Policy Implementation Practices Research Articles

Local Processes and Practices of Policy Implementation for Sami Languages

Local Processes and Practices of Policy Implementation for Sami Languages

Comparing innovation strategies: Canada's Ocean Supercluster and Europe's Smart Specialisation initiatives

AbstractThe Global Innovation Clusters’ Initiative (GIC) is an innovation program launched in Canada. This article aims to describe the policy, in particular its key similarities and differences with the Europe's Smart Specialisation (S3) policy initiative, and critically explore the logic behind its inception. The article reveals that although policy implementation practices are bespoke and context‐specific, the need to increase coordination between different levels and sectors of policy making is acknowledged to be important for achieving both innovation and local economic development objectives.

Barriers to High-quality Therapy Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Analysis of Street-level Policy Practice of Therapy Service Organisations in China

Abstract Social workers with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) should assist them to have timely access to high-quality therapy services. This research addresses the gap between policy intention to improve the quality of therapy services and families’ unmet needs by examining the policy implementation practices of therapy service organisations. A longitudinal study was conducted in Beijing from 2013 to 2022. Qualitative data were obtained from policy documents and interviews with the managers of therapy service organisations (n = 17), therapists (n = 19) and families of children with ASD (n = 35). It found that the government policies created service challenges for the organisations. Managers adopted a short-term focus on organisational survival due to inadequate resources to implement the policy, intensified competition for therapists and service users and pressure from performance measurement. They focused on improving the sites, facilities, publicity and documentation of the organisations rather than the effectiveness of therapy services. Consequently, families still felt they were unable to access good quality therapy. The implications reinforce the significance for social workers to work with the government to actively supporting the training of therapists, establishing meaningful service quality measurement and promoting practical guidance about service quality standards to families of children with ASD.

Reimaging Local Control, Local Democracy, and Local Engagement in Education: How Rural Education Policy in a Metro Centric State Alienated Its Residents

This paper examines two case studies as examples of how an Urbannormative State policy implementation for education reform in rural areas altered and de established trust in state government reforms. By specifically examining two rural community’s efforts to ensure local control in the face of state policy implementation practices, the paper finds that rural areas have over 70 years of concrete evidence that their values are often subjugated to state reform plans which stress efficiency and effectiveness. Using archival evidence, these case studies present under studied, and little-known events which have shaped relationships between the State and its residents. The paper finishes with a re-evaluation of implementation theory and posits an updated theory that includes local stakeholders influences beyond the previous model of focus on government officials.

Policy Implementation for Water Resources Protection: Assessing Spatio-Temporal Trends of Results from Process-Based Outcomes of Resource-Directed Measures Projects in South Africa

Governments are continuously developing strategies for policy implementation toward water resource protection. However, little is known about the practical application of such plans to test their effectiveness in policy practice. This study focused on resource-directed measures (RDMs) in South Africa to assess progress made on policy implementation for water resource protection. The study included document surveys and content analysis of the publicly available reports and documents sourced from state departments and government websites. The findings of the study indicated that water resource-directed measures are used as policy implementation strategies for water resource protection in the country. Furthermore, the study revealed that significant progress has been made in this regard, when a multi-sectorial policy implementation practice approach through public-private partnerships ensured that 69% of the catchments have process-based RDM projects completed, while 18% are in progress, and only 13% are outstanding. In addition, it was found that water resource classes (WRC), numerical limits and ecological conditions for water resource reserve, and numerical limits and narrative statements for resource quality objectives (RQOs) are intermediate outputs originating from RDMs projects. The study recommends that outputs derived from process-based policy implementation plans must be applied at the water resource level and monitored to assess the effectiveness of policies for their effects on the status of water resources.

