Public Policy Issues Case of Keystone and House Bill 1540

Background As governments evolved and adapted from the ancient city states it became necessary to implement projects that were designed to improve the structure and function of the government. Public policy is a guide for the administrative function of the state to implement laws, regulatory measures and funding priorities that will benefit the citizenry. Generally, it is embodied within macro constitutional or legislative documents and acts, and/or judicial decisions (Schuster, 2009). In our original scenarios, we are dealing with the Keystone Pipeline and House Bill 1540 as related to public policy. Because one of the basic principles of public policy is to use government action to help coalesce numerous individuals and interest groups into a more collaborative organization, a number of tactics and tools are often present within stakeholders to educate, influence, and mobilize upon particular issues (Kilpatrick, 2004). Analysis - In the case of Keystone and HR 1540, both issues involve large amounts of money. For this reason, there are a number of competing interests that form a network surrounding the issues: 1) Government, 2) Private Enterprise, 3) Lobby Groups, 4) Public Protection Groups, 5) Special Interest Groups, etc. We can visualize this as a web in which there are a number of stakeholders with particular views who interact not just into the center of the web, but to all points in between as a maze at times making allies with one group, at other times opposing