Policy studies is a subdisicipline of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

that includes the analysis of the process of policymaking (the policy process) and the contents of policy (

policy analysis Policy analysis is a technique used in the public administration sub-field of political science to enable civil servants, nonprofit organizations, and others to examine and evaluate the available options to implement the goals of laws and elected ...

). Policy analysis includes substantive area research (such as health or education policy),

program evaluation Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs, particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. In both the public and private sectors, s ...

and impact studies, and policy design. It "involves systematically studying the nature, causes, and effects of alternative

public policies Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

, with particular emphasis on determining the policies that will achieve given goals." It emerged in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Policy studies also examines the conflicts and conflict resolution that arise from the making of policies in civil society, the private sector, or more commonly, in the public sector (e.g. government). While policy studies frequently focus on the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...

it is applicable to other organizations (e.g., the not-for-profit sector). Some policy study experts graduate from

public policy school A public policy school is typically a university program that teaches students policy analysis, policy studies, public policy, political economy, urban planning, public administration, international relations, security studies, political science, ...

s with

public policy degrees Public policy degrees, public administration degrees and public affairs degrees are graduate master's and PhD level professional degrees or undergraduate bachelor's degree level academic majors, concentrations, and academic minors at research-in ...

. Alternatively, experts may have backgrounds in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

, philosophy,

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, social work, environmental planning and

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit est ...

. Traditionally, the field of policy studies focused on domestic policy, with the notable exceptions of

foreign Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

and defense policies. However, the wave of

economic globalization Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization. Econom ...

, which ensued in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, created a need for a subset of policy studies that focuses on global governance, especially as it relates to issues that transcend

national borders Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

such as

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, nuclear proliferation, and

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and ...

. This subset of policy studies, which is often referred to as international policy studies, typically requires mastery of a

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

and attention to

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to *cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis *cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate *any of vari ...

issues in order to address

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

al and cultural biases.

References

External links

;General *
Policy Studies Organization
;Journals of the ''Policy Studies Organization''
Asian Politics & Policy

Digest of Middle East Studies

Latin American PolicyPolicy Studies

Policy Studies Journal

Politics & Policy

Review of Policy Research

Policy & Internet

Poverty & Public Policy

Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy

World Medical & Health Policy
;Other
Visualization of the policy cycle

National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration

Decision Theater
- Helping policy makers in their decision making process through the use of visualization, simulation and collaboration tools.
AARP Public Policy Institute (United States)

Global Public Policy Institute
{{Authority control Policy Politics by issue Public policy research Political science Public administration

See also

References

External links