Government Policy
description
Transcript of Government Policy
Public and Domestic Policy
GOVERNMENT POLICY
PUBLIC POLICY
demographic data: Using vital statistics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, and distribution to make decisions or set policy. These statistics may include information about: age, sex, race, family size, level of education, occupation, income and location of residence.
census : A periodic count of the population.
public policy : The study of specific problems in a society and how the government responds to these problems.
TERMS TO KNOW
Public policy is the study of specific problems in a society and how the government responds to these problems.
Public policy begins with the people whose interests, problems, and concerns are addressed by government.
WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY?
Tax policy
PUBLIC POLICY MAY INCLUDE:
Social Security and Medicare for the elderly
Education services such as interpreters for the deaf or teachers for students who may not speak English
PUBLIC POLICY MAY INCLUDE:
Environmental laws that require special trash pick ups for chemicals such as paint and oil Safety requirements for homes and new cars such as airbags
List three public policies that affect your life.
Identify 2 public policies the U.S. government has in place to help the elderly.
What is the Census, and what is it used for?
THURSDAY MAY 15, 2014
When finished your warm-up, log in to your computer and go to http://ndhsfitz.weebly.com/
Every ten years, the Census Bureau takes a census. This census asks questions about the characteristics of the
people.The Census Bureau collects and organizes this
information and national, state, and local governments use it to make decisions.
HOW DO WE GET DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION?
Demographics are the physical characteristics of a population of people. These characteristics may include:
gender age race education occupation marital status or the number of children in a family.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The government considers how to provide for these services. To meet the needs of the community, the government can: increase or decrease taxes decide where to spend money award tax credits for saving for a college education,
daycare or retirement
MAKING PUBLIC POLICY
DOMESTIC POLICY
public policy : The study of specific problems in a society and how the government responds to these problems
Regulation: Rules enforced by a government agency to restrict or control economic activity in price setting, product standards, trading standards.
TERMS TO KNOW
In general, federal domestic policy focuses on broad goals: protecting citizens against poverty and personal misfortune (relief for unemployed workers, health care for the elderly, emergency shelters, school lunches for the poor)
protecting national security through domestic policies (censorship, government tip lines, airport security)
improving the quality of life for all Americans (programs to improve air and water, building roads, regulating air traffic, fighting crime)
DOMESTIC POLICY
Citizens may bring the issue to the attention of media, lobbyists, and interests groups. This attention to this issue may influence the government to act.
One public policy issue that is often in the news is public health. For example, the issue of drinking and driving in the 1980s
brought media attention to the issue of and eventually influenced the passage of legislation on the local, state and national level.
MAKING PUBLIC POLICY
When individuals or groups cannot rely on private businesses to fix all problems, they often call on the government to provide the solution.
One way the government addresses the needs of the people is through regulatory agencies.
REGULATORY AGENCIES
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA)
Federal Trade Commission
(FTC)
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA)
LAND USE
Imagine you are to inherit 50 acres of land. (That is 50 football fields)
What would you do with that land?
USING YOUR IMAGINATION…
In Maryland, population has been growing rapidly for over 50 years. What are the effects of this new growth?
Did you mention new developments of neighborhoods, businesses, and roads? New development helps the economy as people spend their
money at new stores and to buy new homes.
POPULATION GROWTH
MORE BUILDINGS= SCHOOLS+POLICE+FIRE PROTECTION+ROADS= RISE IN TAXES
Land use issues are decided by different levels of government. Most land use decisions are made by local governments – counties and towns – through comprehensive plans and zoning laws . These tools are typically
developed by local government planning departments and approved by local elected officials after receiving the public’s input (opinion) at hearings and meetings held throughout the community.
The comprehensive plan (sometimes called a Master Plan) is long range planning for the community to address future growth.
Zoning laws regulate the type and size of development to be consistent with the plan. For example, zoning laws must
be followed when you want to build an addition on your home or put a pool in your backyard.
These laws are typically made by appointed boards in local counties across the state.
LAND USE
http://www.rockvillemd.gov/masterplan/towncenter/zoning.jpg
ZONING SAMPLE
carbon footprint: The impact people have on the earth through greenhouse gases, measured in units of carbon dioxide.
Emissions: Gases or particles which are put into the air by various sources.
environmental policy: A course of action focused on problems arising from human impact on the environment.
global warming: An increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect
KEY TERMS
SMART GROWTHThe state government may also influence the
development of land. In Maryland, a Smart Growth policy was implemented across the entire state to address issues associated with sprawl.
Smart Growth has three straightforward goals: To save our most valuable remaining natural resources
before they are forever lost To support existing communities and neighborhoods by
targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place
To save taxpayers millions of dollars in unnecessary costs for building the infrastructure required to support sprawl.
SMART GROWTH TIME LAPSE
Citation: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/education/growfromhere
BEFORE SMART GROWTH AFTER SMART GROWTH
http://news.yahoo.com/stunning-30-year-timelapse-shows-earth-s-changing-surface-161911528.html
The Clean Water Act is an example of Congressional legislation that established a structure for regulating pollutants contaminating the waters of the United States. It gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control
programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry and municipal sewage treatments.
CLEAN WATER ACT
Air pollution can damage property. It can dirty buildings and other structures. Some common
pollutants eat away stone, damaging buildings, monuments and statues.
Air pollution can cause haze, reducing visibility in national parks and sometime interfering with aviation.
To address and regulate air pollution, the United States Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1963, the Air Quality Act in 1967, the Clean Air Act Extension in 1970, and Clean Air Act Amendments in 1977 and 1990. Numerous state governments and local governments have
enacted similar legislation to improve air quality, improve public health, preserve property, and benefit the environment.
CLEAN AIR ACT
Renewable resources are those resources that can be renewed or grown again. Examples of this are wind, water and
yes, corn!Non-renewable resources are those
resources that cannot be renewed or grown again during our lifetime. Fossil fuels fall into this category.
Fossil fuels are those resources that have developed over millions of years.
Examples are oil and coal.
ENERGY
REGIONAL COOPERATION
A region has one or more common characteristics or features.
Often, regions work together to address common issues. This is called regional cooperation.
You might be familiar with one area of Maryland- the Chesapeake Bay. There are many regions of Maryland that are concerned with the Chesapeake Bay. For example, the issues surrounding the
Chesapeake Bay promotes regional cooperation among the states that border the Bay. Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. work together to limit pollution in the Bay.
REGIONAL COOPERATION
http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/graphics/news/soc0017a.png
There are many political and geographic regions in Maryland. The regions defined below include political and geographic regions in Maryland.
MARYLAND’S REGIONS
One way of measuring our individual and collective effect on the world is by measuring our carbon footprint.
Our carbon footprint is the impact we have on the earth through greenhouse gases, measured in units of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse effect is the
rise in temperature that the earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere trap energy from the sun.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
http://footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/