Lesson 2 Overview

Lesson 1 discussed a foundation of public policy and policy process by defining public policy, clarifying the concepts of public policy, and describing the key attributes of public policy, the role of politics in policy making, and social scientific disciplines that study public policy. These offer basic understanding of how policies are made and implemented.

Lesson 2 explores the stages model of the policy process and the elements of the policy-making system, the historical development of policy making, and the structure of public policy making in the United States. The stages model is an essential key reference point for public policy studies.

The policy process is considered as a system, so it is critical to identify important elements of environments, inputs, and outputs. After reviewing a wide range of environmental factors that influence public policy making, we move to discuss the constitutional order in which policymaking takes place in the United States. You need to know the structure of government and policymaking to make sense of the policy process itself.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

• describe the stages model and the system model of policy,
• describe key components of the policy system,
• classify the elemets of the constitutional policymaking order in the United States, and 
• describe the impact factors (e.g., American ideology) on producing stability in the American constitutional system. 

Lesson Road Map

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.