Public Policy Tools and Practices

Public Policy Tools and Practices

Introduction

The practice of regulation as a tool of government is very effective. Regulation refers to a set of laws for identifying what is permissible and impermissible for individuals, firms and government agencies. It is accompanied with sanctions and rewards. Thus, its strength lies in the way it restricts behavior that threatens public health, safety, welfare or well-being. These traditional tools depict the idea of command and control and include harm-based standards, design standards, technology specifications, and product bans or limitations.

This paper is an explanation for the case study which analyses the non- regulatory approaches for improving environmental quality.

Case Study

The case study “The winds of change”, discusses two broad types of instruments for changing environmental quality; either traditional regulatory approaches can be used by them that is sometimes referred to as command-and-control approaches- setting certain standards across polluters, or they can use voluntary approaches, like economic incentive or market-based policies that depend upon market forces for the correction of behavior of people towards environment. (www.yosemite.epa.gov, 2013) Compliance can be enforced by Governments when regulations are formed.

Typically, voluntary approaches comprise strategies to promote taking on of practices to improve environment quality, devoid of the use of regulation. For environment protection, non-regulatory tools can undertake different forms, including environment management, education programs that include provision of technical assistance and raising awareness, funding and support programs, incentive and disincentive programs, and market-based mechanisms etc. Polluting entities are encouraged by voluntary programs to overdo what is mandated by existing regulation.

Discussion

Effective Tools and Practices in implementing Policy change

The case study discusses Market or incentive based policies which are valuable policy tools for dealing with an extensive range of environmental issues, i.e. from climate change to acid rain. Continuous monetary and near-monetary inducements are provided by market-based approaches or incentives to persuade polluting entities to trim down releases of harmful pollutants. Consequently market-based approaches, for the private sector, form an incentive to integrate pollution abatement into consumption or production decisions and to innovate in such a way as to search constantly for the least expensive abatement method.

The traditional command-and-control policies are generally criticized for the fact that firms are merely pushed to trim down to a regulated level. However, firms will lessen their emissions, with market incentives, providing it is financially having worth for them to do so, and this takes place generally at a point where marginal ...