An analytical study of the general problem

Abstract

Governments have become aware of the need to pursue the public good in their societies through the creation of public policies designed to meet the demands of their citizens and satisfy their needs. For this purpose, they create policies to address public problems in various fields, such as problems relating to education, health, housing, transportation, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, the economy and so on. Governments may sometimes solve the problems that society faces and sometimes fail, depending largely on the level of efficiency and accuracy in identifying and diagnosing them. Thus, the success of government institutions in objective diagnosis and realistic understanding of any public problem and the precise identification of its dimensions often leads to the adoption of effective policies to solve them. In contrast, the failure of government institutions to discover the real causes of this problem or not to take into account all their aspects may lead to the failure of these institutions to choose the appropriate solutions. Although there are relative differences in the details of policy making from one country to another, there is publicly a public policy-making methodology that is followed in most countries of the world, regardless of the type of political system prevailing in them. This methodology includes a set of steps that begin with identifying the public problem and recognizing its existence and ending with the adoption of an appropriate policy issued by the government in the form of a law that is 'official' to deal with the public problem and providing the necessary funding for the implementation of this law on the ground. This article attempts to analyze the public problem as the basis of public policy by defining clear characteristics and clarifying the differences between the public problem and other problems. This leads to shed light on the public problem and its aspects and its development to the level that leads to the government interest in it as a basis to begin processing.