Policy Making In Government

Policies are major instruments that are carefully formulated to move the society to achieve it's goals. The objectives are more concrete products to be achieved by pursuing specific policies. It is therefore, the technique is called Management by objective, seeks to formalize organisational efforts to achieve definite results.
Geoffrey Vickers made a subtle distinction between policy making and decision making;
First being designed to give directions, coherence and continuity to the courses of action for which the decision making is responsible.
Second, designed to give effect to the policies thus laid down.

The differentiation between executive decisions and policy decisions has been made by Vickers:-
"That element of the regulative function which consists in maintaining the course of affairs in line with the current governing relations I regard as the executive element. That element which consist in modifying the government relations I regard as the policy making element."
Major policy decisions are taken by the government in such areas as defence, industry, agriculture, education etc. These decisions involve enormous costs to the nation. Besides financial expenditures,such decisions produce important and wide ranging consequences. Empirical studies in various fields of government operations are expected to yield critical evidences that could be used for creation of a more general body of knowledge called Policy Science.
According to Yehezkel Dror, "Policy Science can be partly described as the discipline that searches for policy knowledge, that seeks general policy issue knowledge and policy making knowledge and integrates them into a distinct study."

There are different ways of looking at public policy,
Public policies have their origin in government institutions that formulate and implement them. A policy becomes public only when it is authoritatively determined by government institutions. Government lends legitimacy to policies. In India, institutional changes such as the Small Farmers Development Agency had been introduced to improve the economic conditions of small and marginal farmers.
According to group theorists, the equilibrium reached in the group struggle at any given moment and it represents a balance which the contending fractions or groups constantly strive to tip in their favour while the legislature referees the group struggle,ratifies the victories of the successful coalition and records the terms of the surrenders , compromises and conquests in the form of statutes.
Another way of looking can be the government elite. Public policies do not arise out of the demands of the masses. These flow from the top and do not move up from the bottom.
A policy is rational when it is most efficient in social, political and economic grounds.