“Public” refers to society, government, state, city, country, community, and people. Public is therefore a matter of the whole. Public consideration will be based on the following issues:
(1) The criteria for the breadth of impact and external impacts, which are the impacts on things outside the circle of action, such as a factory releasing wastewater into a river but the people are affected, etc.
(2) Criteria for the owner of the budget or the source of funds for operations, such as taxes or donations, etc.
(3) Public awareness criteria, such as national defense, healthcare, education, electricity, and water supply, etc.
(4) The criteria for the legitimate power of the government because public matters are what the government determines, such as the use of power according to the law and Cabinet resolutions, etc.
“Policy” refers to the practices of a country or a people. It comes from the Greek word “polis,” which means city or state. Policy is the guideline that points the way to objectives. The policy has important implications for consideration as follows:
(1) Policy is a proposal about a course of action for an individual, group of individuals, or government.
(2) Policy is a general statement that describes the objectives to be achieved through the implementation of an operational plan.
(3) Policy is a thoughtful and profound action by senior executives.
(4) Policy is a set of basic frameworks and guidelines that cover the overall operations of an organization.
Policy, therefore, is a statement of direction for development and implementation, a framework for action with predetermined goals, not limited to any particular government or agency.
In daily life, people always have to deal with public policy, which may involve them as participants in policy making, affected persons, supporters or opponents. Therefore, public policy must be understood both in terms of policy and in terms of the public.