A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by the Board of or senior governance body within an organization whereas procedures or protocols would be developed and adopted by senior executive officers. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making. Policies to assist in subjective decision making would usually assist senior management with decisions that must consider the relative merits of a number of factors before making decisions and as a result are often hard to objectively test e.g. work-life balance policy. In contrast policies to assist in objective decision making are usually operational in nature and can be objectively tested e.g. password policy.

A Policy can be considered as a "Statement of Intent" or a "Commitment". For that reason at least, the decision-makers can be held accountable for their "Policy".

The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, and individuals. Presidential executive orders, corporate privacy policies, and parliamentary rules of order are all examples of policy. Policy differs from rules or law. While law can compel or prohibit behaviors (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes on income), policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

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 on the basis of the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, management, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.'''

Impact

Intended effects

The intended effects of a policy vary widely according to the organization and the context in which they are made. Broadly, policies are typically instituted to avoid some negative effect that has been noticed in the organization, or to seek some positive benefit.

Corporate purchasing policies provide an example of how organizations attempt to avoid negative effects. Many large companies have policies that all purchases above a certain value must be performed through a purchasing process. By requiring this standard purchasing process through policy, the organization can limit waste and standardize the way purchasing is done.

The State of California provides an example of benefit-seeking policy. In recent years, the numbers of hybrid cars in California has increased dramatically, in part because of policy changes in Federal law that provided USD $1,500 in tax credits (since phased out) as well as the use of high-occupancy vehicle lanes to hybrid owners (no longer available for new hybrid vehicles). In this case, the organization (state and/or federal government) created an effect (increased ownership and use of hybrid vehicles) through policy (tax breaks, highway lanes).

Unintended effects

Policies frequently have side effects or unintended consequences. Because the environments that policies seek to influence or manipulate are typically complex adaptive systems (e.g. governments, societies, large companies), making a policy change can have counterintuitive results. For example, a government may make a policy decision to raise taxes, in hopes of increasing overall tax revenue. Depending on the size of the tax increase, this may have the overall effect of reducing tax revenue by causing capital flight or by creating a rate so high that citizens are deterred from earning the money that is taxed. (See the Laffer curve.)

The policy formulation process typically includes an attempt to assess as many areas of potential policy impact as possible, to lessen the chances that a given policy will have unexpected or unintended consequences. Because of the nature of some complex adaptive systems such as societies and governments, it may not be possible to assess all possible impacts of a given policy.

Policy cycle

In political science the policy cycle is a tool used for the analyzing of the development of a policy item. It can also be referred to as a "stagist approach". One standardized version includes the following stages: # Agenda setting (Problem identification) # Policy Formulation # Adoption # Implementation # Evaluation

An eight step policy cycle is developed in detail in ''The Australian Policy Handbook'' by Peter Bridgman and Glyn Davis: (now with Catherine Althaus in its 4th edition)

# Issue identification # Policy analysis # Policy instrument development # Consultation (which permeates the entire process) # Coordination # Decision # Implementation # Evaluation

The Althaus, Bridgman & Davis model is heuristic and iterative. It is intentionally normative and not meant to be diagnostic or predictive. Policy cycles are typically characterized as adopting a classical approach. Accordingly some postmodern academics challenge cyclical models as unresponsive and unrealistic, preferring systemic and more complex models. They consider a broader range of actors involved in the policy space that includes civil society organisations, the media, intellectuals, think tanks or policy research institutes, corporations, lobbyists, etc.

Content

Policies are typically promulgated through official written documents. Policy documents often come with the endorsement or signature of the executive powers within an organization to legitimize the policy and demonstrate that it is considered in force. Such documents often have standard formats that are particular to the organization issuing the policy. While such formats differ in form, policy documents usually contain certain standard components including :

A purpose statement, outlining why the organization is issuing the policy, and what its desired effect or outcome of the policy should be.

An applicability and scope statement, describing who the policy affects and which actions are impacted by the policy. The applicability and scope may expressly exclude certain people, organizations, or actions from the policy requirements. Applicability and scope is used to focus the policy on only the desired targets, and avoid unintended consequences where possible.

