The polity of implementation: Organizational and institutional arrangements in policy implementation

2022/03/09 by Fritz Sager, Anat Gofen · 11 citations
Decision Sciences · Social Sciences · #Evaluation and Performance Assessment #Policy Transfer and Learning #Public Policy and Administration Research

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/gove.12677

openalex publication_date 2022/03/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Abstract Policy implementation is a formative stage of the policy process. It determines policy's form and effect while also lying at the intersection of politics, policy, and the public. Policy implementation takes place within a given institutional setting and requires specific structure and organization to conduct it both of which allocate decision power and mint specific roles in the implementation process. Nevertheless, current implementation literature tends to overlook implementation arrangements as structures influencing, and influenced by, power. This special issue draws on various aspects of implementation arrangements to demonstrate the significant, yet underexplored, polity of implementation. To do so, this introduction begins by reviewing the conceptual frameworks available in the current implementation scholarship. This is followed by a discussion of the special issue's seven contributions. Finally, the conclusion proposes recommendations for conducting future research on the polity of implementation.

Citations

• The Institutional Collective Action Framework
• Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms
• Managing the “hollow state”: procedural policy instruments and modern governance
• Implementation Structures: A New Unit of Administrative Analysis
• The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life
• Backward Mapping: Implementation Research and Policy Decisions

Cited by

• Challenging Conventional Wisdom on Administrative Capacity With Open Data: Could ‘Administrative Throughput’ Be the Missing Link Between Administrative Inputs and Outputs?
• What happens after policies end? Effects of policy termination and dismantling on target populations, organizations, policy mixes, and political behavior
• Addition preferences among policymakers as driver of policy growth
• Adaptability of Governance Structures and Processes for Sustainable Livestock in Jalisco, Mexico
• What Makes Member States opt for Hybrid Implementation Structures When the Federal Policy Asks for It?
• Policy termination as a strategic practice: insights from the Flemish provinces
• Implementation Punctuation: The Role of Feedback, Narratives, and Implementation in the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory
• Do Institutions Make Street‐Level Bureaucrats Prosocial? Agent‐Based Evidence Shows That New Public Management Does Not
• One problem, two ontologies: How administrative coordination impacts policy coherence
• Resisting the tide: the role of organizational routines in mitigating policy dismantling
• Administrative overload and policy triage: causal evidence from the introduction of the Acid Rain Program in the United States

Related

• Moving policy implementation theory forward: A multiple streams/critical juncture approach
• ‘And the rest is implementation.’ Comparing approaches to what happens in policy processes beyond Great Expectations
• Policy Domains: Organization, Culture, and Policy Outcomes
• The Theory–Practice Issue in Policy Implementation Research
• Policy Growth and Its Impacts on Policy Implementation: Changes, Challenges and Chances