The American political scientist Theodore J. Lowi proposed four types of policy, namely distributive, redistributive, regulatory and constituent in his article 'Four systems of Policy, Politics and Choice' and in 'American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies and Political Theory'. Policy addresses the intent of the organization, whether government, business, professional, or voluntary. Policy is intended to affect the 'real' world, by guiding the decisions that are made. Whether they are formally written or not, most organizations have identified policies.[4]
Policies may be classified in many different ways. The following is a sample of several different types of policies broken down by their effect on members of the organization.[citation needed]
Distributive policies[edit]
Distributive policies extend goods and services to members of an organization, as well as distributing the costs of the goods/services amongst the members of the organization. Examples include government policies that impact spending for welfare, public education, highways, and public safety, or a professional organization's benefits plan.[citation needed]
Regulatory policies[edit]
Regulatory policies, or mandates, limit the discretion of individuals and agencies, or otherwise compel certain types of behavior. These policies are generally thought to be best applied when good behavior can be easily defined and bad behavior can be easily regulated and punished through fines or sanctions. An example of a fairly successful public regulatory policy is that of a highway speed limit.[citation needed]
Constituent policies[edit]
Constituent policies create executive power entities, or deal with laws. Constituent policies also deal with Fiscal Policy in some circumstances.[citation needed]
Redistributive policies[edit]
Policies are dynamic; they are not just static lists of goals or laws. Policy blueprints have to be implemented, often with unexpected results. Social policies are what happens 'on the ground' when they are implemented, as well as what happens at the decision making or legislative stage.[citation needed]
When the term policy is used, it may also refer to:[citation needed]
Official government policy (legislation or guidelines that govern how laws should be put into operation)
Broad ideas and goals in political manifestos and pamphlets
A company or organization's policy on a particular topic. For example, the equal opportunity policy of a company shows that the company aims to treat all its staff equally.
The actions the organization actually takes may often vary significantly from stated policy. This difference is sometimes caused by political compromise over policy, while in other situations it is caused by lack of policy implementation and enforcement. Implementing policy may have unexpected results, stemming from a policy whose reach extends further than the problem it was originally crafted to address. Additionally, unpredictable results may arise from selective or idiosyncratic enforcement of policy.[citation needed]
Types of policy analysis include:
Causal (resp. non-causal)
Deterministic (resp. stochastic, randomized and sometimes non-deterministic)
Index
Memoryless (e.g., non-stationary)
Opportunistic (resp. non-opportunistic)
Stationary (resp. non-stationary)
These qualifiers can be combined, so one could, for example, have a stationary-memoryless-index policy.