Reap what you sow: implementing agencies as strategic actors in policy feedback dynamics

Daniel Polman,Gerry Alons

doi:10.1007/s11077-021-09436-0

Daniel Polman, Gerry Alons

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-021-09436-0

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Abstract

Government agencies responsible for policy implementation have expertise on policy practicability, efficiency and effectiveness, and knowledge which is provided to policymakers as feedback. However, we know very little about the feedback dynamics in which implementing agencies provide different types of feedback with the intention that it is used by policymakers, and the strategic decisions underlying these dynamics. This article connects the literature on policy feedback and knowledge use to develop a typology of implementation feedback which can account for these strategic actions. While existing distinctions between positive and negative feedback lead to confusion when applied to implementation feedback, our typology moves beyond this confusion, by classifying implementation feedback on the basis of two dimensions: preferences of implementing agencies and whether feedback is in response an agenda for change, or existing policy instruments. To illustrate the typology, we look at implementation feedback surrounding the post-2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. We find that implementing agencies engage predominantly in problem-solving and mitigating types of implementation feedback, which are the types of feedback most likely to be used instrumentally by policymakers. Moreover, role perception of implementing agencies limits feedback focused on agenda removal, which is more politically sensitive and contested. These insights are important for our understanding of policy feedback on the level of policy instruments and settings. Moreover, future research can use this typology to structure feedback by other actors.

Highlights

Feedback from past policies has been highlighted as an important factor in explaining policy developments, often in relation to US policymaking, and increasingly in studies on European policies (e.g., Bulmer, 2009; Skogstad, 2017)
We propose a typology for capturing implementation feedback which overcomes some of the unclarities when applying the concepts of positive and negative feedback to the level of policy instruments and settings
The aim of this paper was to explain what types of feedback are provided by implementing agencies to (EU) policymakers

Summary

Introduction

Feedback from past policies has been highlighted as an important factor in explaining policy developments, often in relation to US policymaking, and increasingly in studies on European policies (e.g., Bulmer, 2009; Skogstad, 2017). Before existing policies can affect future policy developments, they have to be put into practice (Moynihan & Soss, 2014) This implementation of policies entails a set of administrative practices performed by specific actors, often bureaucratic organizations, which we shall refer to as implementing agencies, whose experiences can provide policymakers with valuable input on implementation problems and how they can be solved (Haverland & Liefferink, 2012). In this respect, policy feedback from implementing agencies can be regarded a type of knowledge to be used by policymakers

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