An Analysis of US Policy Formulation and Implementation Processes

The US policy-making process is highly complex, marked by fragmented government structures and a lack of effective coordination. This report analyzes the influence of federalism, divided government, and the separation of powers on policy development. It examines the roles of the House of Representatives, Senate, and the President, highlighting the challenges posed by conflicting interests and institutional conflicts. The report also explores the involvement of interest groups, congressional committees, and administrative agencies as key policy actors. It emphasizes the increasing intermingling of public and private interests and the impact of privatization on government activities. Despite complications and overlaps, the US federal system has become more centralized, and all levels of government play a role in policy making, including identification of issues, formulation of policy responses, evaluation of results and changing programs. This analysis underscores the need for policy consistency and coordination, while recognizing the diverse outcomes produced by different government approaches. The report provides a detailed overview of the US government's policy-making processes and the key factors that influence them.

Summary

The formulation and implementation of policy in the US is highly complicated. It could be
argued that the US government possess various structures but, there is lack of actual
organizations because basicfeature of structures is lack of effective coordinationand control.
The fragmentation of the US government has some merits which include involvement of
several decision makers in the decisions making process tomitigate chances of errors and
requirement of total agreement for proposal being implemented becomes an operating
program or become a law. The people of America have to pay a price for lack of policy
consistency and coordination. All the three parts of the government i.e. House of
Representatives, Senate and their president, are controlled by same party, which might
experience legislating issues. The Constitution expressly delegates the authority to each
Congress to take required decisions for its members (Maskell, 2015). Lately, US government
can be described as a divided government as different political parties control different
branches of the federal government. This has also result in deadlock situation. Thus, for
analysis of policy development process one must take into consideration influence of divided
government, deadlock and federalism.
Federalism is a formal and constitutional allocation that provides all the powers which are not
specifically given to the federal government to states (W W Norton & Co., 2019). In the case
of conflict between state and local law, dominance is given to federal law. With the
expansion of activities of the government at all the levels, separation of functions among
federal, state and local governments has blurred. As a result, these governments are involved
in variety of similar activities. Despite existence of complication, incoherence and overlap in
intergovernmental relations, federal system has become more centralized. The administration
by Trump has displayed interests in returning more powers to the state as well as local
governments, but lack of legislative action in the administration did not result in any such
shifts.

The division of powers of federal government by the Constitution among three branches
provides each with the capability to apply checks over the other two branches. The Congress,
president and courts are institutions that are designated by constitution for agreeing to a
policy before it is fully legalized. Furthermore, the constitution of U.S. has established only
one federal court, which is known as U.S. Supreme Court (Nolan & ThompsonII, 2014). The
elected politicians now have to struggle with the bureaucracy as it plays a significant role in
the policy process. The division in the US government has been creased by separation of
powers doctrine. This has further led to the creation of a major institutional conflict at the
centre of the federal government.
The third division within American government is that the policy choices made by federal
government seldom are not integrated. This is because the decisions taken are sanctioned
only be the portions of government. The three principle actors involved in policy making in
the United States are interest group, which wants favourable policy decisions from the
government; congressional committee designated to review suggestions for legislation; and
administrative agency, which wants to promote its interests through policymaking process.
The policy actors are those formal and informal individuals or groups who influences the
influences the implementation of public policies (Cahn, 2012). All the three actors have
similar interests and represent same individuals. They are playing the role of client, voter, and
organizational member.
The confusion between public and private interests and organizations is rising. This
intermingling between the two makes it difficult to decide where the boundary lies. The
major component of change in relationship has been the privatization of public activities.
The contemporary US government has been active despite tradition of suspicion of
government and issues related to coordination and control. The government is spending
money and hiring people to perform various tasks. All the 3 levels of government have say in

policy making, tax procedures, expenditure and delivery related decisions. So, similar
procedures must be followed by the governments in making new policies. It include
identification of issues, formulation of policy responses, evaluation of results, and changing
programs that are not producing desirable results. The governments of the America is
performing similarly but not in a similar manner and is producing different results.
References
Cahn, M. A. (2012). Institutional and Noninstitutional Actors in the Policy Process.
Retrieved from pearsonhighered.com:
https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/2/0/5/0205856330.pdf
Maskell, J. (2015). Qualifications of Members of Congress. Retrieved from Congressional
Research Service: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41946.pdf
Nolan, A., & ThompsonII, R. M. (2014). Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A
Legal Overview. Retrieved from Congressional Research Service:
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43746.pdf
W W Norton & Co. (2019). Federalism and the separation of powers. Retrieved from
Wwnorton.com:
https://wwnorton.com/college/polisci/american-government12/brief/ch/03/
outline.aspx