Implementing Public Policy: An Introduction to the Study of Operational Governance

Building on the success of the previous two editions, this book provides students with an exemplary overview of the theory and practice of public policy implementation and how it relates to contemporary public management. In doing so, this new edition makes use of more illustrative examples, delves further into researching implementation and explores issues about the relationship between policy formulation and implementation in greater depth. Written for an international audience, this is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying or conducting research in public policy, social policy, public management, public administration and governance.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Introduction Structure of the book Some matters of definition Notes Positioning Implementation Studies Introduction Concerns about implementation: Historical origins The rule of law The idea of democracy and its implications Public Administration and Public Management Institutional theory Postmodernist theory Conclusion Notes Implementation Theory: The Top-Down/Bottom-Up Debate The discovery of the ‘missing link’ The classical top-down authors The bottom-up challenge Conclusion Implementation Theory The search for a synthesis Where does implementation begin Layers in policy processes Networks: Broadening the horizontal dimension Managing performance: Redefining the vertical dimension Differentiating policy types Including responses of affected actors Conclusion Implementation and Governance Introduction The age of interventionism The age of the market and corporate government The age of neo-interventionism Assessment Conclusion Notes Implementation Theory and the Study of Governance Introduction The stages model of the policy process Alternative analytical frameworks The Multiple Governance Framework Studying implementation as governance research Conclusion Notes Researching Implementation Introduction Defining studies of implementation Explaining what needs explanation Isolating implementation Dealing with layers Specifying inter-organizational relationships Differentiating agency responses Identifying stakes Recognizing macro-parameters Quantitative versus qualitative studies Conclusion Implementation in Context Introduction Implementation in practice The quest for appropriate action Policy settings Institutional environments Operational governance in context Conclusion Notes The Future of Implementation Studies Introduction The objective of studying implementation The study of governance in operation Promising developments Conclusion

About the Author :
Michael Hill is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Newcastle, UK.  Before entering academic life at the University of Reading he was a street-level bureaucrat in a local social assistance office. He later worked on research at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol on the implementation of social policy. Since retiring from Newcastle he has held part-time visiting professorships in London University at Goldsmiths College and Queen Mary College and also in the London School of Economics and the University of Brighton. His long-standing text The Public Policy Process reached its eighth edition in 2021 in a joint version with Frédéric Varone of the University of Geneva. In 2020 he published Exploring the World of Social Policy with Zoë Irving of the University of York. Peter Hupe is Visiting Professor at the Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium. He is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK. While teaching Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, he had academic affiliations in Leiden, Leuven, London, Oxford and Potsdam. The major part of his research regards the theoretical-empirical study of policy processes, particularly implementation and street-level bureaucracy. He discovered the relevance of the latter during an earlier career as a policymaker in the Dutch national civil service. Publishing regularly in journals like Public Administration, Public Policy and Administration and Public Management Review, in 2019 he composed the Research Handbook of Street-Level Bureaucracy: The Ground Floor of Government in Context. With Tony Evans he edited Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom (2020).

Review :
This updated edition consolidates its position as the leading text on implementation, and is fast approaching the status of a ’modern classic’. With its comprehensive coverage of the field by two leading scholars, it will be valuable to both students and specialists. The Third Edition of Implementing Public Policy enhances what has become the gold standard for navigating the literature about policy design, implementation, and governance.  This edition serves as a clarion call for rethinking how policies serve as instruments for governing. In this new edition, Michael Hill and Peter Hupe provide an essential handbook to students, teachers, and practitioners of the art of implementation. The authors′ thoughtful and theoretically-informed perspective brings clarity and insight to the study and practice of implementation.