An effective date which indicates when the policy comes into force. Retroactive policies are rare, but can be found.

A responsibilities section, indicating which parties and organizations are responsible for carrying out individual policy statements. Many policies may require the establishment of some ongoing function or action. For example, a purchasing policy might specify that a purchasing office be created to process purchase requests, and that this office would be responsible for ongoing actions. Responsibilities often include identification of any relevant oversight and/or governance structures.

Policy statements indicating the specific regulations, requirements, or modifications to organizational behavior that the policy is creating. Policy statements are extremely diverse depending on the organization and intent, and may take almost any form.

Some policies may contain additional sections, including:

Background, indicating any reasons, history, and intent that led to the creation of the policy, which may be listed as motivating factors. This information is often quite valuable when policies must be evaluated or used in ambiguous situations, just as the intent of a law can be useful to a court when deciding a case that involves that law.

Definitions, providing clear and unambiguous definitions for terms and concepts found in the policy document.

Typologies

Policy addresses the intent of the organization, whether government, business, professional, or voluntary. Policy is intended to affect the 'real' world, by guiding the decisions that are made. Whether they are formally written or not, most organizations have identified policies.

Policies may be classified in many different ways. The following is a sample of several different types of policies broken down by their effect on members of the organization.

Distributive policies

Distributive policies extend goods and services to members of an organization, as well as distributing the costs of the goods/services amongst the members of the organization. Examples include government policies that impact spending for welfare, public education, highways, and public safety, or a professional organization's benefits plan.

Regulatory policies

Regulatory policies, or mandates, limit the discretion of individuals and agencies, or otherwise compel certain types of behavior. These policies are generally thought to be best applied when good behavior can be easily defined and bad behavior can be easily regulated and punished through fines or sanctions. An example of a fairly successful public regulatory policy is that of a speed limit.

Constituent policies

Constituent policies create executive power entities, or deal with laws. Constituent policies also deal with Fiscal Policy in some circumstances.

Miscellaneous policies

Policies are dynamic; they are not just static lists of goals or laws. Policy blueprints have to be implemented, often with unexpected results. Social policies are what happens 'on the ground' when they are implemented, as well as what happens at the decision making or legislative stage.

When the term policy is used, it may also refer to:

Official government policy (legislation or guidelines that govern how laws should be put into operation)

Broad ideas and goals in political manifestos and pamphlets

A company or organization's policy on a particular topic. For example, the equal opportunity policy of a company shows that the company aims to treat all its staff equally.

The actions the organization actually takes may often vary significantly from stated policy. This difference is sometimes caused by political compromise over policy, while in other situations it is caused by lack of policy implementation and enforcement. Implementing policy may have unexpected results, stemming from a policy whose reach extends further than the problem it was originally crafted to address. Additionally, unpredictable results may arise from selective or idiosyncratic enforcement of policy.

Types of policy analysis include:

Causal (resp. non-causal)

Deterministic (resp. stochastic, randomized and sometimes non-deterministic)

Index

Memoryless (e.g. non-stationary)

Opportunistic (resp. non-opportunistic)

Stationary (resp. non-stationary)

These qualifiers can be combined, so for example you could have a stationary-memoryless-index policy.

Types

Company Policy

Communications and Information Policy

Human resource policies

Privacy policy

Public policy

* Defense policy

* Domestic policy

* Economic policy

* Education policy

* Energy policy

* Environmental Policy

* Foreign policy

* Health policy

* Housing policy

* Information policy

* Macroeconomic policy

* Monetary policy

* Population policy

* Public policy in law

* Science policy

* Security policy

* Social policy

* Transportation policy

* Urban policy

* Water policy

Other uses of the term

In enterprise architecture for systems design, policy appliances are technical control and logging mechanisms to enforce or reconcile policy (systems use) rules and to ensure accountability in information systems.

In insurance, policies are contracts between insurer and insured used to indemnify (protect) against potential loss from specified perils. While these documents are referred to as policies, they are in actuality a form of contract - see insurance contract.

