Current Problems And Challenges Of Public Policies
Public Policy refers to the actions of government and the intentions that determine these actions. Public policies tend to be driven by an argument about whether something is solvable problem, and if there is a potential solution, the cost of the solution, and the effectiveness of the solutions. Policies are not just contained in laws and regulations; once a law or rule is made, policies continue to be made as the people who implement policy — that is, those who put policies into effect — make decisions about who will benefit from policies and who will shoulder burdens as a result. Social policy is developed and implemented within the context of both philosophical paradigms and specific implementation strategies. The implementation or carrying out of policy is most often accomplished by institutions other than those that formulated and adopted it. Implementations strategies include window of opportunity, implementation, rationalism and street-level bureaucrats. Window of opportunity is considered to be essential in the implementation of public policy. There are three elements need to be present for the success of the window of opportunity, which include: a compelling public problem, a solution, and broad political support for the solution.
When these three elements come together, there is a strong chance that public policy will be developed. Official actors are involved in public policy because they are given responsibilities in laws or in the Constitution, and they therefore have the power to make and enforce policies. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches are clearly official institution, because they are given responsibilities in laws constitution, and they therefore have the power to make and enforce laws. One of the major problems with the public policy system is that the founders purposefully created a system in which change was difficult to achieve, but the realized that change would be possible when a coalition of elected officials and citizens formed to promote change. Although the system has flaws there are some positive characteristics. Younger adults in the United States tend to be significantly less immersed in politics than there elder counterparts. These individuals have certain "lifestyle effects" that limit their participation in political affairs.
Additionally, younger adults tend to have a multitude of other means in which they choose to participate in when it comes to impacting change. Researchers are still working to quantify the effectiveness of these other means. A huge hindrance to most young adults' active participation in politics is that younger individuals have a much higher level of distrust for the American government than their older peers. More proof in the fact that young people are not sufficiently involved in politics can be evidenced in voter turn-out data. Nearly every election shows a similar pattern. Younger Americans are much less likely to be active voters. There is a consistent continuous decrease in this group's participation numbers. In certain political parties the active membership among the more youthful participants is regressing. Data has shown that young people are more apathetic about politics with a clear lack of knowledge of current political affairs. A major contributor to young people's distrust of of politicians could be the negative images portrayed by the media.
Often times images of hypocritical politicians are shown that are a major turnoff for younger crowds. Whereas politicians share many of the traditional values of older Americans, many budding adults find themselves to be more open minded and accepting of changes to the current status quo. Views on issues such as gay rights and minority affairs have changed for younger adults and current political parties do not represent progress in these areas. According to Smith (2017), the generational gap that exists in our country separates more youthful adults into to groups: Generation X and Millennials. Older Americans can be divided into two groups as well: The Silent Generation and Baby Boomers. A study in 2016 found that members of both Generation X and the Millenial groups were composed almost entirely of democrats. The dichotomy of both groups showed a relatively large amount of liberal Democrats where 21 percent of Generation X and 27 percent of Millenials identified themselves as liberals, pr Democatic-leaning independents.
On the other side of the age spectrum, those in the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation categories were mostly representative of the Republican party- with a majority identifying as conservative Republicans. Approximately one-third of older Americans that belong to either the Baby Boomers or Silent Generations categories described there affiliations in Smith's (2017) study. It found that the pubic's holistic partisan and ideological balance fluctuates very minimally from year to year; nonetheless, long-term alterations in the population and generational groups is evident when accessing data. Baby Boomers lived in an era in which they witnessed flower power, Woodstock, Civil Rights Movement, and environmental justice. Many Baby Boomers have lived in a time where a lot political interest groups where sparked. Most political observers are convinced for the right issue that the Boomers can unite a new political movement group. There are many different theoretical approaches such as blaming the victim, elitism, social welfare as a right, econometric perspective, cause versus function that help with existing public policies. In the theory elitism policy is when the policy development is in the hands of a few stakeholders. The stakeholders tend to dictate the rules and influence public policy largely in response to their own values and preferences. Wealth individuals tend to play a critical role in the public policy making due to their status. The theory Social Welfare As a Right which states the deserving poor were perceived to have a right to services and support. Econometric Perspectives theory suggest that costs and the economic impact are always considered, when developing programs and drafting policy. In the Cause Versus Function paradigm, policy and program are drafted in an attempt to placate the cause, rather than have any utilitarian value of functional value or impact.
Some of the current health programs and policies in place and changes in demographic trends for older adults living within American society. By the year 2050, the United States will be driven by two demographics, majority-minority and older people. This new demographic trend has the older population and minorities and immigrants becoming the majority. This could possibly create political competition between the majority and the minority racial and ethnic groups over scarce public resources, such as taxes to preserve Social Security versus reinvesting in public education. There are differences of opinion. Aging baby boomers support entitlement programs and can be uncomfortable with diversity. The millennials are concerned about their retirement and economic futures. And through all of this emerges the reality that we face greater vulnerability as we grow.
