INTRODUCTION
THEORIES OF POLICY CHANGE
- Path dependence
- Advocacy coalition framework
- Policy learning
- Policy diffusion
- Punctuated equilibrium
- Institutional change
- Multi-level governance
- Policy networks
- Disruptive innovation
- Politics of change and reform
- Lessons from policy change research
Policy change occurs through interactions between broad external changes or shocks to the political system and the success of ideas in coalitions, which can cause actors in the advocacy coalition to change coalitions. Policy learning is an important aspect of policy change and can change secondary aspects of a coalition's belief system; changes in key aspects of a policy. For example, in policy-oriented learning, the agent of learning is the policy network, while learning is less about organizations than about ideas (ie, the beliefs of members in advocacy coalitions).
For example, Greener (2002) and Klein (1995) analyze the role of social learning in healthcare reform in the United Kingdom. Policy learning is an important concept in the theory of change literature – it is part of several theories and emphasizes that countries, regions and systems can change policies by learning from others and thereby changing their beliefs. Using the example of health care reforms in Latin America, Weyland (2007) examines the spread of the Chilean model of pension privatization and the moderate spread of health care reforms in Latin America in the 1990s.
The idea of political images and sites of action is helpful, and punctuated equilibrium theory is widely used in the literature. For example, it is difficult to first define frames and then analyze how they change over time. Streeck and Thelen's theory has been very influential in the literature and has been used in many institutional and political changes.
It is quite widespread at the local level, for example in municipalities in Switzerland or special districts (including schools) in the USA. For this review, the network approach is particularly relevant and is discussed in the next section. In fact, he describes the networks as metaphors (as developed with terms such as the "iron triangle" in the United States), rather than models.
The politics of policy change and reform thus play a substantial role in the entire process. Bargains reached with external actors must be politically acceptable and sustainable in the domestic political game (see Putnam 1988). However, it is quite a complicated process and underlines how difficult it is to determine all six dimensions in the first place.
This review presented ten theories, which is a small selection considering the number of theories of change proposed in the literature. But most of the proposed theories are more capable of explaining change in the past rather than predicting change in the future based on certain conditions.
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
- Top-down and bottom-up approaches
- Top-down approach
- Bottom-up approach
- Combined approach
- Rational-choice theories
- Game theory
- Agency theory
- Examples from education policy
- Lessons from implementation research
A common concept in the policy implementation (and change) literature distinguishes between top-down and bottom-up approaches. The most detailed top-down approach was presented by Sabatier and Mazmanian (1979), who identified a number of legal and political variables and then synthesized them into six conditions necessary for effective implementation, ranging from clear objectives, causal theory, legal structure of During the implementation process, officials and interest groups committed not to undermine the changing socio-economic conditions (for more details on these conditions, see Sabatier 2005: 19). It then uses the contacts to develop a networking technique to identify the local, regional and national actors involved in the planning, financing and implementation of relevant governmental and non-governmental programs.
In terms of policy domains, bottom-up ones examine policies with greater policy uncertainty (Matland 1995: 155). The two-by-two typology shows how top-down and bottom-up approaches can vary across policy areas. The literature on implementation and game theory is still quite rare in political science.
He analyzes the types of games that actors apply in the implementation process to pursue their own interests. There are several challenges in rational choice approaches to implementation, such as uncertainty over different areas and the lack of institutionalization in the implementation setting (since many implementation networks are not highly institutionalized). Once again, the temporal dimensions and context play an important role in the implementation of education policy.
Rational choice theory proposes a parsimonious framework in which actors are rational in the pursuit of their preferences and interact strategically with other actors in the system. Game theory offers several advantages, such as a rigorous deductive theory and the potential to combine top-down and bottom-up approaches by treating all relevant actors as strategic players. A review of the implementation literature several years ago suggested that the education sector accounted for about 65 percent of research in the 1970s, but other policy areas such as environment and health have become larger in recent years (Saetren 2005: 570).