A Systematic Literature Review of Structural Quality Policy Implementation in Public Preschools

The benefits of quality early childhood experiences are indisputable as more studies have demonstrated the positive results of high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) on child outcomes. These benefits have recently spurred many countries to prioritise preschool programmes in their national plans and pursue a quality preschool agenda. This systematic literature review (SLR) aimed to analyse the worldwide practice of policy implementation regarding public preschool structural quality and examine the related challenges. This paper was based solely on SLR, where the literature was examined via the Scopus and Web of Science databases and Google Scholar. The review adopted PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and thematic analysis was employed to analyse the relevant research papers. The SLR revealed that varying service quality was the main theme of global public preschool policy implementation. In many countries in the included articles, the preschool education programmes were conducted by multiple agencies, which resulted in varied quality of the service provided. In this study, the analysis revealed five main themes: wide-ranging policy aims, combined public and private funding, complex governance and management systems with mixed national and state involvement, persistent fragmented structural and organisational aspects between ECCE and primary schooling, and varied ECCE service regulation and quality assurance. Thus, future research is necessary to bridge the knowledge gap to examine policy implementation of structural quality, specifically in individual country settings.

Knowledge and Practice of Medical Waste Management in Small, Medium and Large Hospitals in Bayelsa State

The consciousness and practical in-depth knowledge of the nature of medical waste, its public and environmental implications serves as a veritable tool in the effective and efficient management of medical waste in any healthcare institution. Thus, this study considered the knowledge and practice of medical waste in small, medium and large hospital in Bayelsa State, South-south Nigeria. It is aimed at assessing waste management practices with respect to colour coding at the various healthcare institutions within the study area. A descriptive study design was considered and a sample size of 300 obtained using Cochran’s formula. A well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Data were analyzed using simple percentage and frequency including graphs and bar chart. Result indicated that the rate of awareness and utilization of colour code for medical waste segregation in the various hospitals was poor except the large hospital (63%). The poor awareness level observed in the Medium and small hospitals in this study could be attributed to paucity of waste management infrastructure in addition to medical waste management deficiency and policy implementation practices. Furthermore, it was discovered that the use of sharp receptacle was high in small hospital (56%) and large hospital (75%) as compared to Medium hospital (43%). Also, knowledge, awareness and practice of medical waste management across the various healthcare institutions revealed that the small hospital (79%), medium hospital 71% and the large hospital 75% are well abreast and thus have good understanding of medical waste management, albeit, proper medical waste management is in a state of limbo at the hospitals at the time of this study. Government at all levels should ensure adequate funding and encourage professional to handle medical waste management whereas staff of the various hospitals should be properly trained on significance of the utilization of colour coding.

The Recent Politicization of Immigration in Poland in Light of Preexisting State Practices: Continuity or Change in the Understanding of Citizenship and Nationhood?

By drawing a division between citizens and noncitizens, migration policies speak to implicit definitions of what makes a good citizen. Commonly accepted definitions of citizenship are produced not only through explicit political discourse but also through the everyday actions of state agencies. The selection of the “worthy” migrants that those street‐level bureaucracies operate is deeply rooted in interpretations of the nation's boundaries. In this article, I examine this everyday production of citizenship and nationhood by focusing on the case of Polish migration policies approached through the lens of an ethnographic study of street‐level bureaucracies. While the rapid politicization of immigration in this country since 2015 resembles a major shift, an inquiry into the practices of policy implementation invites interrogations concerning continuities between past and present state practices, as well as concerning the definitions of citizens and of “worthy” immigrants that were and are prevalent within Polish institutions.Related Articles in this Special IssueBarrault‐Stella, Lorenzo, and Thomas Douniès. 2021. “Introduction to the Special Issue: Citizenship as a Tool of Government in Europe.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).Haapajärvi, Linda. 2021. “On the Importance of Playing House: Belonging Work and the Making of Relational Citizens in Finnish Immigrant Integration Policies.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).Mioni, Michele. 2021. “The ‘Good Citizen’ as ‘Respectable Worker:’ State, Unemployment, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom and Italy, 1930 to 1950.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).

Policy narrative, policy understanding and policy support intention: a survey experiment on energy conservation

ABSTRACT Nowadays, policy narratives as a communication strategy are frequently used by governments to persuade target populations and obtain policy support. However, few studies have empirically examined whether and through what mechanisms policy narratives can enhance policy support intention. To fill this gap, this study uses the case of energy conservation policy to conduct a survey experiment among 300 industrial enterprises in Liaoning, China. The findings indicate that policy narratives are effective in strengthening policy support intention; this effectiveness is achieved through a mediating variable of subjective policy understanding. In other words, only when policy narratives make target populations think they understand the policy can they show strong policy support intention. Additionally, we examine how policy narratives should be designed to enhance subjective policy understanding. The study finds that a simple narrative form (i.e. reducing policy details and using images and symbols) and a narrative content with positive incentives (i.e. showing material and reputational incentives) are two measures to enhance subjective policy understanding, which then leads to strong policy support intention. The implications of these findings for the policy narrative theory and policy implementation practice are discussed at the end of the article.

