Policy Cycle - policy making is seen as a dynamic ongoing process confirming the importance of policy as a learning system. Once the theories of public policy are studied, it is important to understand who the players are that make public policy. Individual Americans elect Congressmen and Senators to represent us in Washington. They are suppose to protect our interests and to make our desires and needs known. But there are other players in the political arena with desires and needs that demand attention and this can affect the decision-making policy.
Organized groups compete against each to have their interests put first.
Today, several groups play a major role in the governmental process. Elite Theory - a small group of leaders who share common goals and outlooks make the policies. C. Wright Mills in his article, The Power Elite, writes that these are people who are above the ordinary lives of most men and women. They make decisions that have major consequences because they are in command of the major hierarchies, corporations, organizations, and military establishment of modern society. Corporatism - Interest groups not only influence policy, they also become part of the decision making process.