TAMPERE UNIVERSITY
Institute Of Management
MASTER PROGRAM OF PUBLIC POLICY AND FINANCE
MANAGEMENT
Topic:
How does the philosophy of Government affect public policy?
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INTRODUCTION ABOUT GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY
In the United Kingdom, the word "Government" is understood in the narrow
sense as an implementing agency control of his country at a particular time. In
American - English, an organization that has the same functions is called
“Administration”, not “Government” . In American - English, the word
“Government” refers to a much larger system which runs a country.
Although those definitions are different and so wide, normally we can define
Government as an agency including the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
Thus the Government is able to implement and make the necessary policies of a
country.
Public policy is what Governments choose to do or not do (Thomas R. Dye,
1984). Or it is the whole activities of Government that directly or indirectly impact
the lives of people. Public policy is a part of a general policy of each country, it is the
management tool of the State.
EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT’S PHILOSOPHY ON PUBLIC POLICY
Political power can only be established in practice through political
institutions, and political institutions can operate and exist in long-term or not
depends very much on the subjects who capture rules and operate politics - political
people. Political people are citizens of a Sate and they are characterized in the
possibility of rational argument (logos) and cooperative action (praxis). Gathering

these people are political apparatus of a country.
The exchange of public policy is regarded as an acquisitions in which the
Government sells goods, goods is what people think the Government should do, and
on the basis of the social contract.
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Picture: relationship between price of Government and amount of public policy
Public in public policy is not merely collective (people who are adjusted and
impacted by policy) like the concept of European and American scholars; public also
means the State, the Government
From the definitions of Government and public policy, we can see that the
Government or the philosophy of Government has effect on public policy.
Government is the subject issuing public policy. Different Governments with
different philosophies will make different public policies. We can see it clearly in
Indian under two different Governments- Deli and Mongo dynasty.
Under Delhi dynasty, policies are racial discrimination and religious
discrimination; imposed Islamic, caused the Indian people abandon the old religions
(Buddhism, Hinduism) to support Muslims. The leaders also won for himself
priorities of economic and politic (as preferential in land and hold important positions
in the State apparatus). For example, in addition to the land tax (1/5 of harvest), the
non-Muslims must pay an additional, called "tax pagan" -jaziah. Under the policy of
this dynasty, the people were extremely urgent. Because of that reason, although the
later Kings tried to implement soft policies but this dynasty did not last long.
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In contrast, under the Mongo dynasty, especially under King Acoba dynasty, it
was the most prosperous period in the history of feudal of India. At this time, the
Government applied more positive policies, including:
+ Built a strong Government based on the equal links of aristocracy of Muslim
and Hindu religion.
+ Saturated classes and religions, built national reconciliation.
+ Redistributed the land, imposed reasonable tax rate and consisted

measurement system.
+ Encourage and support the creation of culture, art.
With these policies, the Indian social was stable, economic developed and
culture had many new achievements, Acoba was regarded as a national hero
Thus, we can see: two different Government with two different philosophies
gave two different policies. Although this is a feudal State, public opinion seemed not
to be care but we can see that the Government with positive policy will receive
support from the people, then this Government will be more solid. In contrast, the
Government having austerity policies, oppression and exploitation people will cause
discontent among the people
Other example is the policy of the Greek Government in debt crisis in 2010.
The public debt reached up to 110% of GDP, the Greek faced crisis and difficulty in
paying old debts, it was hard for them to sell new debt at reasonable prices; even the
Greek could be expelled completely from the debt market. In response, the Greek
Parliament issued austerity measures, including cutting money spent on public sector,
restraining to pay salary and bonuses, stopping to pay retiring allowance; increasing
value-added tax, increasing tax of fuel, tobacco, alcohol and luxury goods.
The policy of the Greek Government was strongly opposed. The general strike took
place to express disagreement with the austerity policies of the Government.
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Picture: General strike in front of The Greek Parliament ‘s Head office
From the above analysis we can affirm: Philosophy of Government strongly
influence public policies that Government made. However, the support or opposition
of the people with that policy decides the existence of the policy, even the existence
of the Government (the coup in Thailand occurred due to military discontent with the
Government’s policy).
People do not give the Government political power, the ownership of all rights,
but just make the government use the rights to practice their sovereignty. At the same
time, people always inspect, supervise the Government in the use of those given
rights, if necessary, they will reclaim, not give the rights to use it.

CONCLUSION
In short, the philosophy of the Government decides the existence or non-
existence of public policy as well as decides how these policies are, who these
policies serve the interests for
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Under the military dictatorship, the army took control or under despotic
Government, it usually has no concern for public opinion or individual rights.
Public opinion is concerned only under the democratic Government. In this
form of Government, people have rights to suggest for making the public policy of
the Government (through referendum, meeting voters ). The implementation of
public policy are supervised, inspected and evaluated by people. Here, public policy
does truly have collective feature because of the nature of the democratic
government's philosophy is to build government of the people, by the people and for
the people.
Public policies is an important management tool of the State. By issuing and
implementing policies, the objectives of the State are realized. In the past few
decades, in the world there have been many countries accept to change part or most
of their State apparatus as political, economic and social changes.
Although there still exists many types of Government with many different
philosophies, the general trend of public policy of modern Government is to serve the
purposes of the society and community.
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Reference
Barker, E., ed. 1947. Social Contractas: Locke, Hume, Rousseau. Oxford
Univesity Publishing house.
Gayer, H. S.2007. Public policy, 8
th
editor. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Goodin, R.1982. Political and Public Policy Theory. Chicago: Chicago
Univesity Publishing house.

Rosen, Harvey S. 1999. . Public policy, 5
th
editor. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Greece - General strike against reducing officers. Accessed date: 5
th
January
2015 at />doi-cai-cach-cat-giam-cong- wish
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