What is the Policy Cycle?

The policy cycle is a heuristic device that helps us understand the various stages or activities associated with public policy. It typically includes some variation on the following:

-      Problem recognition: issues are recognized as policy ‘problems’

-      Agenda-setting: governments determine whether to act on the problem

-      Decision-making: solutions are proposed and a course of action, including doing nothing, is chosen

-      Policy design: policy goals are identified and instruments, inputs and outputs are chosen

-      Implementation: policy is put into effect

-      Evaluation: processes and outcomes are assessed

If this all seems a little too neat, it’s because it is! There has been a long debate about whether the policy cycle is a model of policymaking or merely a heuristic to help us understand the vast and complex world of policymaking (Howlett, Ramesh, and Perl 2020). Most folks agree that it’s not a scientific model in the traditional sense, nor was it meant to be. Moreover, most professional policy analysts and public servants report that this image of policymaking rarely aligns with policy in “the real world” (e.g., Kingdon 1984; Colebatch et al 2010). It’s perhaps more useful, then, to think of the policy cycle as a lens to help us make sense of a chaotic context.

The policy cycle also aligns very closely with the model of applied problem-solving (Howlett, Ramesh and Perl 2020) and has been proposed as a method with which to analyze public policy (Bardach 2012; Meltzer and Schwartz 2018). In fact, Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, [Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+)], follows this approach.

As discussed in the [What is Public Policy?] explainer, thinking about policymaking as applied problem-solving obscures power relations, reducing policymaking to a political practice undertaken by “neutral” bureaucrats. Feminist policy researchers, however, have emphasized the need to be attentive to power, particularly with respect to what problems get recognized as problems, how they’re framed or represented and by whom, what gets done about them, and to what effect.

For these reasons, while feminist research has made important contributions along every aspect of the policy cycle, including policy problems (Bacchi 1999; Verloo and Lombardo 2007), agenda setting (Kenney 2003), policy design (Bensonsmith 2005), implementation (Mazur 2016),and evaluation (Bustelo 2017), several analytical frameworks have emerged to displace the policy cycle. These frameworks centre power relations in policy institutions (e.g., Krook et al 2011), policy processes (e.g., Roggeband and Verloo 2006; Fernandez 2016; Engeliand Mazur 2018), and policy content (e.g., Bacchi 1999; Verloo and Lombardo 2007; Sevenhjuisen 2004; Hankivsky et al 2014). See the [What is Feminist Policy Studies?] explainer for an overview.

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