Public policy is a decision-making process that governments have made to achieve their desired goals in a way that is appropriate and feasible in the social context. Public policy must be a predetermined plan of government or authority regarding the goals, values, and practices of government for a specified period of time. Public policy is a tool for achieving state objectives.
It is a mechanism for ensuring continuity of operations and leading to rational change, and is publicly announced. Public policy must therefore be within its feasibility to be a tool for achieving a unified government.
The components of public policy should have a set of activities that are:
(1) Consistently implemented actions
(2) legal activity
(3) clear goals as guidelines or principles that are intended to be the set goals
(4) criteria or norms to guide the work to achieve success
(5) a choice made to act or refrain from acting in a certain way
Public policy must include the awareness and collection of relevant information, the recommendation for policy initiatives, policy formulation, preparation, improvement of government mechanisms, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Public policy must have clearly defined objectives, a sequence of actions, and a set of actions to be chosen, publicly announced, and implemented in a sequence.
Public policy components are, therefore, government decisions that are made in the form of policies, which are proposed laws, regulations, and rules with clear objectives and goals aimed at society as a whole or at specific groups. Public policy is feasible when it is put into practice as a manifestation of government action or a guideline for the process by which that public policy is formulated.