Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: This entry of about 400 words begins with the definition of the concept; a "policy" is the product of the political-administrative decision-making; it is the means by which authorities can implement their political goals and programs.
When an actor wishes to implement any given policy, he must have a clear idea of the financial resources, the several hypotheses in the drafting phase, the several possibilities in the implementation phase and the social and political conjunctures of the moment. Those different phases suggest the sequence of the stages-approach (Jones); there are several important phases concerning a policy process: first of all there is the detection of the problem to solve; then, there is the phase of studying and deciding the best solution for that problem; third, there is the implementation moment and finally the stage of the evaluation which precedes a new cycle of policy-making based on a new problem-solving action.