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POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

Who Implements Policy?

Administrative Organization

Administrative Politics

What is Policy Implementation?


Policy implementation is what happens after a bill becomes law. Represents the stage where government executes an adopted policy as specified by the legislation or policy action. Policy implementation is the stage in the policy process where policy action occurs to address a recognized policy problem. At this stage, various government agencies and departments, responsible for the respective area of policy, are formally made responsible for implementation.

At this stage, the design of a policy proposal is put into effect. Policies are executed by respective administrative agencies. Selected instruments are applied reflective of the legislative mandate, bureaucratic interpretation, and capacity. Specified target populations, and the society, experience the first tangible effects of the policy once implemented. (Theodoulou and Kofinis, 2004)

Who Implements Policy?

Public policy is implemented primarily by a complex system of administrative agencies. These agencies perform most of the day to day work of government and thus affect citizens directly in their actions. Classic feature of the traditional literature of public administration politics & administration were separate and distinct spheres of activity.

According to Prof. Frank Goodnow (1900): Politics concerned with the formulation of the will of the state , handled by the political branches of the government legislative and executive. Administration concerned with the implementation of the will of the state.
Today no one accepts the politics administration dichotomy.

Administrative agencies often operate under broad and ambiguous statutory mandates that leave them with much discretion to decide what should or should not be done. Such statutory mandates are in effect directives to agencies involved to go out and make some policy. Under these conditions, the administrative process becomes an extension of the legislative process, and the administrators find themselves immersed in politics.

Other actors:
The Legislature
Legislative bodies display much interest in the implementation of policies and use a variety of means to influence administrative action.
Specificity of Legislation Senatorial Approval Legislative Veto Casework

The Courts
Some laws are enforced primarily through judicial action. The most important influence on administration is through their interpretation of statutes and administrative rules and regulations and their review of administrative decisions in cases brought before them. Courts can facilitate, hinder, or largely nullify the implementation of particular policies through their decisions.

Pressure Groups

Given the operating discretion of many agencies, a group that can successfully influence agency action may have a substantial effect on the course and impact of public policies. Sometimes relationships between a group and an agency may become close as to lead to the allegation that the group has captured the agency.

Groups may become directly involved in the administration, as when representation of particular interests is specified on the boards of plural headed agencies. Advisory bodies are another means by which groups may become participants in policy implementation

Community Organizations

At the local level, community or other organizations have occasionally been used in the administration of national policies.

Administrative Organization
Most public policies implementation is the responsibility of an existing agency or a new agency established for this purpose. The creation of new agencies is usually handled by the legislature. At the national level, however, some have been created by the executive under the administrative reorganization authority, which permits the president to propose reorganization plans that go into effect automatically unless disapproved by

Organizational considerations that affects policy: When a new program is adopted, the
contending (opposition) interests may seek to have its administration awarded to an agency they think will be more favorable to their interests.

Administrative organizations may also be used to emphasize the need for or to facilitate action on particular policy problems.

Organizational considerations that affects policy:

The internal structure of an agency may be fashioned to help secure desired action.
Congress has established independent regulatory commissions.

Progressive era political theory held that the independent commission device was a means by which regulation could be taken out of politics and handled on a scientific basis. It is not fully clear, why congress sometimes sets up independent regulatory commissions and at other times relies on bureaus in executive departments to implement regulatory programs

The substance of policy is affected by how it is administered. Administration is thought to depend upon what agency administers it. Determination of what agency should be responsible for the implementation of programs, is more than a technical matter, it is a political issue as well.

Administrative Politics
Effectiveness of an agency to carry out its legal mandate and what it actually does and does not accomplish will be substantially affected by the amount of cooperation and political support it gets, and, conversely, the political opposition it runs into. An agency exists and acts in a political milieu that affects how it exercises its discretion and carries out its programs.

The environment in which an agency exists may contain many forces that may, at one time or another, impinge on it and help give direction to its actions in multitudinous ways. These forces may arise out of the following sources: The Basic Rules of the Game The Chief Executive The Congressional System of Supervision The Courts Other Administrative Agencies

Other Governments Interest Groups Communications Media Each of the forces discussed above is multiple in their nature. Thus a number of political forces may impinge on an agency. But an agency will always try to shape, influence and mollify the forces in their environment.

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