Their framework considers three aspects: individuals and their beliefs and experiences, the importance of the situation or context, and the role of external representation in the sense-making process. Complexity of human meaning-making plays a major role, since sense-making is not simply the decoding of policy messages, but 'the process of understanding is an active process of interpretation that draws on the individual's rich knowledge base of understanding, beliefs and attitudes' ( Spillane, Reiser and Reimer 2002: 391). According to the authors, the set of conditions should be sufficient to achieve policy objectives.
Policy feedback and evaluation are important to consider in the wider implementation process so that a range of impacts can be taken into account. Thus, the variety of implementation frameworks should be used and combined according to needs and policy areas.
CONCLUSIONS
The adoption of policies does not necessarily mean that the desired results are achieved as policy implementation plays an important part of the process. Thus, the second part of the review sought to present some insights and lessons from the policy implementation literature. Toonen (eds), Policy Implementation in Federal and Unitary Systems, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, p. 2007), Rethinking Educational Change, New York: Teacher's College Press.
Amaral (eds), Reform and change in higher education: analysis of policy implementation, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 1993), 'Policy paradigms, social learning and the state: the case of economic policy-making in Britain', Comparative Politics The implementation of regulatory policy: enforcement as bargaining', European Journal of Political Research Local networks of manpower training in the Federal Republic of Germany and Sweden', in K. Limits to Coordination and Central Control, London: Sage, pp. 2011), 'Designing innovative systems: moving to scale our challenge?', OECD/CERI – International Conference on Innovative Learning Environments, Alberta, October. 2002), 'Globalisation, embedded realism and path dependence: the other immigrants to Europe', Comparative Political Studies Pushing the boundaries of educational change', In International Handbook of Educational Change, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 1974), Social Policy in Britain and Sweden, New Haven: Yale University Press.
1999), 'Comparing Varieties of Agency Theory in Economics, Political Science and Sociology: An Illustration of Public Policy Implementation', Sociological Theory. Amaral (eds), Reform and change in higher education: analysis of policy implementation, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. ed.) (1999), The transformation of governance in the European Union, London: Routledge. Brinton Milward (eds), The State of Public Management, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1997), 'A model, a method, and a map: rational choice in comparative and historical analysis'.
1995), "Synthesizing the Implementation Literature: An Ambiguity-Conflict Model of Policy Implementation", Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Implementation and Public Policy, Glenview: Scott, Foresman. 1987), “Learning from Experience: Lessons from Policy Implementation”, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Policy Learning, Policy Diffusion, and the Making of a New Order', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 598: 67-82. 1995), 'Rational Choice and Policy Implementation: Implications for Managing Interorganizational Networks', American Review of Public Administration Research on Policy Implementation: Assessment and Prospects', Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory So Much Reform, So Little Change: Persistence Failure in Urban schools, Cambridge:. 1991), "Meaning and Structure in Social Movements: Mapping the Network of National Canadian Women's Organizations", Canadian Journal of Political Science.
1995), 'The politics of health sector reform in developing countries: three cases of pharmaceutical policy', Health policy An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy learning in it', Policy Sciences From the Implementation of policies in policy change: a personal odyssey', in A. Amaral (eds), Reform and change in higher education: policy analysis. 1993), Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach, Boulder: Westview. Sabatier (ed.), Theories of the Policy Process, Boulder: Westview Press, p. 1979), "Conditions of Effective Implementation: A Guide to Accomplishing Policy Objectives", Policy Analysis Facts and Myths about Public Policy Implementation Research: Out-of-Fashioned, Supposedly Dead, But Still Very Much Alive and important', Journal of Policy Studies.
1999), 'Reform and teaching: exploring patterns of practice in the context of national and state mathematics reforms', Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Policy implementation and recognition: reformulating and refocusing implementation research', Educational Research Review Partners reluctant: implementing federal policy, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Economies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 2011), 'The challenge of implementation: strategy is only as good as its execution', Public Services Authority Case Paper No. 1998), 'Developing policy network analyses', Journal of Theoretical Politics Policy in action: the challenge of service delivery, Sydney:.