Chapter 8

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

STAGE 5 OF POLICY PROCESS / POLICY CYCLE

Introduction:
Once the preferred policy option is adopted, and gazetted public policy is ready for
implementation
Implementation process consists of rule-making, rule- administration and rule-adjudication.

Meaning
Policy Implementation
› Implementation is the realization, application, or execution of a plan, idea, model,
design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.
› In political science, implementation refers to the carrying out of public policy.
› Legislatures pass laws that are then carried out by public servants working in
bureaucratic agencies.

Policy Implementation is when action is taken to address a public problem. At this stage, the
design of a policy proposal is put into effect and the policy is implemented by the respective
government departments and agencies, in conjunction with other organizations as required.

Implementation process is an interactive process performed and influenced by various

networks, actors, stakeholders, individuals and groups.

Policy implementation has been the subject of various definitions. Mazmanian and Sabatier
(1983:20) have defined policy implementation as “the carrying out of a basic policy decision,
usually incorporated in a statute but which can also take the form of important executive
orders or court decisions”. O’Toole has defined policy implementation as “what happens
between the establishment of an apparent intention on the part of the government to do
something, or to stop doing something, and the ultimate impact in the world of action.” It
involves all of the activities designed to carry out the policies enacted by legitimate agency
such as legislative branch. The activities include the creation of new organizations,
departments, agencies bureaus, and or assignment of new responsibilities to existing
organization(s). In policy implementation, scholars postulate that it involves the following
phases: discover, design, develop, demonstrate, deploy and disengage.

Purpose
Policy Implementation Purpose
 To bring about compliance & control
o To make people to do things
o To refrain people from doing things
o To make people continue to do things

Process:
Policy Implementation Process.
Refer Anderson page 212 (Figure 6.1)
 Statute

Agency Rules & Regulations

Agency Enforcement Actions

Outputs

Outcome
Elements:
Implementation process involve 4 elements
1. Actors & Agencies
2. Procedures
3. Methods / techniques
4. Political Support

1. Actors & Agencies

Policy Implementation Actors & Agencies (Refer Anderson pp. 216-222
› Bureaucracy
› Legislature
› Courts
› Pressure groups
› Community organizations

Bureaucracy
› Officers of administrative agencies are called bureaucracy. They decides rules and
procedures for implementation and carried them out
› Those who participated in the legislative process do not develop precise guidelines
due to lack of time, interest and information to do so.

Legislature
› Legislators implement policy by ensuring specific law for putting policies into effect
are followed.
› Legislators determine the agencies discretion by specifying / approving the uses of
fund for specific policy program.
› Legislatives veto gives legislature the authoritative power to exercise control over
what have been done by the administrative agencies in implanting policies.
The Courts
› Most of the public laws are enforced by the judicial branch of the government.
› Courts actively play roles in policy implementation:
› Courts interpreted public laws and legislation
› Courts control behavior and actions of agencies and officers

Interest Groups
› Administrative agencies are surrounded by interest groups.
› Interest groups build relationship which can become so close to influence the
implementation of policy.
› Interest froups can directly participate in policy implementing.

Community Organizations
› This organization always involve in policy implementation especially at the local
level.
› Various adversely boards are drown from community organization.
› Actively involve in policy program implementation such as policy of toxic waste
management in some developed countries.

2. Procedures
Types of procedures for policy implementation(Refer Anderson p. 249)
› Formal procedures: example - procedures to renew licence, passport
› Informal procedures: example- outcome from negotiation, correspondence
› Voluntary regulations: regulation introduced by organization to
control/encourage/discaurage certain behavior – smoking, safety, ethical behavior,
penalties, rewards
› non-voluntary regulations: mandatory.
Procedures describes in detail policy implementation requirement: who, what, why,
when, & how

3. Methods/Techniques for Policy Implementation

Different / combinations of methods / techniques is use to implement policy – depending on
the typology / category of policy (refer Topic 1).

Methods / Techniques
› Inspection
› Licensing
› Aids (Loan and Subsidy)
› Contracting
› Government Expenditure

Inspection
› A technique to control and to check whether the implementation follow the
standards prescribed in policy or not.
› May be continuous or periodical in nature.
 › Meant to reveal the level of policy compliance by those involved in an activity, with
objective of correcting undesirable conditions in the implementation processes.

Advantages/Disadvantages
› Costly.
› High compliance

Licensing
› Control techniques involve an enabling actions.
› It is defined as government authorization to engage in certain activities which might
otherwise forbid.
› Example: the issuance of a driving license to drivers.

Advantages & Disadvantages

› Sources of revenue
› Demand high political support

Aids
Aids (Loan and Subsidy)
› A technique for controlling and bringing policy compliances
› Example: under the agricultural prices support policy programs, commodity loans
and payment are available only to those who comply with production and marketing
control policy.
› As such farmers loans for purchasing farms are made under condition designed to
ensure goods farm management in Malaysia.

Advantages & Disadvantages

› Increases government expenditure
› Useful for restructuring wealth / benefit to public

Contracting
› A technique for controlling private organizations; they must comply
› The contract technique contains some requirements and violators of these
requirements can be denied of continuation of implementing present policy program
or future ones.

Advantages/Disadvantages
› Increase efficiency in service delivery
› Reduce government expenditure
› Private provide services at cost – financial burden is shifted to public

Expenditure
› The uses of government expenditure to resolve economic problem.
Example:
› During inflation, government expenditure for some programs are cut to
control inflationary pressure.
 › Government may push more funds to foster domestic and local industries
activities/development.

