Chapter 10: Conclusion and Recommendations
3.2 DEFINITIONS
Policy is defined in many ways. This section looks at some of the definitions provided by various authors. Anderson (2000: 2) maintains that the term policy would generally indicate the behaviour of an actor or actors, such as an official, agencies of government or even a legislature. According to Dye (cited in Greene, 2005: 272), a public policy can be defined as what government do or choose not to do, the reason for doing it and the difference such an intervention will make in the community.
Cloete (1995: 56) in contrast describes policy as a declaration of intent to do something or have it done by specified institutions in order to attain a specific objective by a political party, a legislative institution or a specific political office- bearer.
De Coning (in Cloete & Wissink, 2000: 3) defines policy as a statement of intent.
According to De Coning, policy specifies the basic principles to be pursued in attaining specific goals, interprets the values of society and is usually embodied in the management of pertinent projects and programmes.
Carl J. Friedrich (cited in Anderson, 2000: 4) provides a comprehensive definition of policy:
“A proposed course of action of a person, group, or government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach or realize an objective or a purpose”.
According to Botes et al (1996: 305), policies are systematic actions which should be taken to achieve goals. According to them, when attempting to set up a policy on a specific matter, one must consider the following:
What must be done to attain the defined goal?
Who must be involved in achieving the aim?
When must the various programmes of the policy be implemented?
Where would the activities be performed?
How must the programme be initiated?
Why must this specific policy be followed?
Anderson (1979, cited in Ismail, Bayat & Meyer, 1997: 150) describes a policy as a purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern. According to Hanekom (1987: 7), public policy is a formally articulated goal that the legislator intends pursuing with society or with a societal group. Hanekom further maintains that public policy has been defined as:
A kind of guide that delimits action.
A mechanism employed to realise societal goals and to allocate resources.
Whatever governments choose to do or not to do.
A declaration and implementation of intent.
Purposive or goal-oriented behaviour.
De Coning (in Cloete & Wissink, 2000: 11) further provide other definitions of policy articulated by various authors. These definitions enable one to explore the multidimensional nature of policy, to establish the key elements of definitions in the field and to develop a working definition. According to these various definitions as provided by De Coning, policy can be described as follows:
Policy is a declaration and implementation of intent. It is a guide that delimits actions.
Policy indicates the goal, purpose and subsequently a programme of action to address a specific societal programme. Policy indicates what has been agreed upon by authorities. A policy is therefore purpose driven or goal-oriented as opposed to being random behaviour.
The goals of a policy should be clearly and unambiguously stated so as to better inform actions and to aid the evaluation.
As a proposed course of action, a policy operates within a specific environment, and as such should be relevant to the environment.
A policy reflects the choice that has been made among various alternatives.
Policy forms the basis for development of programme, projects and informs resource allocation.
Considering the definitions provided by the various authors, the following can be deduced:
A policy is developed to solve a certain societal problem. Such a problem could be unrealised needs, values, or opportunities for improvement that have to be pursued through public action.
There should be a clear objective or goal should be attained once the policy has been implemented.
A policy is not an end in itself, but rather a means towards an end (solving a specific problem).
An institution should make clear what it is going to do (or not do) in an attempt to attain a certain objective or solve the problem at hand.
Institutions or functionaries that have to perform certain functions should be clearly stipulated (there are actors which should be clearly defined).
This above assertion implies that in developing a policy, an institution should clearly articulate its goals or what it aims to achieve. It should further indicate the actions that will be undertaken to attain the goals, and which functionaries will play what role in the whole process. In relation to this study, it means that Polokwane Municipality should be clear on what it intends to achieve with regard to street vending. The goal should be clear as this will inform its programmes. It further asserts the notion that no institution can perform its functions effectively without successive policy statements to direct all its activities (Cloete, 1998: 126). The word successive is used to stress that a policy statement or directive can never be static. This means that, for example, the municipality can only manage street trading effectively if it has a clear a policy that directs the activities of all involved with the function. Such a policy should be
revised or updated from time to time. It further stipulates that to a large extent, such a policy should indicate what will be done, who will do what, and also how it will manage conflicts that might arise due to conflicting needs (Cloete, 1998: 126;
Hanekom 1987: 7, and Rakodi in Devas & Rakodi, 1993: 207).
There are critical pillars that should be considered during the policy development process. These pillars can be summarised as follows (Anderson, 2000: 4-7):
A policy is designed to accomplish a specific goal or produce some definite results. Each policy should therefore have goals that provide general direction and not precise targets for implementation.
A policy should indicate actions that would be undertaken over time to address an identified problem.
To be relevant, a policy must address a certain demand (policy demand).
Policy should indicate the activities of governments and not only what governments intend to do. In this instance, the issue of policy outputs and policy outcomes should be the point of emphasis.
A public policy can be either positive (indicating what government will do) or negative (not doing anything about a specific issue raised).
The above principles are critical for the study in that as the municipality develops its policy, these are some of the fundamental principles that must be taken into account.
The other interesting factor is the relationship that exists between policy-making and law-making. This is because the governmental (political executive) and all the administrative executive activities must always be based on legislative directives (Cloete, 1998: 126). According to Cloete (1998: 85), for public institutions to function smoothly, the administrative functions (such as policy development and organising) must always commence before the line functions (such as building roads, construction of hawker stalls). As a result, nothing can be done in any matter in the public sector before a policy on it has been developed and accepted to declare that the action must be taken in the proper manner to reach one or more objectives. This view is supported by Hughes (1994: 147), who maintains that public policy is the output of government. Hughes argues that whatever is done by government is informed by its
policies. For Polokwane Municipality to be successful in managing the informal business sector, it should first adopt a policy that will clearly define its objectives and how the objectives will be attained. Once the policy has been adopted, the municipality will be able to develop programmes and projects informed by the long- term objective.
It is important to distinguish between a decision and policy as the two are related but not necessarily the same. According to Anderson (2000: 5), while a decision can be a once-off thing, a policy takes the decision further by indicating courses of actions, which might include other decisions. For example, the Polokwane Municipality Council might take a decision to support informal businesses. In implementing this decision, a policy will then have to be developed indicating various actions and subsequent decisions on what would be undertaken as part of implementing the Council‟s decision. This implies that if institutions are to be successful in their mandates, their policies should be relevant and address the real needs (problems) within the available (scarce) resources. Furthermore, such policies should take into consideration the conflicting needs of the populace and be able to reach a compromise in this regard (Rakodi in Devas & Rakodi, 1993: 207).
Depending on the state of affairs in a community, policies can be reactive or proactive. The objective of the policy will also determine the type of policy that will be developed, as outlined in the following section.