Leadership tools and practices in public policy implementation

¶ … leadership a tool implementing public policy. For Application Assignment

One of the most prominent tools or practices that John Bury should utilize to help reinforce environmental legislation from a non-regulatory perspective is to issue tax breaks to citizens who decided to contribute to practices that are environmentally sound. For instance, those that donate funds to various groups that are set up for the purpose of counteracting environmental effects should be able to write off such donations and get a 'break' on their income taxes as a result. Presenting tax incentives will be an effective means of getting people to adhere to environmental regulations because they will be able to see a direct benefit to doing so in their financial statements at the end of the year. There are no regulations for this practice, and it will certainly resonate with more financially conscious individuals -- who are typically the people involved in politics and political action. Therefore, the strength of this particular tool is that it will more than likely incite wealthier people to become more environmentally conscious. The limitation of this approach is that some of these same wealthy people might have other political connections that make supporting this practice unadvisable. Also, the vast majority of people who are not wealthy and who are not financially/tax savvy may not be aware of these incentives, which could circumscribe the efficacy of this particular non-regulatory approach.

Another tool that Bury could use is to effect grants for the purposes of counteracting potentially noxious effects on the environment. Such grants can be used to set up a number of different methods for assisting with the environment, since "financial support often comes from a variety of sources when non-regulatory approaches are used" (No author, p. C-50, 1997). These grants could be used to fund 'spare the air' days, in which people are allowed to ride public transportation such as buses or trains for free. These grants can also be used for general educational purposes in which the community at large can see advertising or commercials about the environment and ways in which people could protect it, which helps "the maximization of social welfare" (EPA, p. 4-1, 2010). The issuing of these grants might be effective in implementing the policy that Bury is trying to actuate because they can be used to directly affect the majority of the people. Environmental education is not something that is stratified according to economic class or awareness of financial affairs -- like the aforementioned tax incentives were. Virtually everyone can benefit from taking free public transportation. In fact, those who do not often use it (such as the wealthy) may enjoy the experience, see how efficient and easy it is to do so, and take it more frequently and benefit the environment in such a way. Thus, the strength of issuing grants is the fact that doing so can reach a wide volume and variety of people. Everyone watches television and the commercials that come on; many people see billboards on busy streets or on the side of highways in major metropolitan areas. The potential limitation of this approach is that it might not be direct enough. People might see advertisements and commercials and not be as motivated to act upon them, the way they might be if they knew that such action would directly benefit them (like tax incentives do).