An Overview of Approaches to the Study of Public Policy
International Journal of Political Science (IJPS) Page|13
that make authoritative allocations of values (decisions) that are binding on society (Anderson, 1997).
This environment consists of all phenomena-the social system, the economic system, the biological
setting - that are external to the boundaries of the political system. Thus, at least analytically one can
separate the political system from all the other components of a society (Easton, 1965).
If the open system model is applied in public policy analysis the issues to reflect on include the nature
of the components of the system which constitute the sub-systems, and the outside components that
impinge on the system directly, which is referred to supra-system (Dlakwa, 2004). Inputs into the
political system from the environment consist of demands and supports. Demands are usually the
claims for action that individuals and groups make to satisfy their interest and values. Support is
rendered when groups and individuals abide by election results, pay taxes, obey laws, and otherwise
accept decisions and actions taken by the political system in response to demands. The amount of
support for a political system indicates the extent to which it is regarded as legitimate, or as
authoritative and binding on its citizens.
On the other hand, outputs of the political system include laws, rules, judicial decisions, and the like.
Regarded as the authoritative allocations of values, they constitute public policy. The concept of
feedback indicates that public policies (or outputs) made at a given time may subsequently alter the
environment and the demands arising therefrom, as well as the character of the political system itself.
Policy outputs may produce new demands, which lead to further outputs, and so on in a never-ending
flow of public policy.
On the whole, this model applies systems theory to the policy-making process. In simple words,
according to this model, the political system receives inputs from its environment and converts them
into outputs. The inputs are in the form of demands from groups or individuals for specific policy
outcomes. The policy outcomes take the form of determination of societal values and allocation of
resources. A feedback loop exists by which the outputs alter the future inputs. This model thus relies
on concepts of information theory.
In other words, systems theory conceives public policy as the response of the political system to
demands from its environment. The political system consists of those institutions that make
authoritative allocation of values binding on the society as a whole. The environment of the political
system consists of those institutions found in the economic, social, cultural and international systems
which shape political process and whose activities are influenced by the political system. Using
systems approach, it is assumed that a state of mutual causation exists between public policy and
environmental variables (Abdulsalami, 1987).
The usefulness of the systems theory in studying public policy is limited by its highly general and
abstract nature. It does not, moreover, say much about the procedures and processes by which
systems theory results are sometimes characterised as input-output studies. Nonetheless, this approach
can be helpful in organising inquiry into policy formation, it also alerts us to some important facets of
the political process, such as these: how do inputs from the environment affect the content of public
policy and the operation of the political system? How in turn does public policy affect the
environment and the subsequent demands for policy actions? How well is the political system able to
convert demands into public policy and preserve itself over time (Anderson, 1997).
3.4. Institutional Theory
One of the oldest concerns of political science and public administration is the study of government
institutions since political life generally revolves around them. These institutions include legislatures,
executives and judiciary; and public policy is authoritatively formulated and executed by them.
Traditionally, the institutional approach concentrates on describing the more formal and legal aspects
of government institutions: their formal structure, legal powers, procedural rules, and functions.
Formal relationships with other institutions might also be considered, such as legislative-executive
relations. Usually, little was done to explain how institutions operated as opposed to how they were
supposed to operated, to analyse public policies produced by the institutions and to discover the
relationships between institutional structure and public policies.
Subsequently, social scientists turned their attention in teaching and research to the political processes
within government or political institutions, concentrating on the behaviour of participants in the
process and on political realities rather than formalism. In the study of legislators, attention shifted