An extract from the Oxford English Dictionary about the definition of the term 'policy'

III. 8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 5) policy decision, document, -maker, -making, statement; policy-making adj.; policy science (see quot. 1951); hence policy scientist. 1960 I. JEFFERIES Dignity & Purity iv. 66 Their purpose is the application of scientific method to policy decisions. 1964 GOULD & KOLB Dict. Soc. Sci. 510/1 Current interest centres on such questions as the nature of policy decisions... Policy decisions are contrasted, for instance, with judicial decisions by reference to the relatively greater freedom of choice in the former. 1974 S. GULLIVER Vulcan Bulletins 11 A policy decision had meant more careful buying. 1976 Burnham-on-Sea Gaz. 20 Apr., Mr Shore..can hardly have had time to read the policy documents before he was expected to stand up and defend them in the House. 1943 J. S. HUXLEY TVA xix. 137 The Board was always a policy-making body. 1946 Nature 9 Nov. 646/1 Authoritative information which those..at the policy-making or executive level might be expected to need. 1950 N.Y. Times 20 Apr. 1/3 The cataloging of persons eligible for policy-making positions would be..done without regard to their party affiliations. 1968 E. A. POWDRILL Vocab. Land Planning ii. 5 Policy~making and technique are a symbiosis, but it must be supported by wise and sound administration. 1951 H. D. LASSWELL in Lerner & Lasswell Policy Sciences i. 4/1 We may use the term 'policy sciences' for the purpose of designating the content of the policy orientation during any given period. The policy sciences includes (1) the methods by which the policy process is investigated, (2) the results of the study of policy, and (3) the findings of the disciplines making the most important contributions to the intelligence needs of the time. 1964 I. L. HOROWITZ New Sociology 30 Sociology cannot be a 'policy science' 1970 Nature 19 Sept. 1189/2 There will have to be changes in the ways in which 'prime television time' is allocated so that the policy scientists can have their say..when people are most likely to be glued to their television sets. 1979 Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. Mar. 28 International consultants and policy scientists serve as the conveyors and preservers of these untested staff papers until their ideas, approaches, and methodologies develop a life of their own.