Policy/Project Implementation Flashcards
Policy Process Cycle
- Problem Definition and Agenda Setting
- Policy Formulation
- Policy Adoption
- Policy Implementation
- Policy Evaluation
The carrying out of a basic policy decision, usually expressed as a law, regulation, standards or guidelines. The policy could also take the form of important executive orders or court decisions.
Policy Implementation
Ideally, the policy identifies: (Policy Implementation)
1.
2.
3.
- Problems to be addressed
- Stipulates the objectives to be pursued
- Provides ideas or guidelines on how it is to be implemented.
Involves all of the activities designed to carry out the policies enacted by the legislative branch. These activities include the creation of new organizations, departments, agencies bureaus, or the assignments of new responsibilities to the existing organizations.
Policy Implementation
Establish and staff a new agency or assign authority to an existing agency and personnel. Translate legislative intent into operating rules and guidelines. Coordinate resources and personnel to achieve the intended goals.
Policy Implementation
Policy implementations is shaped by: 1. 2. 3. 4.
- Policy design
- Organizational arrangements for implementation
- The policy environment
- The motivation of implementers
Policy Implementation Process
- Policy standards and objectives, which clarify the goals of the policy decision; and which can provide concrete and specific standards for assessing performance.
- Resources and incentives made available.
- Quality of inter-organizational relationships (examples are, central-local relations; agency- agency interaction)
- Characteristics of implementation agencies, including organizational control, formal and informal linkages
- Socio-economic and political environment
- Disposition or response of implementers
• How they understand the policy
• How they respond to the policy (acceptance, neutrality or rejection)
• The degree or intensity of response
Approaches to Implementation
- Direct implementation by a government agency which has the mandate or responsibility.
- Delegated or decentralized implementation
•Government’s role is to define the measures of responsibility and accountability of the provider and to see to it that these measures are complied with.
Perspectives on Implementation
- Top-down
- Bottom-up or Street-level
- Enforcement or Compliance
________ approach looks at policy implementation as a phase in the policy process. The goal is to make implementation as close as possible to a state of perfection
Top-down
Focuses on how to minimize “implementation deficit”
Top Down
Where there are many links among multiple agencies in an implementation chain, prevent the small deficits to occur and accumulate to a point that they become a large shortfall.
Top Down
Ensure that cooperation between agencies and those tasked with implementation are close to a hundred percent.
Top Down
Implementers down the line (such as “street-level bureaucrats”) have autonomous power to influence policy implementation
Bottom-up
Policy implementation has a multi-actor and inter- organizational character
Bottom-up
Implementation process is highly political
Bottom-up
Policy undergoes interpretation and modification, even subversion” by actors (implementers) tasked with carrying it out.
Bottom-up
2 relevant concepts in bottom-up implementation
- Street-level bureaucracy
2. Discretion
Decisions and choices are made by those implementing the policy at the field, which may not be as intended by design
Street-level bureaucracy
________ is used to make adjustments on how the policy is to be implemented and improved
Discretion
Extent of freedom a decision-maker can exercise in a specific context
Discretion as an Implementation Variable
Ability to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction within the effective limits of a public official’s power
Discretion as an Implementation Variable
Perceived freedom in determining the sort, quantity and quality of sanctions and rewards during policy implementation
Discretion as an Implementation Variable
Implications for Policy Development
- How policy should be designed to allow for effective discretion by street level bureaucrats
- The value of risk management strategies (to allow for discretion, but also to control the risks involved)
• Discretion as neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’
• It may be an important professional attribute, or it may be an opportunity to abuse power.