Prosecutors, court communities, and policy change: The impact of internal DOJ reforms on federal prosecutorial practices*

AbstractThe current study examines how key internal U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy changes have been translated into front‐line prosecutorial practices. Extending courts‐as‐communities scholarship and research on policy implementation practices, we use U.S. Sentencing Commission data from 2004 to 2019 to model outcomes for several measures of prosecutorial discretion in federal drug trafficking cases, including the use of mandatory minimum charges and prosecutor‐endorsed departures, to test the impact of the policy changes on case processing outcomes. We contrast prosecutorial measures with measures that are more impervious to discretionary manipulation, such as criminal history, and those that represent judicial and blended discretion, including judicial departures and final sentence lengths. We find a significant effect of the policy reforms on how prosecutorial tools are used across DOJ policy periods, and we find variation across districts as a function of contextual conditions, consistent with the court communities literature. We also find that a powerful driver of changes in prosecutorial practices during our most recent period is the confirmation of individual Trump‐appointed U.S. Attorneys at the district level, suggesting an important theoretical place for midlevel actors in policy translation and implementation.

Автократизм как имманентная закономерность развития стран постсоветского пространства в ареале евразийской цивилизации

The article clarifies the specifics of adapting the democratic political system to the traditionalist conditions of the post-Soviet space of the Eurasian civilization. Russia has developed a modernizing presidential political regime of a democratic nature with a significant role of the personality of President Vladimir Putin. The authors show that the personal factor also contributed to the formation of authoritarian regimes in most CIS countries that implement the imperious mission of a strong state and strive for accelerated implementation of development programs. The special role of the personal factor and autocratic practices of policy implementation is manifested in the formation, as a rule, of autocratic in content, presidential in form of government regimes. It is determined by historical reasons and mental conditions for the development of national states in the post-Soviet space.

Influences of service characteristics and older people\u2019s attributes on outcomes from direct payments

BackgroundDirect payments (DPs) are cash-payments that eligible individuals can receive to purchase care services by themselves. DPs are central to current social care policy in England, but their advantages remain controversial. This controversy is partly due to their lack of historical visibility: DPs were deployed in stages, bundled with other policy instruments (first individual budgets, then personal budgets), and amidst increasing budgetary constraints. As a result, little unequivocal evidence is available about the effectiveness of DPs as an instrument for older people’s care. This study aims to partially fill that gap using data obtained during an early evaluation of DP’s that took place between 2005 and 07.MethodsSemi-structured 81 face-to-face interviews with older people (and their proxies) using DPs are analyzed. DPs contribution to outcomes was measured using a standardized utility scale. Data on individual characteristics (dependency, unpaid care) and received services (types and amount of services) was also gathered. Multiple regression analyses were performed between measured outcome gains and individual and service characteristics. A Poisson log-functional form was selected to account for the low mean and positive skew of outcome gains.ResultsLevels of met need compared very favorably to average social care outcomes in the domains of social participation, control over daily living and safety, and user satisfaction was high. Benefit from DPs was particularly affected by the role and function of unpaid care and availability of recruitment support. The freedom to combine funded care packages with self-funded care enhanced the positive impact of the former. The ability to purchase care that deviated from standardized care inputs improved service benefits. Large discrepancies between total care input and that supported through DPs negatively affected outcomes.ConclusionsThe results offer clarity regarding the benefit derived from receiving DPs. They also clarify contested aspects of the policy such as the influence of unpaid care, types of care received, funding levels and the role of wider support arrangements. Tangible benefits may results from direct payments but those benefits are highly dependent on policy implementation practices. Implementation of DPs should pay special attention to the balance between DP funded care and unpaid care.

