(Answered) SS238 Unit 4 Discussion

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SS238 Unit 4 Discussion

Topic: Policy Cycle, Policy Formation, and Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Actions

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

The policy cycle is a process that explains how public policy is created, implemented, and evaluated. Although there are many different variations of the public policy cycle, we shall use a simplified, four-step public policy cycle:

Step 1: Agenda Setting

How public policy concerns are understood and how various interests highlight the public policy concern.

Step 2: Policy Formation

The crafting of public policy solutions. Public policy solutions are mostly addressed through legislation or regulation.

Step 3: Policy Implementation

How public policy is applied via federal, state, and/or local endeavors?

Step 4: Policy Evaluation

How public policy is assessed: success or failure.

Policy formation is the second step of the policy cycle.

Often, it is the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government that affect public policy via policy formation. Policy formation at the government level typically involves regulation, management, education, taxing, and market incentives (Kraft, 2018).

The Second Amendment is a prime example of how executive, legislative, and judicial branches influenced public policy through policy formation. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” However, since the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 the 2nd Amendment continues to be interpreted and amended via executive, legislative, and judicial actions. There is little that is “well-regulated” about current American gun policy.

The following policy formation examples highlight one executive, legislative, and judicial action:

  • On February 20, 2018, the White House issued a Presidential Memorandum that requested the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigate how to regulate bump stocks and other devices (White House, 2018). Later that year the Department of Justice instructed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to outlaw bump stocks because the addition of this device fell “within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger” (ATF, n.d.).
  • On June 26, 1934, Congress passed the National Firearms Act. This legislation required firearms to be registered and taxed. In addition, the following weapons were outlawed: “shotguns and rifles having barrels less than 18 inches in length, certain firearms described as “any other weapons,” machineguns, and firearm mufflers and silencers” (ATF, n.d.).
  • District of Columbia v Heller, 2008. In 2001, Washington D.C. passed municipal legislation that required registration of guns (with qualifications on what guns could or could not be registered) and that all guns stored within homes to be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.” Dick Heller, a police officer, sued the District of Columbia because he was not allowed to register his semi-automatic handgun within his home. The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms could not be restricted by the District of Columbia’s municipal legislation (Heller v D.C., 2008).

Directions: Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion Board Rubric:

  • Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
    • Economic policy
      • An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
    • Education policy
      • An example of education policy is the implementation of national education standards.
    • Environmental policy
      • An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
    • Foreign policy
      • An example of foreign policy is how we conduct trade with other countries.
    • Healthcare policy
      • An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
    • Welfare policy
      • An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
  • Review the official website of the three branches of U.S. government: The White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
  • Conduct a keyword search of the official websites for public policies pertinent to your chosen public policy. Each website of three branches of government includes a search option on the top of each page.
  • Select a total of two examples from executive-legislative, or judicial actions that have helped or hindered your chosen, public policy. You can pick from the different branches or you can pick two from the same branch.
    • Summarize the executive, legislative, and/or judicial actions.
    • How do these examples inform the public policy cycle?

References:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/bump-stocks

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/national-firearms-act

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER. (2008, June 26). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html

Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2018). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. London: SAGE.

SS238 Unit 4 Discussion Answer

Education remains one of the most important provisions that a country offers its citizens. There are guiding principles and policies under which education is implemented, to ensure that everyone is mandatorily educated to the age of 16 or 18 in some states. Even though most education policies are left for the state and local authorities, the federal government also has a role to play in ensuring the sector is successful……

SS238 Engagement Civil and Citizen Driven Public Policy

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