Policy Cycle <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>The cycle is usually divided into five stages:</p> <ul> <li>agenda setting,</li> <li>formulation,</li> <li>decision-making,</li> <li>implementation, and</li> <li>evaluation.</li> </ul> <p>Capano, G., Pritoni, A. (2020). Policy Cycle. In: Harris, P., Bitonti, A., Fleisher, C., Skorkjær Binderkrantz, A. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13895-0_69-1</p>