Influence of Policy Implementation Practices on Employee Development in the Eastern Region of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Kenya

Policy implementation involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an action. The success of policy implementation depends on the choice of appropriate incentives based on the local biophysical and social conditions. The Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) recognizes the importance of employee development and is committed to providing the best possible climate for maximum personal development and goal achievement for each employee. Human resources management in PCEA is guided by a document known as the schemes of service. This document guides the job and career prospects for all cadres of personnel. They include, Church administrators, accountants and bookkeepers, secretaries, gardeners, caretakers, cleaners and security guards. Like many mainstream churches, the PCEA is facing a challenge of staff turnover. Despite this challenge, little information regarding leadership practices that influence employee development in the Kenyan context exists. The study examined the influence of policy implementation practices by church leadership on employee development. A descriptive research design using survey method was adopted. The study targeted 291 Church leaders comprising of 255 elected leaders from the 47 Parishes and 4 mission areas and 36 elected leaders drawn from the 9 Presbyteries of Eastern Region of PCEA. Stratified sampling method was used to select a sample of 145 parish leaders and 20 Presbytery leaders totaling to 165 respondents. Data was collected using mainly questionnaires. A pilot study was conducted in Mount Kenya region of PCEA. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The main findings show that leaders in PCEA implemented non-formal training, financed employees, and offered them study leaves with pay and promotions to promote employee development. However, a gap on-the-job training was established. It is time the Church shifts the paradigm to embrace on-the-job training of her employees. If the PCEA has to be successful in her mission in the 21 st century, it has to reconsider her on-the-job training systems. Keywords : Employee Development, PCEA, Policy Practices DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/50-07 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Incorporating a resilience lens into the social and urban transformation of informal settlements: the participatory upgrading process in Villa 20, Buenos Aires (2016–2020)

Based on the experiences of the socio-urban integration of Villa 20, this article suggests that upgrading processes are inherently complex and challenge traditional public policy implementation practices. The case presented demonstrates that, when complex urban problems are addressed through citizen participation, they contribute to improving urban governance, providing comprehensive responses, and may ensure the long-term sustainability of the introduced changes. Incorporating a climate resilience lens into the upgrading processes of informal settlements has not been a priority in government-led programmes to date. However, when these processes have at their core a deep participatory and collaborative approach, they offer a window of opportunity not only to transform government practices and policies, but also to influence urban designs, bring technological innovation, support alternative construction practices, and adopt a more sustainable and inclusive urban development pathway.

Curriculum Policy Implementation in Cameroon Education System Insights from Theories of Policy Change

This study takes as its point of departure the assumption that policy implementation is a complex process that cannot be fully understood without analysis of the complexities, tensions, conflicts, perceptions and dilemmas related to those engaged in the implementation. In curriculum, theories are used to provide explanations for practice that help to facilitate the creation and implementation of the curriculum. They also provide justifications that enable school practitioners to articulate the reasons for their actions and therefore help to assist the understanding of what has been created. Theories also criticize the outcome or that which has been created and implemented. It is therefore necessary to develop a fundamental understanding of curriculum theory by providing the tools necessary when analysing curriculum endeavours. This study has adopted four theories to provide an understanding of Educational policies in Cameroon.Itreviews the different theoretical perspectives relating to factors that impact on policy implementation and provide insights on trends in the approaches to curriculum policy implementation practices.

Transportation policymaking in Beijing and Shanghai: Contributors, obstacles, and process

With continued motorization and urbanization in Chinese cities, there is a growing demand for innovative transportation policies at the city level to address the challenges of congestion, local air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Using Beijing and Shanghai as case studies, this paper draws on 32 in-depth semi-structured interviews with municipal government officials, academics, and transportation professionals to explore the city-level transportation policymaking process in Chinese megacities. Across the two cities, we identify three common contributors – policy learning, data informatization, and public opinion—and four obstacles—public complaint, unilateral decision-making, inadequate coordination among relevant departments, and lack of adaptiveness in policy implementation practice—to adopting timely and appropriate transportation policies. We then introduce a processual model that connects the contributors and obstacles identified within the flow of transportation policy among key actors in city-level government. This process shows how transportation policymaking in Chinese megacities is often reactive to public outcry over a transportation problem. This problem is investigated by a technical government research center that reports to the municipal transport committee. This committee then assesses public opinion and submits a policy recommendation to city government leadership, who make the final policy decision. Based on both case studies, we discuss potential recommendations for how to better enable transportation policymaking at the city level in China through more formalized processes of policy experimentation and public participation. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and areas of future research.