In gambling, policy is a form of an unsanctioned lottery, where players purport to purchase ''insurance'' against a chosen number being picked by a legitimate lottery. Or can refer to an ordinary Numbers game

In artificial intelligence planning and ''reinforcement learning'', a policy prescribes a non-empty deliberation (sequence of actions) given a non-empty sequence of states.

In debate, the term "policy" is slang for policy or cross-examination debate.

See also

Mandate (politics)

Overton window

Policy alienation

Policy analysis

Policy studies

Political science

Program evaluation

Public administration

Public health

Public policy (law)

Public policy schools

Public services

Social contract

Social welfare

Social work

Think tank

References

Howard, Cosmo. "The Policy Cycle: a Model of Post-Machiavellian Policy Making?" The Australian Journal of Public Administration, September 2005.

Stone, Diane."Global Public Policy, Transnational Policy Communities and their Networks", ''Journal of Policy Sciences'', 2008

External links

Category:Government * Category:Politics by issue Category:Decision theory

da:Policy de:Policy ko:정책 hi:नीति id:Kebijakan it:Policy (politica) he:מדיניות nl:Beleid ja:政策 sv:Policy yi:פאליסי zh:政策

Name	Pat the Cope Gallagher
Honorific-suffix	MEP
Nationality	Irish
Office	Member of the European Parliament
Term start	June 2009
Constituency	North–West
Term start2	June 1994
Term end2	June 2002
Constituency2	Connacht–Ulster
Office3	Teachta Dála
Term start3	May 2002
Term end3	June 2009
Term start4	June 1981
Term end4	June 1997
Constituency4	Donegal South–West
Birth date	March 10, 1948
Party	Fianna Fáil
Spouse	Ann Gillespie
Alma mater	University College Galway
Website

Pat the Cope Gallagher (; born 10 March 1948) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North–West constituency, having previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal South–West constituency and as a junior minister.

Background

Gallagher was born in Burtonport, County Donegal. He was educated at Dungloe Secondary School, St. Enda's College, Galway and University College Galway where he graduated with a B. Comm in 1970. He worked as a fish exporter until 1982, becoming involved in local politics in 1979.

Political career

Gallagher was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1981 general election, retaining his seat until retiring at the 1997 general election. Gallagher was appointed Minister of State for Marine and the Gaeltacht in 1987, serving in that post until 1994.

In 1994 he was elected to the European Parliament as an MEP for the Connacht–Ulster constituency and was re-elected at the 1999 European Parliament election. During his period in Europe, Gallagher was a member of a number of committees including Fisheries, Economics and Monetary and Industry and Energy.

He returned to domestic politics to successfully contest the 2002 general election and he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In Bertie Ahern's Cabinet reshuffle in 2004 he received the portfolio of Minister of State for the Marine. Following a period in this role, Gallagher was moved to the Department of Transport in February 2006 where he served as Minister of State until May 2007. In June 2007 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for Health Promotion and Food Safety. He was not re-appointed as a Minister of State after Brian Cowen became Taoiseach in May 2008.

He was elected as an MEP for the North–West constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election. Immediately thereafter Gallagher replaced Brian Crowley as the head of Fianna Fáil's European delegation; this promotion came in the aftermath of Crowley publicly attacking the party's decision to join the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries

Despite still being a serving politician in Europe, Gallagher receives annual pension payments of €70,562 a year from his time as a TD and junior minister.

Family

His somewhat unusual middle name 'The Cope' refers to his family connection to The Cope agricultural cooperative which operates in The Rosses area of Donegal. This name is even used officially, in his profile on the Fianna Fáil website and on the European Parliament website. Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and also serves as Chairman of the delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Gallagher's wife, Ann Gillespie, and her sister, Eibhlin, both served almost 10 years of a 15-year sentence for conspiracy and explosive charges. In 1974 the sisters were visiting a house in Manchester when a bomb being made there exploded.

Gillespie maintains her innocence, saying police used evidence from discredited scientist Frank Skuse, but does not wish to reopen the case. In 2005 Gillespie's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, stated she believed that the case could have been successfully re-opened.

