Policy Implementation PDF

Policy implementation Key terms • Advocacy coalition • Bottom-up approach to understanding implementation • Implementation • Implementation gap • Policy instrument • Principal-agent theory • Street-level bureaucrats • Top-down approach to understanding implementation Early approaches to explaini...

Policy implementation Key terms • Advocacy coalition • Bottom-up approach to understanding implementation • Implementation • Implementation gap • Policy instrument • Principal-agent theory • Street-level bureaucrats • Top-down approach to understanding implementation Early approaches to explaining policy implementation •Top-down approaches • Conditions for effective policy implementation • Hogwood and Gunn (1984) drew ‘perfect implementation’ • What are the drawbacks of top-down approaches? Early approaches to explaining policy implementation •Bottom-up approaches • ‘street level bureaucrats’ study in 1970s • What are the drawbacks of bottom-up approaches Differentiate between the top-down approaches and the bottom-up appoaches Top-down and bottom-up approaches to policy implementation Top-down approaches Bottom-up approaches Initial focus Central government decision Local implementation actors and networks Identification of major actors From top-down and starting with government From bottom-up, including both government and nongovernment View of the policy process Largely rational process, proceeding from problem identification to policy formulation at higher levels to implementation at lower levels Interactive process involving policy makers and implementers from various parts and levels of government and outside in which policy may change during implementation Evaluative criteria Extent of attainment of formal Much less clear – possibly that objectives rather than recognition policy process takes into of unintended consequences account of local influences Overall focus Designing the system to achieve what central/top policy makers intend – focus on ‘structure’ Recognition of strategic interaction among multiple actors in a policy network – focus on ‘agency’ Other ways of understanding policy implementation •Principal-agent theory • Policy implementation is an inventible result of the structure of the institutions of government • Principals must delegate responsibility for their implementation of policies to officials and agents • Principal-agent relationships depends on • nature of the policy problem • context or circumstances surrounding the problem • Organization of the machinery required to implement the policy Other ways of understanding policy implementation • New Public Management NPM: markets and performance payment • What are the main elements of NPM? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of NPM? Towards a synthesis of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives • Linder and Perters (1989) identified factors that play critical role in shaping the policy implementation choices • Features of policy instruments • Policy style and political culture • Organizational culture • Context of the problem • Administrative decision makers’ subjective preference Towards a synthesis of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives • Two sets of variables affecting policy implementation • Extent of government capacity • Complexity of the particular policy field The policy sub-system or advocacy coalition framework ACF • Sabatier’s framework rejected the separation of implementation from other stages • Policy change is a continuous process within sub-systems ‘communities’ or networks of actors • Actors are organized into ‘advocacy coalitions’ to make changes • Identify ‘policy brokers’ What help to policy makers are the different approaches to understanding policy implementation?