Project Citizen

Project Citizen and the Policy Making Process

Project Citizen takes kids out of the world of orderly boxes and precise diagrams and into the universe of issues and policies that float in and out of the policy-making arena. In short, Project Citizen is intended as a "hands-on" description of what comes out of the political process. It's not particularly neat, but it is an approach to explaining how political life really works.

A Working Definition of Public Policy

"The study of what governments do, why they do it, and what difference it makes."
Thomas Dye

"The sum of government activities, whether acting directly or through agents, as it has an influence on the lives of citizens."
G. Guy Peters

"The combination of basic decisions, commitments, and actions made by those who hold or affect government positions of authority. In most instances, these arrangements result from interactions among those who demand change, those who make decisions, and those who make decisions, and those who are affected by the policy in question."
Larry N. Gerston