References

External links

Pat the Cope Gallagher's page on the Fianna Fáil website

{{S-ttl|title = Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal South–West |years = 1981–1997}} {{S-ttl|title = Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal South–West |years = 2002–2009}} {{S-ttl|title = Member of the European Parliament for Connacht–Ulster |years = 1994–2002}} {{S-ttl|title = Member of the European Parliament for North–West |years = 2009–}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 1987–1989}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Gaeltacht |years = 1989–1994}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 1992–1993}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Environmental Protection |years = 2002–2004}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 2004–2006}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Traffic Management, Road Haulage and the Irish Aviation Authority |years = 2006–2007}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Health Promotion and Food Safety |years = 2007–2008}}

Category:1948 births Category:Fianna Fáil politicians Category:Teachtaí Dála Category:Living people Category:Members of the 22nd Dáil Category:Members of the 23rd Dáil Category:Members of the 24th Dáil Category:Members of the 25th Dáil Category:Members of the 26th Dáil Category:Members of the 27th Dáil Category:Members of the 29th Dáil Category:Members of the 30th Dáil Category:People from County Donegal Category:Alumni of University College Galway Category:Fianna Fáil MEPs Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2009–2014 Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1994–1999

de:Pat Gallagher pl:Pat Gallagher ro:Pat Gallagher sco:Pat Gallagher

Name	Pat the Cope Gallagher
Honorific-suffix	MEP
Nationality	Irish
Office	Member of the European Parliament
Term start	June 2009
Constituency	North–West
Term start2	June 1994
Term end2	June 2002
Constituency2	Connacht–Ulster
Office3	Teachta Dála
Term start3	May 2002
Term end3	June 2009
Term start4	June 1981
Term end4	June 1997
Constituency4	Donegal South–West
Birth date	March 10, 1948
Party	Fianna Fáil
Spouse	Ann Gillespie
Alma mater	University College Galway
Website

Pat the Cope Gallagher (; born 10 March 1948) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North–West constituency, having previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal South–West constituency and as a junior minister.

Background

Gallagher was born in Burtonport, County Donegal. He was educated at Dungloe Secondary School, St. Enda's College, Galway and University College Galway where he graduated with a B. Comm in 1970. He worked as a fish exporter until 1982, becoming involved in local politics in 1979.

Political career

Gallagher was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1981 general election, retaining his seat until retiring at the 1997 general election. Gallagher was appointed Minister of State for Marine and the Gaeltacht in 1987, serving in that post until 1994.

In 1994 he was elected to the European Parliament as an MEP for the Connacht–Ulster constituency and was re-elected at the 1999 European Parliament election. During his period in Europe, Gallagher was a member of a number of committees including Fisheries, Economics and Monetary and Industry and Energy.

He returned to domestic politics to successfully contest the 2002 general election and he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In Bertie Ahern's Cabinet reshuffle in 2004 he received the portfolio of Minister of State for the Marine. Following a period in this role, Gallagher was moved to the Department of Transport in February 2006 where he served as Minister of State until May 2007. In June 2007 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for Health Promotion and Food Safety. He was not re-appointed as a Minister of State after Brian Cowen became Taoiseach in May 2008.

He was elected as an MEP for the North–West constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election. Immediately thereafter Gallagher replaced Brian Crowley as the head of Fianna Fáil's European delegation; this promotion came in the aftermath of Crowley publicly attacking the party's decision to join the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries

Despite still being a serving politician in Europe, Gallagher receives annual pension payments of €70,562 a year from his time as a TD and junior minister.

Family

His somewhat unusual middle name 'The Cope' refers to his family connection to The Cope agricultural cooperative which operates in The Rosses area of Donegal. This name is even used officially, in his profile on the Fianna Fáil website and on the European Parliament website. Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and also serves as Chairman of the delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Gallagher's wife, Ann Gillespie, and her sister, Eibhlin, both served almost 10 years of a 15-year sentence for conspiracy and explosive charges. In 1974 the sisters were visiting a house in Manchester when a bomb being made there exploded.

