THE PROCESS OF PUBLIC POLICY FORMULATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

Abstract

In present times, all sectors in society have their development leaped forward. In response to the needs of society that is rapidly developed as in the present, the government needs to have the tools to readily and appropriately respond the needs of the society. In order to create effectiveness and efficiency to respond the needs of the people in society, to create a good and appropriate public policy towards the society is an essential tool in managing various problems in the present. A good and efficient public policy formulation process is, therefore, an essential tool in responding the needs of the people in society especially through the application of Dhamma principles in Buddhism in public policy formulation in accordance with the cultural way of life of the people that the majority is Buddhists. The Four Noble Truths, taken as an example of the process, can be identified through: 1) sufferings that is the acknowledgement of sufferings authentically existing in society; 2) causes of sufferings that is to truly identify the causes; 3) cessation of sufferings that is the condition that the sufferings are released through direct problem solving; and 4) the path to end suffering through problem solving in relation to the existing problem.