Govt Policies

Conflicts in Government Policy Objectives - Activity

The objectives of any government can be classified into two main categories.

1: Economic objectives

These will include the following:

• Maintain a stable and sustainable level of economic growth (not to be confused with sustainable development)

• Maintain inflation at an acceptable level

• Work to achieve full employment, defined as employment opportunity for all

• Monitor the level of the balance of payments

2: Non-economic objectives

There will also be a number of non-economic objectives which government might pursue which could include any of the following:

• Eradication of child poverty

• Improving the welfare of pensioners

• Increasing the minimum wage

• Reducing the level of poverty

• Improving educational provision

• Improving health provision and care

• Improving the standards of social care

• Enhancing equity

• Improving productivity

Governments have a wide range of responsibilities and policy objectives but how do they decide on how to prioritise these policy objectives and overcome the conflicts that inevitably arise?

The above examples are certainly not exclusive objectives and it could be argued that the difference between 'economic' and 'non-economic' is a little blurred, after all, reducing the level of poverty involves some key economic decisions! It may be valuable to think of the differences therefore in terms of macro economic