Political decisions: essence, classification, principles, adoption process and examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The adoption of political decisions can safely be called a central and integral element of any political process in all countries of the world. It cannot be considered separately from public administration, since without them it is impossible to realize the goals. Each of them has its own specifics, which directly affect the area of direct action of political decisions - the policy itself.

Concept

Before understanding the essence of this term, it is required to give it a detailed definition. At the moment, a state political decision is directly understood as a managerial decision, which manifests itself solely as a result of the influence of political factors, institutions and other social groups at the formal and informal level. Such decisions are aimed at large social groups or the whole society as a whole, since it is on them that they affect. They are aimed at solving a political problem affecting the social, economic, political or other sphere on the scale of both one state and internationally.level.

Essence

All such solutions have their own special features, characteristic only for them. First of all, it should be understood that during this process, all structural elements develop sequentially, transferring information accumulated over time to each other. That is why decisions in the political process cannot be in a static state, because they constantly react to newly formed problems.

Features also include the fact that they always affect the interests of not individuals, but the whole society or large social strata of the population. These include national, class interests, and in rare cases also personal interests outside the country. However, at the same time, national interests must be well defined in a stable society and recognized by almost all elements of the political system.

Political decisions must necessarily have a high social significance and consequences, therefore they are taken in the field of adjusting the political course or even changes in the management system. That is why they cannot be taken alone, but only as a complex solution.

Classification

There are several valid classifications of political decisions. The huge number of applied typologies is primarily due to the variety of decisions made. Now a similar classification is mainly used, which divides them into 2 types:

Management decisionsdesigned to more carefully regulate the processes taking place in society.
The second type can be called political decisions that help strengthen power in the state to stabilize the current political regime.

Besides this, one more typology can be applied. It is fully based on the novelty of the decisions made:

Instructive, or standard, decisions are made solely according to the requirements of the society, so their development is based on the existing legal framework. Their birth is technical, since they are ordered to be released at the appointed time. These include the resignation of the Government, conscription into the Armed Forces.
Innovative solutions can be attributed to the first type. It is for their adoption that other developments and new mechanisms are required, which simply did not exist in the country before. As such an example of a political decision, one can refer to the transformation of the electoral system, which affected the entire state as a whole.

Typology

All decisions issued in the country are directly divided into 4 types at once, depending on their coverage area:

FZ and resolutions from the highest authorities - the President or a representative body;
local government decisions;
decisions for which the citizens of the country are directly responsible;
decisions of political parties and public organizations, these include charters or political statements.

Approaches

Political science at the present stage of development of society uses only 2 main approaches to the very understanding of the process of making such a decision.

The first is normative theory. She recognizes that making a political decision is a perfectly natural choice to pursue the goals of the state in a difficult situation.
The second theory is behavioral, which considers the process solely as an interaction between groups of people in order to describe the numerous factors that can influence the adoption of any decisions based on a particular situation.

However, despite the approach used, in the first place, each of them has one characteristic feature - focus on the goal. However, such purposefulness must also meet the parameters: it must be understandable to society, accepted by it and achievable in practice, and also really correspond to the current opportunities and needs of society, and not alien to it.

Functions

Every political decision has its own functions. The main ones are:

coordination between different masses of people who operate in a constantly changing environment;
correlation - the constant and timely introduction of changes when new circumstances arise in order to facilitate the implementation of the task;
programming is a competent combination of existing goals and means, that is, the search for the most rational principle of activity to achieve a noticeable result.

Process steps

If you deviate from the theoretical model, then in practice the decision-making process must necessarily go through several stages before taking shape in the current doctrine. In general, they are completely dependent on the political regime existing in the country. In a democratic state, first of all, it is required to find a common consensus between various layers, which makes political decision-making a more difficult process. In total, in Russian political science it is customary to distinguish 4 stages.

Preparatory stage

During this period, there is a gradual accumulation of data about the problem that exists in society. The socio-political relations in the problem area are analyzed, their tendencies and features are determined. In practice, it turns out whether the existing situation is really problematic, or in fact it is just a pseudo-situation.

Project development

At the second stage, a group of people develops a draft political decision. That is why collective work is so important at this stage, because in this way you can get a different range of opinions and opportunities, consider all points of view. In this way, memorandums, programs, statements can be objectively created. Also, the prospects for a solution are determined, a theoretical forecast is made of the effectiveness of the drafted project and its ability to solve the problem that exists in society.

Approval of decision

After compilingThe latest version of the project needs to be approved and accepted for further execution. Many parties that exist in the country are constantly in political struggle among themselves, insisting that their way of solving the problem is the only right one. Any project drawn up at this stage must go through the procedure of legitimacy, that is, compliance with all existing legislative norms in the country. However, it also determines how citizens can perceive and respond to the published decision. At the moment, the following forms of lobbying in Russia are distinguished: speeches in parliaments, the media, at congresses, organizations and many other types.

Implementation

After the decision is approved, it is the turn of its implementation. Perhaps this process is the most difficult, it takes a lot of time and effort, since it is closely connected with the economic, political or other problems that have developed in the country. As a rule, immediately after the start of implementation, a multi-vector nature begins to emerge in the political process, which cannot be singled out earlier as a forecast. It becomes important to disseminate the consequences of the decision in practice so that it reaches nationwide status.

However, be that as it may, world practice shows that no political decision can be made without information and analytical support. If society does not accept it, then the solution will not gain much popularity and, of course, will not solve the problem.