КОНЦЕПТ «ПУБЛІЧНА ПОЛІТИКА» У МІЖДИСЦИПЛІНАРНОМУ НАУКОВОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

Abstract

Public policy is a modern concept of political science that has appeared in the middle of the century and there is a condition of continuous updating that specifications. In search of the universal definition of public policy, authors are guided generally by philosophical and axiological, spatial, and functional options of a scientific explanation of this phenomenon.

Philosophical and axiological definition of public policy since Renaissance defined key problems which became the subject of the analysis for modern researchers of this direction. Philosophical reflections on a concept of the fact what is "public", "private", "sphere" and so on. have laid the foundation of a meta-analysis of studying of public policy and have defined conceptual borders for further theoretical searches.

Functional interpretation of category "public policy" is rather wide and versatile it is provided in works of researchers of many methodological approaches and theories which connect it with the decision-making process and political and managerial processes. Managerial measurement of public policy allows determining intuitional and technological capabilities of actors of the political process in making public decisions.

The close connection of a policy and the state conformable with the ideas of representatives of institutional and neo-institutional approaches that considered a public policy both as dependent and as an independent variable at the same time at the center of scientific research permanently there was an analysis of communication of institutes and society. The criticism of neoinstitutionalism led to a defensive line of authors of this direction and, as a result, before the appearance of new theories in 90's of the XX century, which explain a concept of a public policy taking into account the current trends. First of all, it concerned a study of new institutes and a new role of traditional political institutes in formation of a public policy.

The system theory has brought adjustments in essence of the characteristic of public policy. According to the logic of system approach, the modern public policy is a complete, dynamic system which is independently updated, organized and develops. It consists of the interconnected and interacting elements which unite in steady unity with the external environment by means of many factors and conditions of interaction with the external.

Inclusion by scientists of different schools in the analysis of the public policy of such actors as groups of interests, civil society, expert-analytical communities, political parties, has allowed to detail the considered concept.

Display in a concept of public policy of not hierarchical communications and structures has become possible because of the coalition approach and the theory of political networks. The public policy by means of the theory of networks is considered as concrete types of mediation of interests of different actors (state і non-state) and as the specific form of government.

Use of reality of public policy by means of a spatial concept gives the chance to analyze different types of interactions of the individual and collective actors both institutionalized, and not institutionalized in the course of implementation of the power and influence on it in a specific political environment which is a complicated developing system with it's own laws and borders. The public space at all levels (global, regional, national) is a constantly changeable structure that is formalized and filled with meanings under the influence of actors.

As a result of the retrospective analysis of approaches that operationalize public policy was provided the author's vision of this phenomenon. Public policy is understood as the reasonable interaction of the public actors (institutionalized and not institutionalized, formal and informal) which by means of their own resources, functional mechanisms, cultural and valuable and precepts of the law, have an opportunity to reveal, implement, analyze and control valid socio-political problems.

Since '90s of the XX century, scientists adapt the conceptual sense of public policy of the national contexts on the basis of that experience of the state and cultural and valuable changes. The main problem, in this case, is that the above-stated categories do not always answer the contents, especially in the conditions of transitional systems. For the formation of the idea of the essence of public policy in the transformed countries, it is necessary to use such explanations of these categories which would consider the absence of full-fledged civil society and communication between all actors of the political process. Specification of categories according to political reality can be the way out.

So, the concept of public policy is permanently transformed because of a changeable political reality that puts representatives of different schools of sciences before a problem of fixed search of new explanations of its content. For the objective reasons, the methodology of political science appeared incapable of giving the answer to a question independently: what is public policy? This opportunity appears only on the condition of participation of such sciences as economy, sociology, managing sciences, state administration, symptomology, etc.