The Relationship between Policy Design and Policy Implementation

Regardless of how well intentioned, or how well formulated, or how universally supported in the adoption phase of the policy process, a public policy cannot begin to change the behavior of a target population or solve a specific public problem until someone or some organization implements the policy. Ideally, ìeach policy includes a design of how a public problem will be resolved. This design will define, in varying detail, the goal(s) of the policy, the set of policy instruments to be used, the agency responsible for implementation, possible timetables, and the target population. The point of policy design is to match the correct set of instruments with the identified problem (Theodoulou and Kofinis, 2004, pp. 168-169),î and to ultimately solve that problem. However, as we have seen throughout this course, it is highly unlikely that any adopted public policy or agency rule or regulation will ever achieve such clarity primarily because of the necessity for policy feasibility and acceptability. The competition inherent in the political stream of the policy process dictates the accommodation of many interests which inevitably dilutes policy details resulting in vague and ambiguous and often confusing legislation.

Frequently, the political give-and-take of the various policy actors in the policy process prevents a thorough understanding, and all too often a misidentification, of the true public problem at hand. Unfortunately, as solutions are developed in the policy formulation stage, improper or inadequate policy instruments are proposed that will have little if any impact. Consequently, policy-makers must be extremely cognizant of the fact that the ills of poorly designed policy cannot be miraculously healed by administrative agencies as they attempt to interpret and implement imperfect legislation. The following text block provides some key considerations that policy-makers should take into account as they work through the policy formulation process. The important point to remember is that the limited understanding of the causality of most social problems makes an in-depth evaluation of potential solutions nearly impossible. Limited understanding and knowledge coupled with the impact of diverse political considerations means that the potential for policy success is limited. Therefore, policy-makers must seriously consider the difficulties and vagaries of policy implementation if they intend to enable any policy solution to have the optimum opportunity to be as successful as bounded rationality allows: