What are the Stages in Policy Process

The traditional textbook approach to the study of public policy separates policy making into its component steps and analyzes each in turn. Though the basic concepts and metaphors are now widely diffused throughout the policy literature, the policy process is broken down into analytic units-activities-that are treated as temporally and functionally distinct. These include:

• The identification of policy problems;
• Agenda setting;
• The formulation of policy proposals, their initiation and development, organizations, interest groups, the executive and legislative branches of government;
• The adoption and legitimization of policies through the political actions of government, interest groups, political parties;
• The implementation of policies through bureaucracies, public expenditures, and the activities of executive agencies; and,
• Evaluation.