Gillespie maintains her innocence, saying police used evidence from discredited scientist Frank Skuse, but does not wish to reopen the case. In 2005 Gillespie's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, stated she believed that the case could have been successfully re-opened.

References

External links

Pat the Cope Gallagher's page on the Fianna Fáil website

{{S-ttl|title = Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal South–West |years = 1981–1997}} {{S-ttl|title = Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Donegal South–West |years = 2002–2009}} {{S-ttl|title = Member of the European Parliament for Connacht–Ulster |years = 1994–2002}} {{S-ttl|title = Member of the European Parliament for North–West |years = 2009–}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 1987–1989}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Gaeltacht |years = 1989–1994}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 1992–1993}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Environmental Protection |years = 2002–2004}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for the Marine |years = 2004–2006}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Traffic Management, Road Haulage and the Irish Aviation Authority |years = 2006–2007}} {{S-ttl|title = Minister of State for Health Promotion and Food Safety |years = 2007–2008}}

Category:1948 births Category:Fianna Fáil politicians Category:Teachtaí Dála Category:Living people Category:Members of the 22nd Dáil Category:Members of the 23rd Dáil Category:Members of the 24th Dáil Category:Members of the 25th Dáil Category:Members of the 26th Dáil Category:Members of the 27th Dáil Category:Members of the 29th Dáil Category:Members of the 30th Dáil Category:People from County Donegal Category:Alumni of University College Galway Category:Fianna Fáil MEPs Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2009–2014 Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 1994–1999

de:Pat Gallagher pl:Pat Gallagher ro:Pat Gallagher sco:Pat Gallagher

Marit Eli Paulsen, née Björnerud, (born 24 November 1939 in Oslo) is a Norwegian-born Swedish politician, and a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Party of Sweden 1999-2004 and 2009–present. She is a well-known figure in the Swedish public debate on environmental and food quality issues, initially as a non-partisan, and was an avid proponent of Swedish membership in the European Union during the EU membership referendum campaign in 1994.

In 1998 she joined the Liberal Party, and served as 2nd Vice President of the party 1999-2007. In the 2009 European Parliament elections, she was elected to the European Parliament as top candidate of the Liberal Party list. She gained more personal votes than any other Swedish candidate.

References

External links

Marit Paulsen page at the European Parliament

Presentation of Marit Paulsen from the Swedish liberal party (Swedish)

Category:People from Oslo Category:Liberal People's Party (Sweden) politicians Category:Swedish women in politics Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Liberal People's Party (Sweden) MEPs Category:MEPs for Sweden 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for Sweden 2009–2014 Category:Female MEPs for Sweden

no:Marit Paulsen pl:Marit Paulsen ro:Marit Paulsen sv:Marit Paulsen

Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Bermeo, March 27, 1961) is a politician from the Basque Country, a region in Spain. A member of the Basque Nationalist Party, she was the President of the Basque Parliament in the 2005-2009 term, being elected to the office as a "consensus candidate" among the nationalist majority in the legislature when the incumbent President and initial candidate of her party, Juan María Atutxa, failed to obtain the majority and the election deadlocked. She has a degree in Law.

In 2008, she was in the center of a controversy regarding the placement of the Spanish flag in the seat of the Basque Parliament: the Spanish Law on Flags requires that all public institutions place the Spanish flag on a prominent place wherever the regional or local flags fly. After years of not submitting to such law and flying only the Ikurriña (Basque flag), the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that the Basque Parliament would have to fly the Spanish flag too. In the Bureau meeting that studied the ruling, Izaskun Bilbao sided with the non-nationalist minority in the Parliament ruling body to actually place the flag against the official policy of her party. She defended this decision as simply obeying the final ruling of the Supreme Court, and thus having nothing to do with politics.

References

External links

Basque Parliament: Izaskun Bilbao - Bio

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:People from Bermeo Category:Basque Nationalist Party politicians Category:Spanish lawyers

ca:Izaskun Bilbao Barandica de:Izaskun Bilbao es:Izaskun Bilbao eu:Izaskun Bilbao fr:Izaskun Bilbao pl:Izaskun Bilbao pt:Izaskun Bilbao