Report for the Public Policy Formulation Federal Meeting

I attended an open public hearing organized by a federal regulatory agency in order to establish a public agenda concerning redistricting in Utah. The meeting began at eight o'clock in the morning on January 16, 2017, at City Hall. The conference was attended by major political experts who will provide attendees with a deeper view of the importance of redistricting in Utah and how it would help political parties. Others included members of the Land Commission Board to elaborate on the boundaries, as well as the House Committee to oversee the whole formulation process. Also, the officials from the national census office attended the meeting with the purpose of providing the relevant census information that would help in the redistricting process basing on the completed census results. This paper analyzes the undertakings of the policy formulation meeting that was aimed at enhancing fairness in the election process in the state of Utah,.

Policy formulation is a bargaining process normally undertaken by the legitimate decision makers that involves developing an effective course of action that had been already proposed in the policy agenda. Policy formulation can be authorized through a political process such as regulation or legislation. The meeting was held so as to involve different disciplines regarding the policy of redistricting with the aim of analyzing the outcomes of its implementation, in terms of both the shortcomings and the benefits. In this process, the policy planners are expected to contribute sound technical analysis regarding means, behavior, cost, implementation strategy, and consequences, both good and bad.

Redistricting is the process by which the new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Normally, every Utah's four United States Representatives and 104 state legislators are elected from political divisions called districts. It is required that all the districts in the state of Utah must have nearly equal populations and under no circumstance will there be any kind of discriminate basing on race or ethnicity. This implies that the redistricting process will always help in equalizing the total population by distributing any increase across all the present districts. Redistricting is, therefore, a policy that must be formulated taking into consideration the many elements involved in it that aids the process to be very effective and efficient.

The purpose of this policy formulation process was to identify the potential solutions regarding the political processes that were favoring some of the political parties. It had been noted the competitiveness was rather unfair because some of the existing district lines were drawn for the benefit of some of the political parties at the expense of proportionality and fair representation. This had led to the lack of competitive elections in Utah hence discourage the voters from participating in the elections. The district lines were drawn basing on the race and ethnicity which led to the marginalization of the minority voters. For these reasons, immediate solutions were required so as to foster equity in terms of population distribution so that no political parties are favored than the other.

At the meeting, so many policy-related issues were raise that would be accompanied by the implementation of the policy. Before the formulation became effective through authorization of the legitimate decision makers, so many factors were considered that would affect the redistricting process. The meeting involved discussing who would carry out the process, when and what cost so as to determine the most beneficial way of doing it. This was a public policy that affected all the citizens of Utah and hence had to be carried out with vigilance so that every citizen benefits from the process without any sign of marginalization.

The representatives of the relevant offices spoke at the meeting right from the analysts to the commissioners and the House committee representative. This public policy was directly related to the state politics and hence the political analysts played a critical role in determining the effectiveness of the policy. They had to offer a comprehensive analysis of the redistricting and how it affected the politics of Utah. This was mainly to help in figuring out the need for the implementation of the policy as a solution that fosters fairness in the election process. Also, the representative of the Land Commission provided the mapping analysis that provided the physical features of every district that existed and the related issues. The commissioner belonging to the Census office was to give the overview of the previously completed census with the details of the population density of every existing district. The House representative was to offer the opinions offered by the members of the house regarding the redistricting process.

In the formulation process, there were controversies surrounding the possible implementation of the policy. The controversy involved the possibility of grouping the minority citizens in one district if the redistricting was going to be done depending on the physical residence of the citizens of Utah. The controversy here is about the possibility of being marginalized for having less influence I the political process. This implies that redistricting in terms of physical residence was a very unfair practice and hence something had to be done so as to ensure that the minority voters are distributed across all the existing districts. In this case, an agreement was reached so as to solve the past unfair issues that discriminated the voters basing on their race and ethnicity. This is because it resulted in the marginalization of the districts that had no influence on the political process due to their small numbers. Therefore, this will offer them a chance to participate in the process of elections and open a door for more competitive elections hence encouraging more participation of the voters.

The meeting was a success and it met my expectations. My speculation was to see the professional involvement in the bargaining process of the policy formulation. All the issues identified by the process were able to be solved adequately and it enabled the authorization of the policy so as to be implemented as soon as possible with efficiency. The meeting was very helpful to me as political science student as it boosted my ability in the career. This is because I was able to understand so many aspects relating to the policy formulation from a political perspective. It offered me a chance to interact with other professionals from various disciplines that aided the formulation process of the policy.

The meeting resolved many issues pertaining to the unfairness in the election process due to the existing discrimination of the minority voters with the claim that they had little influence. The new agreement reached by the legitimate decision makers in the formulation process was aimed at phasing out the discrimination so as to have equal treatment of voters across the state of Utah without regarding the physical residence of citizens. The meeting was attended by 100 participants from all parts of the country and relevant authorities. If I were in charge of the meeting, there is nothing I could change regarding the way the meeting was conducted. This is because it was handled in a more professional way by taking into consideration the essential elements of the formulation process. The issues identified were resolved amicably with no disagreements noted.

There are many lessons I learnt from attending the meeting and the most important is to have proper objective when formulating policies especially relating to the political processes. Another lesson involved taking into consideration the most important factors affecting the subject so as to reach at the optimum solution of the identified problems.

From the lessons learnt, these would be help a lot in my class when relating to many aspects especially the policy-related issues. In most cases, policy formulation process may be complicated and it requires the competent panel that would make a decision regarding the authorization of the policy. It will help in understanding the many aspects involved in the policy formulation process and ways of reaching a certain decision. A policy is always formulated so as to identify the solution to the identified problems. This is because, a policy can only be authorized once it is agreed that it will offer all the solutions required. It also helped me understand the various disciplines involved in the policy formulation process.

In every country, it is very significant to have a fair election process without having to marginalize the minority influence. Therefore, the meeting helped me understand the significance of attaining a fair election process that reduces the favoring of other political parties as compared to others. It is very important to formulate policies that aids in attaining a fair political process that enables the state politics to be very beneficial to the citizens. This would increase the possibility of having more participants in the election process.

Redistricting was the policy being formulated in the meeting. It is a process that involves redrawing the lines of districts by taking into consideration the changes in the population density per year. This is done mainly to ensure that there is equal distribution of the population across all the districts. The meeting helped me understand all the aspects related to the redistricting process and understand its significance in the political process. This is because the representatives and legislators of Utah are normally elected from political divisions. It offered me a chance to understand the criteria used in the redistricting process and the factors to consider so as to ensure that equity prevails. It will also enhance my understanding of the state requirements in relation to the process and the reasons why the process promotes fair election process. Every professional involved in the process was very helpful in the decision making process of whether or not to authorize the policy. This is because each one of them offered their opinions adequately with respect to their relevance in the process.