Public Policy: Prospects and Challenges
Chapter 5: Policy Implementation
This chapter deals with the challenges of organizing and delivering outcomes through instruments. The
list of new management practices, with decentralization, partnerships, client focus, quality service
standards, performance and results, commercialization, accountability and ethics is long. There is
debate as to whether these new forms of policy implementation represent improvements or decline.
o A well designed policy with good implementation is almost a definition of success: a good idea
well executed
o A good idea can also be poorly executed which can be thought of as an implementation failure
o There can also be design failure: the policy is badly designed in terms of problem definition or
instruments or goals, but it is executed reasonably well
o Total failure occurs when the design and implementation are both flawed
The study of policy implementation is crucial for the study of public administration and public policy.
Implementation Theory
o Successful implementation involves someone or some organization that has brains, strong
planning capacity, resources, authority to act and a complete understanding of the goals
Hogwood and Gunn's list of requirements
o Developed from the administrator's or implementer's point of view
No insurmountable Usually organizations and individuals that will not cooperate
external constraints
Adequate time and Time, money and people
sufficient resources
Required combinations Time, money and people in the right order and mix
Valid theory Good design, especially cause and effect relationships
Causal connections are Focus on causal variables that can realistically be addressed by public
reasonable, clear and policy
direct
Dependency relationships Authority is not fragmented or dispersed
are minimal
Agreed objectives Everyone sings from the same song sheets, no disputes about ends
Compliance No sabotage or rebellion
Communication Clear communication and understanding
Sabatier and Maxmanian
Ability of statute to structure implementation:
1. Clear and consistent objectives 2. Incorporation of adequate causal theory
3. Financial resources
4. Hierarchical integration with and among implementing institutions
5. Decision rules of implementing agencies
6. Recruitment of implementing official
7. Formal access by outsiders
Nonstatutory variables affecting implementation
1. Socioeconomic conditions and technology
2. Media attention to the problem
3. Public support
4. Attitudes and resources of constituency groups
5. Support from sovereigns
6. Commitment and leadership skills of implementing officials
Pressman-Wildavsky implementation model
o It is unrealistic to assume that actors will make only one attempt at clearance
o Clearance points are not always independent
o There is a bandwagon effect at times where previous clearances increase the probability of
future clearances
o Program reduction strategies may be used to shorten the decision chain
Implementation as a game
o Bardach
o A way of understanding the essentially defensive nature of implementation
o The idea of games directs us to look at the players, what they regard as the stakes, their
strategies and tactics, their resources for playing, the rules of play, the rules of fair play, the
nature of communication among players, the degree of uncertainty surrounding potential
outcomes
o Avoid implementation designs that rely on complex management systems, large organizations,
and lots of clearances
Forward mapping: begins at the top of the process, with a clear statement of intent and proceeds
through a sequence of increasingly more specific steps to define what is expected of implementers at
each level and finishes with what the satisfactory outcome would be measured in terms of the original
intent
Backward mapping: begins with a statement of the specific behavior at the lowest level of the
implementation process that generates the need for a policy. After that behavior is described the
analysis presumes to state an objective as a set of organization operations and then a set of effects and
outcomes what would result from these operations. The analysis backs up through the structure of implementing agencies and asks what their ability to affect the behaviour that is the target of the policy
and what resources do they have to do so.
Implementation can be viewed as an organizational process and a political process of bargaining among
actors who can each affect the outcomes. The difficulty of implementation lies in the high demands for
success.
Policy Management Developments: NPM and Beyond
Key principles of NPM
o Critical of the traditional bureaucracy viewing it as slow, rule bound, inflexible
o Questions how much the government should be involved in policy areas in the first place
o The mode of delivery of services should focus on nongovernmental actors as primary partners in
delivery
o There is greater attention to outcomes and performance
o Agencies are encouraged to thi
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