Defining a Good Public Policy

Ilustrasi partisipasi publik. Foto: Evgeny Starkov via Shutter Stock

Before mentioning the definition of a good public policy, better for us to understand the meaning of public policy itself. In my understanding, public policy is defined as a regulation that is produced by the legal government to manage public’s needs, both goods and services. In this context, the term of governments refers to the executive parties who conduct the governance and legislative parties who have authority to conduct both legislation and monitoring process to the executive. In the other way, public policy is simply defined as whatever governments choose to do or not to do (Dye, 2010).

To assess the quality of public policy, whether it is good or not, we need to use several indicators as the instruments of evaluation. By stating the indicators of public policy, we can measure the quality of public policy quantitatively and qualitatively. There are at least three kinds of measurement to consider, such as, the measurement which are based on the result, actor and economic aspect. The resulting aspect consists of some models, such as, goal attainment, side effects and goal free models. The actor aspect consists of client-oriented, stakeholder-oriented and also peer review models. The last is an economic aspect that consists of some kinds of models, such as, productivity, cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency models.

The other ways to measure the quality of public policy are the instruments that are used to conduct public policy to society, and the process which is passed by the stakeholders to formulate the policy or program. Regarding the formulation process, there is a specific change to consider. In the era of globalization in which, it is characterized by the advances in information and communication technology, the stakeholder has to find innovation to produce the best quality of public policy by using some kinds of advance in technology.

Furthermore, the government should find innovation, particularly in terms of budgeting sources to finance the program. This is very important because public policy should consider effectiveness and efficiency that really affect the quality of public policy itself.

Implementation in Indonesia

Referring to those explanations above, the author is going to conclude that a good public policy is that a regulation that is produced by legal authorities to manage and fulfill the public’s necessities, both goods and services, by ensuring the quality of public policy itself. How the legal authorities ensure the quality is by using at least three indicators, such as, (1) formulation process, (2) instruments which are used to implement, and also (3) evaluation process.

To make it that definition easier to understand, the author will be giving example. It is about how the government of the Republic of Indonesia composed regulation as public policy to overcome the Tuberculosis issue in Indonesia.

The Government of the Republic of Indonesia has committed to overcoming Tuberculosis disease in Indonesia by stating the regulation, named “Zero Tuberculosis in 2030”. This regulation was composed based on some facts collected by the government in the formulation process. Tuberculosis, so-called TB, is the most dangerous disease in the world that can cause death to the sufferer. World Health Organization (WHO) as the UN’s body that concern about health issues has released a report in 2016 that mentioned Indonesia as the second largest country that has TB sufferers in the world. In 2016, at least there were 274 cases of death per day caused by TB, and there were 1.020.000 TB sufferers in Indonesia at that time (Dinisari, 2018). Those facts have become inputs for the government to formulate the specific regulation.

Measuring through the formulation process, the regulation released by the government is a kind of good public policy as the government conducted a situation of analysis and set of objectives to overcome the issue. Formulating this issue in the frame of public policy, the government considered the time process, national resources availability, and also global context. It is not easy to make TB case zero in short term, that’s why the period to be zero stated in 2030. It is like the long-term program. However, the government will set the process in several terms, such as short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals to make the monitoring and evaluation process easy. By stating those kinds of terms, the government will be easy to conduct problem identification and corrective action.

To conduct this policy, the government empowers all resources that they have. Because TB disease is a serious problem, the government decided to execute the program of Zero TB in 2030 through some instruments such as (1) policy through advocacy, (2) policy through money, and also (3) policy through direct government action. The most important thing to ensure that those kinds of instruments will be working is that the availability of people or institutions that have a responsibility to execute. In this regard, the government has appointed the Ministry of Health as the executor of the policy.

Referring to the way the government conducts this policy, the author thinks that the government has done it not in the proper way. In another word, in terms of implementation, it is not really good public policy. The author has some considerations and arguments. First, it will be better if this policy is also conducted through law. Second, it will be very difficult to burden responsibility to overcome TB only on the Ministry of Health. The TB issue is not only a health issue but also a security aspect that needs to be accomplished by multidimensional efforts. It means that the government should involve more stakeholders such as the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sport and Youth, and also the Ministry of Village and Acceleration of Development in the Underdeveloped Area. They will be under the coordination of related coordinating ministries.

The division of job description also has consequences to the amount of budget and budget proportion to each of ministries. In this way, to make the public policy good, powerful, and beneficial to the people, the government should place the budget into a multi-year budget. The framework may be in the thematic budget like the way chosen by the government to handle climate change or south-south cooperation issue. In terms of the evaluation process, the author does not categorize yet, whether this policy is good or not, because this is an ongoing program. Nevertheless, to measure the quality in the implementation, the government could assess the quality through the effectiveness and efficiency evaluation models.

The government also has to take a look at the beneficiary point of view or condition, especially the number of TB sufferers or death caused by TB that has been decreased through the implementation of the program (client-oriented evaluation model). What has been defined by the author regarding the term of good public policy is relevant to the definition provided by Cochran and Malone.

A good public policy is how the formulated public policy can achieve public goals through the good process in defining the problem to be addressed, the designed goals to be achieved, and the instruments of policy that are employed to address the problem and achieve the policy goals (Charles Cochran, 2009). By accomplishing those processes, the public policy can be categorized as good public policy, at least in terms of accomplished process.