Politics of Value-Added Tax Policy in Ghana

Synonyms

Implementation; Party politics; Public policy

Definition

Politics of public policy is when the stages of the policy cycle take a partisan line.

Introduction

Public Policy Cycle

In public policymaking process, the government is a key policy actor. Public policy goes through the policy cycle. Howlett et al. (2009) identify five stages of policy cycle, namely, agenda-setting (problem recognition), formulation (proposal of solution), decision-making (choice of solution), implementation (putting the solution into action), and evaluation (monitoring results) (Howlett et al. 2009: 3). Public policy processes involve key policy actors from public (government) and private (nongovernmental) sectors. It also involves the decisions of political and nonpolitical actors. Policy issues require high expertise, more commitment, publicity, and resources. For this reason, policy scholars indicated that governmental actors alone cannot handle public policy issues (Hill and Hupe 2009).

Every stage...