Government policy is a set of laws, regulations, and guidelines that are used to solve relevant and problematic societal issues. These policies are backed by conceptions and implemented via programs or actions. They can be broadly classified into substantive and distribution policies. Substantive policies focus on tackling specific issues at the heart of societal challenges like crime reduction, education reforms, immigration, and healthcare.
Distribution policies are aimed at distributing resources and benefits evenly across society to address inequalities and promote social well-being. Examples include hospital accreditation, housing subsidies, and zoning reforms.
When it comes to defining government policy, one pragmatic approach is that it’s simply “what the government does.” This makes sense given that governments are central in a nation state and work with multiple different organizations and constituents to implement policies as concrete programs and action.
But a more analytical and nuanced definition of policy is that it is the strategy behind how a government tackles political problems. Policymaking is a process that encompasses the formulation of strategy with regard to a political issue, as well as the analysis of how that strategy is implemented in the form of government decisions and programs.
In policy debate, the affirmative identifies an important problem that needs solving, supports its significance and harms by showing how widespread the issue is, proposes a solution to the problem, and argues that their solution is capable of fixing it. The negative must then argue that the affirmative plan’s solution will cause some disadvantage that outweighs the benefits of the solution.