Implementation and the Policy Process: Opening Up the Black Box Contributions in Political Science

This book presents an overview of why implementation research has contributed to a major reconsideration of the process of policy formation and offers conceptual frameworks that employ implementation research to develop a fuller understanding of the entire policy process. The contributors caution the error of assuming that implementation is the main factor in policy making and that once implementation is taken care of, policies will be effective.

They attempt to place implementation in the broader policymaking process and show its relationship to the other parts of the policy cycle. Additionally, several of the contributors develop explanatory models that cut across the research dichotomies of the prevailing top-down and bottom-up approaches and establish an agenda for future research.