Why do Public policies fail

The traditional approach to public policy making involves listing possible states of the world given the set of possible choices, assigning a probability to each state, and calculating an expected outcome by considering costs and benefits. This approach works well in situations where the choices are well-known and where uncertainty can be quantified as risk. Policy success and failure rests with level of endorsement and commitment. Factors that affect policy implementation include how the policy is implemented at the onset. 

The main barriers to policy formulation and implementation are - a) Poor enforcement, b) Resources, c) Industry interference and d) Lack of clear roles. These could be set straight with more effort, resources and goodwill. Although it is widely accepted that public policies are difficult to implement, most analyses of policy failures are conceived of as a predominantly rational processes.  

Failure to achieve the envisioned results puts high costs on the economy in terms of not only wastage of time and money, but also in terms of diminished public trust in leaders and institutions. But as the times are changing, it is essential that policymakers view social development, economic growth, equity and sustainability as one interconnected goal. 

Governments can fail for many reasons which can broadly fall into the following five categories-

1. Policy - Govt. might not have been given the policy, or any policy at all, needed to solve the problem at hand, or the policy might have been either too difficult to deliver or delegated to a vulnerable or historically unreliable organisation. 

2. Structure - Govt. might have been unable to move information up and down its over-layered chain of command, select and supervise its contractors, or resolve the confusion associated with duplication and overlap.

3. Resources - Govt. might not have had enough funding, staff or the collateral capacity such as information technology, oversight systems or technical experience to deliver consistent policy impact. 

4. Leadership - Govt.s' top appointees might have been unqualified to lead; could have made poor decisions before, during and after the failures appeared or might have taken their posts after long delays created by the Presidential appointments process.

5. Culture - Govt. might have created confusing missions that could not be communicated and embraced, were easily undermined by rank corruption and unethical conduct or were beyond careful monitoring through performance measurement and management. 

Government can avoid Public policy failure by - 

1. Introduce Profit Incentives/ Performance targets into the Govt. sector. 

2. Competition / Evaluation. 

3.  Public - Private partnerships.

4. Rely on Goodwill. 

Without doubt, the current times present major challenges for all Governments. And new challenges will surely arise in the years ahead. Looking ahead, we encourage more people to reflect on cases of successful public policy. I especially hope that politicians of every ideological persuasion, and those who advise them, will heed the lessons of the past, that reveal what it takes to produce strongly positive outcomes that improve the lives of generations of citizens. 

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