Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

Origin of Public Policies
Nithi Eawsriwong
Panel Discussion
It’s been said that politicians formulate
policies and policy administration is run
by state mechanisms such as government
employees and so on.
But where do policies formulated by
politicians come from? Surprisingly, in a
modern democracy, public policies rarely
come from people through elections, except
some immediate problems like “Should the
U.S. pull troops out of Iraq?”
Crucial policies that affect the lives of
most people are not formulated through
elections because platforms of various
political parties are not that different, but
people are the ones who formulate or engage
in the formulation of public policies through
social movements. Such movements may be
done through media (independent) which
must be rather highly sensitive to opinions of
audiences or other forms of movements.
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