Unit 2

Policy Philosophies and Public Interest

A policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational
outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol.
Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of
action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity
or its representatives. Public policy is determined by government institutions, which give
policy legitimacy.
Government universally applies policy to all citizens of society and monopolizes the use of
force in applying policy. The legislature, executive and judicial branches of government are
examples of institutions that give policy legitimacy.
Policy or policy study may also refer to the process of making important organizational
decisions, including the identification of different alternatives such as programs or spending
priorities, and choosing among them based on the impact they will have.
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge,
values, reason, mind, and language.

 Six policy philosophies will be discussed here: protectorism, rationalism, brokerism,

pragmatism, transferalism, and egoism.

Protectorism
Protectorism is the belief in an almighty Protector who keeps watch over his faithful and
who protects those who wish to do good and honorable things. The chief premise of
protectorism is that policy exists to protect people from one another and from themselves.
The political executive as protector is a theme that emerges early in political philosophy.
One of the first protectorist philosophers was Plato. While there is a strong antidemocratic
element involved in the elevation of restraint to a guiding principle, the antidemocratic bias
is only one aspect of protectorism and not the most important. A more important implication
of protectorism is in connection with the activities of government. If the chief purpose of
governing is protection, the activities of government are regulatory and enforcing. Conferral
of collective benefits, redistribution of society’s resources, & representation are government
activities foreign to protectorism.

Rationalism
It means the practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge
rather than on religious belief or emotional response. It is the principle or habit of accepting
reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct.
Rational comprehensive model has its roots in the rational comprehensive decision-making
and implies that the policy maker has a full range of policy options to choose from,
Rational theory is one that achieves maximum social gain/benefit i.e. Government should
choose policies resulting in gains to society that exceed costs by greatest amount. 
Rationalism is a straightforward way of thinking that promotes the belief that knowledge can
be gained outside of experience. In fact, rationalism essentially functions with the notion that
experience is not necessary to acquire knowledge. Rationalism is a method of inquiry that
regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge and, in contrast to empiricism, tends
to discountenance sensory experience.
In rationalism to select, a policy maker must be able to know all the society value
preferences their relative weight, know all the policy alternatives available, and know all the
consequences of each policy alternatives, Calculate the ratio of benefits to costs for each
policy. 
The policy philosophy of rationalism is rooted in a faith in man’s reason and the assumption
that problems of governance are amenable to reasonable solution through scientific analysis,
logic, and systematic inquiry. Rationalism is the philosophy that knowledge comes from
logic and a certain kind of intuition—when we immediately know something to be true
without deduction, such as “I am conscious.” Rationalism is an idea about where knowledge
comes from, and is therefore part of the philosophical sub-field of epistemology.
In a sense, rationalism is the most optimistic policy philosophy. It says that the world may be
complex but by employing reason and developing analytical tools, we can manage
complexity.
Brokerism
The pluralist conception of government is a strong theme in brokerism. Society is conceived
as an combination of group interests, and government is a glue that helps hold society
together by balancing interests and serving as an integrating force. Brokerism is chiefly a
philosophy of means, and while the greatest happiness for the greatest number might be a
directive for some brokerists, brokerism does not require such motivation.
The brokerist approach is so commonplace in modern bureaucracy that almost every agency
operates in that style to some degree and with respect to some types of issues. An agency in
which brokerism is fundamental and routine is the National Labor Relations Board. Here
negotiation is almost a substantive concern. Many of the agencies that are protectorist are
also likely to be brokerist since brokerism

Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that began in the United States around 1870.
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or
proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found
in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected.
Pragmatism considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem
solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent,
or mirror reality. Pragmatism is the Theory that the intelligence function is not to know to
find, but to know to act.
Pragmatism recognizes the importance of work force and emphasizes on development of
social and democratic values. It gives importance to activity based learning. Faith in
pluralism and opposes to social customs and traditions. Faith in flexibility and advocates for
human development according environment.
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or
proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found
in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected.
It has been said with some justification that pragmatism is America’s only major
contribution to philosophy.
Bureaucracy is a means of standardizing government, policy, and decision-making. The
standard operating procedure, record keeping, impersonalism, and formal chain of command
in bureaucracy is built on a structure of formality that impedes pragmatism.
Despite the constraints that orderliness, routine, and formality impose on pragmatism,
bureaucracy (or bureaucrats) can still promote pragmatism in public policy. While the formal
structures of bureaucracy almost invariably obstruct pragmatism, the bureaucrat does not
always heed formal structures.

Transferalism
Transferalism is largely a twentieth-century policy philosophy. Transferalism is the policy
philosophy of the welfare state—take from the haves and give to the have-nots.
Another assumption of transferalism is that benefits from income transfer accrue to society
as well as to the individuals receiving the supplement.

Egoism
In philosophy, egoism is the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the
goal of one’s own action. Egoism has two variants, descriptive or normative. The descriptive
(or positive) variant conceives egoism as a factual description of human affairs. That is, their
own interests and desires motivate people, and they cannot be described otherwise. The
normative variant proposes that people should be so motivated, regardless of what presently
motivates their behavior. Altruism is the opposite of egoism. The term “egoism” derives
from “ego,” the Latin term for “I” in English. Egoism should be distinguished from egotism,
which means a psychological overvaluation of one’s own importance, or of one’s own
ctivities.
The policy philosophy of egoism entails the assumption that the bureaucracy or the agency
exists as an end in itself beyond any social mission and that public careers are a means of
advancing oneself, even to the possible detriment of agency goals. This philosophy need not
take so crude a form as simple graft or corruption. Extreme careerism may be a manifestation
of the policy philosophy of egoism, as may be an obsessive desire to expand one’s agency or
organizational unit.