Advantages/Disadvantages
› Economic activities are more stable – encourage new entry to market
› Public dependency on government intervention is high
› Burdens government

4. Political Support
› Political support from citizens is necessary (although not sufficient) for implementing
policy.
› 2 types of political support:
› Specific support means a person’s satisfaction with specific policies and with
the performance of the government
› Diffuse support, means a person’s conviction that the existence and
functioning of the government conform to his or her moral or ethical
principles about what is right in the political sphere

Approaches for Policy Implementation

› Top down
› Bottom-up
› Procedural

Top down Approach

› Top-down implementation is the carrying out of a policy decision—by statute,
executive order, or court decision
› Policy rules and regulations are set at higher levels in a political process and are
then communicated to subordinate levels which are then charged with the
technical, managerial, and administrative tasks of putting policy into practice. 
› In a federal system - The top-level officials at the federal level establish policy rules
and regulation & working a way down to state and local level

The top-down approach has been lauded for the pursuit of consistency in policy. Its
hierarchical control focus is well adapted to clear policies. However, the top-down approach
has been criticised for beginning at the statute without reference to preceding actions. By
viewing implementation as an administrative process, this approach excludes the political
factors of policy formation and implementation. Further, placing legislators at the centre
and excluding other, particularly local, actors has attracted criticism for this approach.

Advantages
› (1) clear and consistent goals—articulated at the top of the hierarchical
environment,
› (2) knowledge of pertinent cause and effects,
› (3) clear hierarchy of authority,
› (4) rules established at the top and policy is aligned with the rules,
› (5) resources / capacity to carry out the commands from the top
(Elder, 2011, lecture).
Disadvantages
Top down approach:
› 1. “fails to consider the significance of actions taken earlier in the policy-making
process”
› 2. ignore or eliminate the political aspects of implementation. The legislation “often
requires ambiguous language and contradictory goals” in order to gain enough votes
for passage
› 3. top-down approach see the “statute framers as key actors,” compared to lower
level officials

Bottom-up Approach
› The lower level officials at the local or state are directly involved in designing
implementation goals, strategies, and activities
› It is because they are among the factors that affect the policy implementations.

The bottom up approach is extolled for taking into account contextual factors in the
implementing environment. This approach is suited to the examination of uncertain policies.
This allows local actors to define their goals, strategies and activities in policy
implementation. It helps in the identification of hurdles to policy implementation and for
appropriate adjustment and adaptation of policy to local realities. This approach is suited to
the examination of uncertain policies. On the other hand, this approach has been faulted for
over-emphasis on local autonomy. It has been argued that since local actors do not derive
from the electorate via elected representatives, they are not appropriately empowered for
policy control.

Advantages
› Empower grass root to think more creatively.
› Solutions are driven more by practical requirements than abstract notions as in the
case of top down approach.

Disadvantages
› street-level bureaucrats are usually not accountable to the people. In this case, the
local agents may intentionally subvert the elected officials’ policy goals and engage
personal sub goals
› Bottom-uppers ignore the fact that many policies are created in a top-down manner,
and likely in a manner which reinforces top-down authority.

Procedural Approach
Government focuses on procedure to implement policy (refer procedural regulatory policy
in Chapter 1)
Policy is made by policy makers as guidelines
› Procedures define how the organization / government agencies wants to do it
› Procedures is developed by policy implementers (administrative agencies)
› Procedures describe in detail the process to implement a policy.
› Procedures are written in sequential order at a relatively high level and assign
responsibilities.
 › Procedure refers to the process rather than the result

Advantages
› clearly articulate roles and responsibilities
› describes in detail the process or steps to be taken in order to implement a policy.
› Mandatory to follow
› Procedures will evolve over time in response to internal or external environment
changes.
Example:
› University Procedures

Disadvantages
› Action / behavior deviate from procedure if they are not well understood/difficult to
follow
› Resulted to rigid process of decision making and actions.

PROBLEMS (constraints) IN IMPLEMENTING POLICY

1) Time constraint
- most of the policy been implemented only for a short period of time
- Thus, the policy makers do not able to screen out the effectives of the policy
itself.
- Lack concentration of the policy may contribute to the negative outcomes

2) Costly
- More or less the policy proposed needs high allocation from the government
- The investment to the policy may not convincing the government to get the
ROI (return on investment)
- Thus, proper budget for the proper policy will be introduced

3) Authoritative decision
- this deals with the bureaucratic system exist in the political institution
- the problem is, ‘redundancy’ of making the decision and from who the decision
should get
- This is due to (because) the who makes the policy (policy makers) and which
party will implement the policy (policy implementers).

4) non- supportive action from the opposition parties

- ‘political influence’ arises among the interest and pressure groups
- the groups are trying to lobby the society about the misconception about policy
introduced
- Lobbying process is involving the group of people (opposition group) which try to
change the societies’ mentality and perception about government.

5) ‘infinity’ objectives
- it explains about the ability and the effort taken to make the realization of the
policy
 - Due to the many obstacles and barriers occur, the policy makers may face
variable challenges on the policy itself
- To achieve the objectives of the policy, the government must have the ‘targeted
goals” on the certain period.

Conditions for effective implementation

10 conditions for effective policy implementation according to Hogwood and Gunn, (1984),
§ Policy must not exceed the judicial / constitutional limits of the agency
§ There must be adequate time frame and financial resources (budget)
§ There must be adequate staff and guidelines / procedures
§ The policy in theory and practice must be compatible
§ Cause effect relationship - the policy must be very direct and not complex – easily
understood and implementable

10 conditions for effective implementation according to Hogwood and Gunn, (1984):

§ Dependency relationship - the implementing agency must not dependen on others
§ The basic objective of policy must be well understood and agreed upon by all the
implementing agencies
§ Task must be specified and in an appropriate sequence
§ Policy implementors must have the same information base, interprete in the same
way and communicate well to each other
§ Implementing agencies must work towards total compliance