policy

A purposeful course of action, comprising a long series of more-or-less related activities, which governments pursue to reach goals and objectives related to a problem or matter of concern and to produce certain results. A policy is not a single, discrete, unitary, disembodied phenomenon, but a series of decisions. It concerns what is actually done (or not done) as opposed to what is proposed or intended; policy implementation and enforcement complete the actual policy process. Essential constituent elements of a policy are its object, interested and/or involved actors, their goals, the resources and means available, the instruments used to achieve the goals set and the implementation mechanisms (Briassoulis 2005, 21-22).