Key Definitions

While key concepts discussed in this book are described in chapters in which they are addressed, starting out with definitions of central concepts orientates the discussion and provides markers for the journey ahead. Several definitions are provided in some cases to reflect diversity in views.

GOVERNMENT

". the political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated."1

Government of a state or community is "a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society," usually comprised of a legislature (a parliament or congress), an executive (Cabinet or Ministry), and a judiciary (the courts).2

GOVERNING

"What governments do in formulating and implementing policies".3

GOVERNANCE

A system that provides a framework for managing organizations. It identifies who can make decisions, who has the authority to act on behalf of the organization and who is accountable for how an organization and its people behave and perform. Governance enables the management team and the board to run organizations legally, ethically, sustainably, and successfully, for the benefit of stakeholders, including shareholders, staff, clients and customers, and for the good of wider society.4

Governance in government, according to Francis Fukuyama, is "a government's ability to make and enforce rules and deliver services" with capacity and autonomy (i.e., with adequate resources and freedom from political or vested interest interference) - two concepts that he highlights particularly in relation to democracies.5

Governance in and by government is commonly referred to as public governance.6

Governance of public communication refers to "a range of mechanisms and practices that collectively define the role of communication within the government and how it is conducted according to certain operational, professional, and ethical standards."7

"A burgeoning political science literature uses the term governance . to describe the growing tendency of governments to govern in partnership with a range of non-state actors."8 Engagement of non-state actors requires public communication. (See 'Collaborative governance' and 'Open government' in this section.)

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

. a governing arrangement where one or more public agencies directly engage non-state stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented, and deliberative and that aims to make or implement public policy or manage public programs or assets.9

Beyond collaboration, co-creation is proposed as a mode of public governance for democratic governments and potentially a "new form of democracy".10

OPEN GOVERNMENT

"A culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability, and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth."11

The Open Government Partnership (OGP)12 lists the first of seven principles of open government as "effective participation" including "consulting, involving, and empowering citizens and social organizations" as well as informing. It also lists collaboration and co-creation as the sixth principle. Other key principles are transparency and accountability; open data; opening and reusing public information, ideally licence-free; access and simplicity; and inclusion and diversity.13

POLICY

"A plan of action agreed or chosen by a political party, a business, etc."14

"Policy is defined as a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions".15 [See 'Public policy'.]

POLICY SCIENCES

"Policy sciences may be conceived as knowledge of the policy process and of the relevance of knowledge in the process".16

Referring to Harold Lasswell's oft-quoted phrase above, The Oxford Handbook on Public Policy says: "The policy sciences approach sought to employ all the available tools of social science to understand all relevant inputs in a policy issue area, including knowledge of the policy making process itself".17

"Policy sciences of democracy" is a phrase coined by Harold Lasswell denoting particular approaches in policy science that adhere to and facilitate the principles of democracy.18

"The policy sciences . can be considered as an effort to promote careful analysis and policy development by experts focussed on maximizing some aspect of the public good."19

POLICY STUDIES

Policy studies, which evolved in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, "involves systematically studying the nature, causes, and effects of alternative public policies, with particular emphasis on determining the policies that will achieve given goals".20

"Policy studies, more than anything, are academic works that attempt do to the real political work: contributing to the betterment of life, offering something political actors can seize upon and use."21

Policy studies has been described as a sub-discipline of political science, but since the 1960s it has been recognized that a more detailed and specific analysis of policy formulation was required than undertaken in studies of politics. The above definitions and discussion in this book indicate that, despite some claims of differentiation, there is significant overlap between policy studies and the policy sciences. Indeed, one article describes "policy sciences as a transdisciplinary approach for policy studies",22 while others claim policy studies is a transdisciplinary field. (See more detail in Chapter 3.)

POLICY CYCLE

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes that policy is typically developed in stages such as (1) identifying policy priorities, (2) drafting the policy document, (3) implementing the policy, (4) monitoring implementation, and (5) evaluating the policy's impacts, referred to as the policy cycle.23 Other policy cycles are described as (1) problem identification, (2) policy analysis, (3) strategy and policy development, (4) policy enactment, (5) policy implementation, and (6) evaluation.24 A number of policy cycles, also called policy phases and models, are discussed in Chapter 4, 'The Public Policy Development Process'.

POLICY PROCESS

The policy process is a complex political process in which there are many actors: elected politicians, political party leaders, pressure groups, civil servants, publicly employed professionals, judges, non-governmental organizations, international agencies, academic experts, journalists and even sometimes citizens who see themselves as the passive recipients of policy.25

Some contest the framing of policy development in terms of a policy cycle saying such approaches reduce policy-making to an unrealistic linear series of separate steps.26 They see the policy process as interactive and not linear, noting that a policy can be altered or reversed at any stage in its life cycle by pressures and reactions from those who oppose it.27 (See also 'Policy development, policy-making, policy creation'.)

POLICY DEVELOPMENT, POLICY-MAKING, POLICY CREATION

In this analysis, policy development and policy-making are used as synonyms for the policy process referring holistically to the whole process from initial identification of a need for a policy through to policy implementation and evaluation to identify impact.

Stages and phases refer to specific steps in policy cycles such as problem identification, policy analysis, drafting a policy document, etc.

Policy creation is used as synonymous with the stages of analysis and drafting a policy, but not including early stages of problem identification or policy implementation and evaluation.

PUBLIC POLICY

"[Public] policy can be defined as the sum total of government action, from signals of intent to final outcomes . Policy makers can be elected or unelected people or organizations."28

"The set of activities that governments engage in for the purpose of changing their economy and society" with the aim of benefiting or impacting the electorate in some way.29

"[Public] policy is ultimately made by governments even if the ideas come from outside government or through the interaction of government and non-governmental actors."30

A statement by government of what it intends to do, such as a law, regulation, ruling, decision, order; or a combination of these. The lack of such statements may also be an implicit statement of a policy not to...