11 2.2 – ORIGINS OF PUBLIC POLICY
2.2.
ORIGINS OF PUBLIC POLICY
The origins of public policy are rooted in the origins of civilization itself. As early as the fourth millennia BCE, ancient Sumerian monarchs were making public policy decisions intended to improve the safety and vitality of their cities. Throughout the majority of civilization’s history, authoritarian governments made policy decisions without a great deal of direct input from the overall population. The near-absolute policy making power of hereditary monarchs began to slowly change with charters like the Magna Carta (1215) which placed theoretical limits on the power of the British monarch. The “Age of Revolution” in the late eighteenth century changed popular perceptions concerning the proper role of government policy makers and gave rise to the notion that the government’s power should be derived from the consent of the governed. Over the last few centuries, laws governing the public policy making process are being added and spelled out in formal, written constitutions. Constitutions identify and restrain the policy making powers of government actors while dictating the access of non-government actors to the policy making process. This chapter will give a brief overview of the historical origins of public policy in the U.S. and explore the different actors influencing policy decisions.
The U.S. federal government was born out of a necessity to improve the previous ruling system and was created by the leaders of the American Revolution. In their first attempt at permanent, national government, these early revolutionary leaders created a confederate government that erred on the side of local (state) government power. Fearing a repeat of the strong, central government against which they were actively fighting to gain independence, early American leaders ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781. The lessons learned through the many failures of the Articles of Confederation would inform the framers of the United States Constitution and the new federal system of government they would create to replace the initial confederacy. The U.S. Constitution, written in 1787, created the new federal government and established the foundation for federal government policy making.
