What Do We Mean By Policies?

Policies are the written or unwritten guidelines that governments, organizations and institutions, communities, or individuals use when responding to issues and situations......
They are generally shaped both by logic (e.g., get a medical history before you prescribe medication) and by people's assumptions about reality, including:
    Assumptions about the way things should be. These are formed by a combination of the values people learn as children, conventional wisdom (what "everyone knows"), local custom and community norms, cultural factors, religion, and "common sense" (which may be neither common nor sense). People's conceptions of gender roles, relationships among groups, appropriate behavior, etc., are usually subject to this set of assumptions.    
Assumptions about what works. These assumptions guide ideas about how to address a particular issue. They can determine, for instance, whether a community drug problem is approached with stricter enforcement and harsher punishment, or with an increase in funding for treatment and follow-up programs.
   
 Assumptions about people. What people think they know about other people in general or about members of other ethnic, racial, or social groups. Sensitivity to other cultures - or its absence - has a lot to do with these assumptions, as do empathy and exposure to a variety of cultures and situations.
  

  Assumptions about what's good for the community. These assumptions may not reflect reality, or the needs and wishes of everyone in the community. Until the 1960's, for example, the majority of the white population in many American communities - and not only in the South - honestly felt that separation of the races was best for everyone, and that African Americans were perfectly happy with their position in society. It is probably fair to say that most black people's assumptions in this matter were quite different.