Neoliberalization, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

Neoliberalism has been a core concern for international political economy (IPE) for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalization. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management is significant as both a depoliticizing policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicized policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalizing in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalization there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalization should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.

Policy Implementation: Conceptual Foundations, Accumulated Wisdom and New Directions

Progressive development is an interest of every country. Advancement in development is an indicator of successful policy implementation. However, some authors claim it’s a concept of “yesterday”. Policy implementation until now lacks an integrated theoretical foundation and guidance for success which partly contributes to misguided, uncertain, ineffective and retrogressive policy implementation practice especially in the developing world. Little attention has been put on policy implementation effectiveness. This article traces the policy implementation concept and project new directions for its more rewarding furtherance. Contributions towards policy implementation research and practice should be relevant to its contemporary generation. Using reviewed literature, this article traces the historical, methodological and practical development of policy implementation. It suggests that the third generation paradigm may exploit advances in implementation science. Networks, governance, and internationalization are sectors and resources that can progress policy implementation towards focused relevance and enhanced contribution towards sustainable development.

Implementing ecological networks through the Red for Green approach in a densely populated country: Does it work?

Regional and local governments in Europe are often challenged with establishing suitable institutional practices to meet ecological targets within urban spatial development plans and address the ultimate goal of the Environmental Policy Integration (EPI). EPI has been proliferated by the European policy as the operational principle to sustainable development. Yet it is necessary to develop and apply suitable approaches that allow achieving EPI within the policy implementation practices of the local and regional authorities. Particularly in the field of urban planning, such EPI approaches are needed to more firmly integrate ecological considerations in the land-use planning process and safeguard the sustainability of urban developments. This is the case when implementing key nature policy objectives such as the development of national ecological networks (NEN) aimed at protecting biodiversity, and in which multiple actors and sectorial interests are involved. Among European countries, the Netherlands has been a forerunner in NEN development and has applied innovative approaches such as the Red for Green approach (RGA). The RGA aims to integrate ecological issues (green) in urban developments (red) and establishes a communicative platform for the actors involved in the urban developments. This study assesses the unique experiences with the RGA in seven regional case studies, identifies its key success factors and reflects on its role as a communicative practice towards EPI. The study concludes that the RGA can be a suitable approach to integrating ecological network objectives in urban developments. However, RGA’s success depends on five factors, among which the two most important are the actors’ communication and development of a shared strategic vision on developments.

Adaptation of Real Industrial Applications into the Proposed Environmental Emission Standard for Stationary Combustion Systems

In this study, the authors have attempted to analyze and emphasize on the impact of the “Proposed Environmental Emission Standard for Stationary Combustion Systems on real industrial applications by collecting data from industry experts who have been directly involved in the implementation of those emission standard with respect to the regulations and limitations that have been defined, industrial impacts, instrumentations, pre-facility requirement and external interferences. This study, however, does not discuss policy implementation practices of different organizations when monitoring the emission levels of stationary combustion systems. The strong recommendations given in this study are based on performance analysis and comparisons of 225 industrial stationary combustion systems that included categories such as thermal power plants, industrial boilers, thermic fluid heaters, incinerators, cupolas/ blast furnaces/coke ovens/basic oxygen furnaces/electric (induction & arc) furnaces and standby generators mentioned in the proposed environmental emission standard. In addition to plant performance, feedback received from different sectors and data related to emission standards implemented and practiced in 13 Asian countries were also considered. The recommendations given in this study emphasize on the special areas that need to be reconsidered before implementing this proposed stationary source emission standard. The areas highlighted are bio mass combustion systems, standby diesel generators, incinerators and various categories of furnaces, kilns, ovens etc. The outcomes of this study will therefore be important and useful when implementing the proposed emission standard in terms of plant categorization, capacity ranges, reference oxygen levels, normalizing conditions, emission limits, system behaviors, standard test methods, requirement of precise and accurate instrumentation etc. Finally, this study expects to provide a reliable, convenient and effective stationary sources emission standard for the benefit of regulatory bodies, industries, instruments & equipment suppliers, monitoring organizations etc.