PUBLIC POLICY PARADIGM: A SYNTHETIC REVIEW

Abstract

This academic article conducts a synthetic exploration of public policy paradigms through a systematic review of selected scholarly works. It employs a qualitative research approach in the form of documentary research, integrating content analysis with conceptual framework analysis (CFA). The study reveals two essential dimensions of public policy paradigms—namely, the Policy Domain Paradigms and the Policy Inquiry Paradigms. The first dimension begins with what is most fundamental in the world of public policy—an aspect long overlooked—and endeavors to reestablish it as a foundation for reordering this world, so as to make public policy—as a condition of reality—in the real world more coherent, approachable, and inclusive for all. The second dimension turns toward the academic sphere that animates public policy. It demonstrates that inquiry in the world of public policy unfolds through multiple pathways and levels of knowing—none of which should be confined to a single path or level. Ultimately, the world of public policy is inherently complex: it cannot be fully known or shaped through any single body of knowledge, yet it inevitably calls upon everyone to bear its consequences.