom and the Central Government; the independence Constitution of 1962, which provided for autonomous local government was abrogated. Under the new constitution of 1967, Uganda was declared a republic and a unitary state, political and administrative power was centralized. The kingdoms assumed district status and under the Local Government Act of 1967 all district councillors were to be nominated by the Minister of Local Government which, in real terms, substantially reduced their political power and administrative capacity (Tidemand 1994).
Conclusion
Public policy is what the government actually decides or chooses to do. It is the relationship of the government units to the specific field of political environment in a given administrative system. It can take a variety of forms like law, ordinances, court decisions, executive orders, decisions.
Public administration is positive in the sense that it depicts the concern of the government ‘and involves its action to a particular problem on which the policy is made. It has the sanction of law and authority behind it. Negatively, it involves decisions by the governmental officials regarding not taking any action on a particular issue.
Policy formulation is the first stage in public policy process. Through this process the dernands of the system are converted into policies. But before this it has to be clearly established as to which demands require to be converted into policies. At the policy interpretation stage, the formulated public policy is further clarified and interpreted in order to make it fully understandable. ‘I’he next stage in public policy process is policy education. The government through various channels of mass-media attempts to make the masses aware of the formulate J policies, After this comes the stage of policy implementation, when the policies are systematically executed by the different administrative agencies at the central.
However in relation to service delivery Corruption in Uganda has hampered the government’s attempts to deliver quality service to the citizens of the country , this is because the country’s political elite swindle the government resources that could have otherwise have been used for national development hampering with the government ability to deliver its commitment and ensure that it meets the needs of the citizens, however corruption does not fail the government efforts alone other factors like poverty in Uganda , were most parts of the country is poor which hampers the government’s efforts to deliver services to the people due to too much constrained expenditure of the government and lastly Colonialism in Uganda also has an influence in the way the government designs its public policies and the way they are administered to the benefit of the citizens of a given country.
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