Public policy is a plan of action that governments take to achieve their goals. These goals are often related to meeting the needs of the people and solving society’s problems. While they are in power, governments use public institutions to create, implement and enforce public policy.

Public policy decisions determine how public resources and opportunities are distributed. In a democracy, political parties get elected because most of the voters think that their policies will be the best for their country. As a result, debates about public policy are at the centre of democratic politics.The authority of a government is put into effect through its laws. Laws are the most important tools that democratic governments have to accomplish their policy goals.

Governments use laws to control people’s behavior, their quality of life and access to resources and opportunities. Ideally, democratic governments use this power to address society’s problems and meet the needs of the people.

Governments are responsible for making, implementing, and enforcing laws. Before a law comes into effect, it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to as “legislation”, while it remains under consideration to distinguish it from other business. Laws can have many purposes: to regulate, to authorize, to proscribe, toprovide (funds), to sanction, to grant, to declare or to restrict.

Laws are usually proposed by a member of the legislature (e.g., a member of Congress or Parliament), or by the executive, whereupon it is debated by members of the legislature and is often amended before passage. Most large legislatures enact only a small fraction of the bills proposed in a given session. Parliaments can also repeal (cancel) laws. There are two basic types of repeal, a repeal with re-enactment (or replacement) of the repealed law, or a repeal without replacement. Repeal with re-enactment is where the law in the area is being updated but the law being repealed needs to be replaced with one suitable for the modern era.

A repeal without replacement is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is shown that a law is having far more negative consequences than were originally envisioned.

The Difference between law and Policy

Policies describe the goals that the government wants to achieve and outlines how to achieve them; laws are one of the tools that governments use to achieve their policy goals.

Once a law is passed, it applies to every citizen. In contrast, a policy is limited to the government that creates it. Other people may disagree with it and later governments may change or disregard it.

Laws are more permanent. A government must follow a specific process to change or cancel a law. In contrast, every new government has a different public policy.

A policy outlines what a government ministry hopes to achieve and the methods and principles it will use to achieve them. It states the goals of the ministry. A policy document is not a law, but it will often identify new laws needed to achieve its goals.

Laws set out standards, procedures and principles that must be followed. If a law is not followed, those responsible for breaking them can be prosecuted in court.

So, policy sets out the goals and planned activities of a ministry and department but it may be necessary to pass a law to enable government to put in place the necessary institutional and legal frameworks to achieve their aims. Laws must be guided by current government policy.

The functions of parties in a democratic government There are four central functions of political parties in modern representative democracies: 1. To develop consistent policies and government programmes (the interest articulation function). 2. To pick up demands from society and bundle them (the interest aggregation function). 3. To recruit, select and train people for positions in government and the legislature. 4. To oversee and control government. The first three functions feed into the two fundamental roles that political parties play in the political process: they form the government, or they are in opposition. In practical terms, the significance of the functions varies according to the current role a party plays, as can be seen in Table 1. The fourth function varies depending on the type of political system. In parliamentary systems, where the government is elected by parliament and depends on its support, this function falls entirely on the opposition. In presidential systems, where the executive is independent, the legislature as a whole fulfills this function. Table 1. Roles of Political Parties In and Out of Government Parties are also important because they provide an institutional memory of policies and politics. This knowledge of what works and what does not is crucial to continuity. A political system that is characterized by individuals rather than by parties cannot provide this memory and also carries the danger of bureaucratic and technocratic dominance. In addition, parties aggregate policy options into bundles, as is described in Function 2 above. Source: Effective Party Assistance: Stronger Parties for Better Democracy