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What is Public Policy?
If you’ve ever spoken to someone about politics, chances are you’ve talked to people about public policy. What is public policy? Well, in short, they are the laws and guidelines by which governments and political parties act. They are the rulebooks by which your political parties operate and, if given the chance, the rulebook they will put into law for everyone to follow. Even if you don’t consider yourself politically motivated, if you’ve ever spoken to a friend or family member about some new thing being pushed by the government, chances are you’ve been talking about their public policies.
Think of it this way, imagine you’ve found a problem within your society that you think should be rectified – chances are you can think of quite a few right now, housing, roads, transport, security, taxes, welfare, employment – public policy sets the tone for what political parties debate and the decisions that they reach. Ask yourself, what does your preferred political party say about these things? What solutions are they proposing? Those things that they’re saying, are their policies and they are written by people who spend a lifetime trying to understand what policies they should make. Public policy isn’t something that should be overlooked. They affect everything in your day-to-day life and the lives of those around you. Chances are when you go to vote for change, you’re voting on the basis of the change offered by these policies, and voting for the ones you agree with most.
So Why is Public Policy Important to Me?
Have you ever looked at those policies? Have you looked beyond what the politicians are saying and read the guidelines their words represent? Do you agree with what they say and how they mean to achieve it? What if you look at those policies and think, those policies aren’t right? Maybe they just don’t reflect the world you see around you. Maybe you feel they’re missing the point, or haven’t been properly updated. Perhaps new research has come forward that you know about and your preferred political party hasn’t taken that into account? Maybe you think you can do better?
But changing the world through public policy is no easy task. There are laws, regulations, and people with contrary views. You have to learn an entire new language – political language – and sometimes you need to read through decades of legislation just to understand where the old policies are coming from. Then there are lobbyists, mountains of confusing statistics and endless difficulties convincing the politicians themselves. Sometimes it seems that everything stands between you and the dream of improving the system.
What Can Be Done?
If you’re thinking about doing more, then this is where a Master’s of Public Policy comes in. Think of everything we just listed, laws, regulations, statistics, dealing with people. These are issues that a master’s degree is designed to cover, training you on how to tackle all the issues of navigating, understanding and writing new public policy. And that skill set isn’t just useful for one job, as we said in the beginning public policy touches almost everything, and knowing the guidelines that dominate our society can be a useful tool in any business.
Public policy influences how important decisions are made, it influences how people vote, it guides political debate and it has a direct impact on the laws and regulations written by our governments. Even if you don’t want to change the world, knowing how to read them can be the difference in putting your vote to one party or another, and if the opportunity ever arises, it can be the difference between your voice being heard and the changes you believe in becoming the bedrock of the future.
Prospect: thelondoneconomic.com
Resource: https://studyonline.canberra.edu.au/blog/why-study-public-policy
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