There are several meanings of public policy. Here we will explore the couple simple definition of public policy but be remembered that capturing the nature and scope of public policy in a sentence or two is extremely difficult. Some of the more widely accepted (or at least frequently repeated) descriptions or definitions include: "The authoritative allocation of values for a society." "The process of deciding who gets what, when, where and how or more simply, "What the government chooses to do or not to do about a specific problem. All of these definitions are useful, but none of them is obviously better than the others. In fact, each captures an important aspect of the public policy making process, a process which is too complicated to be adequately summarized in just a sentence or two What can be stated clearly and succinctly about public policy, however, is that it is an integral part of our everyday lives. Public policies of all kinds establish the boundaries of our freedoms and color the contours of our interactions with other people in our political, social and economic systems. In this unit we will also study why we need government, several different kinds of public policies are discussed. Public policies are most often established by legislation, but they can also be created by an executive order, a bureaucratic regulation, a city ordinance or even a court decision.