The policy cycle framework originates from the idea of organizing and ordering the complexity of policymaking. It is a heuristic tool through which different stages of the ongoing and never-ending dynamics of policy processes can be segmented and then analyzed.

The policy cycle – also called the “stages approaches to policy process” (De Leon, 1999) – does not have any explanatory relevance and is thus not at the theoretical core of public policy (where there is a richness of different theoretical frameworks). However, it is a powerful conceptual tool to simplify and make “workable” the complexity of policymaking.

Overall, it holds a relevant descriptive capacity that is still useful, despite many critics having underlined that it risks oversimplifying the interconnected and intertwined density of the policy process flux.

The cycle is usually divided into five stages:

• agenda setting,
• formulation,
• decision-making,
• implementation, and
• evaluation.