Table of Contents
The goal of this collection of papers is to describe and analyse the emergence and roles of implementation and delivery units in the UK, Australia and Europe, to understand how they differ from each other, and how they evolved and fared. Their arrival undoubtedly reflected broader developments in the management and evolution of central institutions in each jurisdiction, so some background on this would be useful.
I hope each of the case study papers might address the points identified below, but let me hasten to add that each author or team of authors should feel free to develop their analysis and narrative in the way that makes most sense to them – in other words, do not let the checklist get in the way of a good story! Here are the areas that would be useful to cover:
What was the rationale for establishing these units? Did they reflect the specific interests of first ministers or other leaders? Did particular failures or scandals lead to their creation, or what there a more general critique in the air? Was their emergence partially as a critique of the inability of other central agencies to make these kinds of assessments?
What is the location of implementation and delivery units in the immediate organisational ecology of the core executive? Did this evolve over time? Why?
What kind of leaders and staff were chosen to fill these units? What was the size of these units? Did the type of leader change over time?
What is the specific role of the units in policy development, agenda management, and oversight processes by first ministers and their governments? Does the label ‘implementation unit’ really reflect their role? Are they working the upstream of developing policy initiatives, or do they operated more fully in the downstream with the actual implementation of initiatives, or both? Or are they monitoring the progress of other entities – such as departments, ministries or agencies – as they seek to implement a policy initiative? Are they reserved for only dealing with certain kinds of policy initiatives?
How do these units carry out their mandates in complicated, shifting institutional environments with a multitude of delivery agents but also a good number of other core executive agencies and units? Can you point to instances where these units successfully carried out their roles? Are there instances where they were marginal or ineffective? Has their effectiveness evolved over time?
Are there functional equivalents or competitors to implementation units, such as central processes or other units and central agencies that provide implementation thinking in the upstream of policy development and then monitor progress?
Has ‘lesson-drawing’ taken place across jurisdictions (Rose, 1993), when the units were created or as they took up their mandates?
What does the future appear to hold in store for these units? Is the existence of these units precarious, at the whim of first ministers and certain governments? Or do they appear have promise of becoming institutionalised? If so, where?
Bardach, Eugene 1997, The Implementation Game: What Happens After a Bill Becomes Law, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Barrett, Susan M. 2004, ‘Implementation Studies: Time for a Revival? Personal Reflections on 20 Years of Implementation Studies’, Public Administration, v.82, No.2, pp.249-62.
Berman, Paul 1978, ‘Macro- and Micro-Implementation’, Public Policy, v.26 (Spring), pp.165-79.
Bridgman, Peter and Glyn Davis 2000, The Australian Policy Handbook, Allen Unwin, Sydney.
Burch, Martin and Ian Holliday 2004, ‘The Blair Government and the Core Executive’, Government and Opposition, v.39, no.1, pp.1-21.
Canada 2004, Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, ‘Public Testimony’, September 27, 2004, Volume 12 (English Transcripts) p.1857 at web site http://www.gomery.ca/en/transcripts/
Canada 2004, Policy Development and Implementation in Complex Files, National Homelessness Initiative and Canada School of Public Service, Ottawa.
Desveaux, James, Evert Lindquist, and Glen Toner 1994, ‘Organising for Policy Innovation in Public Bureaucracy: AIDS, Energy, and Environmental Policy in Canada’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, vol. 27, no. 3 (September), pp. 493-538.
Exworth, Mark and Martin Powell 2004, ‘Big Windows and Little Windows: Implementation in the ‘Congested State’’, Public Administration, v.82, no.2, pp.263-81.
Goggin, Malcolm, et al. 1990, Implementation Theory and Practice: Toward a Third Generation, Scott, Foresman, Little, Brown, Glenview, Illinois.
Hill, Michael, and Peter Hupe 2002, Implementing Public Policy, Sage, London.
Hogwood, B.W. and L. Gunn 1984, Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Howlett, Michael and M. Ramesh 2003, Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycle and Policy Subsystems, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Toronto.
Howlett, Michael 1991, ‘Policy Instruments, Policy Styles, and Policy Implementation: National Approaches to Theories of Instrument Choice’, Policy Studies Journal, v.19, no.2, pp.1-21.
Kelman, Steven 2005, ‘Central Government and Frontline Performance Improvement: The Case of ‘Targets in the United Kingdom’, a paper presented to the Annual Research Meetings of Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, November 5, 2005, Washington, DC.
Kickert, Walter J.M., Klijn, Eric Hans, Koppenjan, Joop F.M. 1997, Managing Complex Networks: Strategies for the Public Sector, Sage Publications Ltd.
Lerner, Daniel, and Harold D. Lasswell (eds.) 1951, The Policy Sciences: Recent Developments in Scope and Method, Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Linders, S.H., and B. Guy Peter 1990, ‘Research perspectives on the design of public policy: Implementation, formulation, and design’ in D.J. Palumbo and D.J. Calista (eds.), Implementation and the Policy Process: Opening Up the Black Box, Greenwood Press, New York.
Lindquist, Evert A. 1996, ‘On the Cutting Edge: Program Review, Government Restructuring, and the Treasury Board of Canada’ in Gene Swimmer (ed.), How Ottawa Spends 1996-97: Life Under the Knife, Carleton University Press, Ottawa, pp.226-241.
Lindquist, Evert A. 2002, ‘Culture, Control or Capacity: Meeting Contemporary Horizontal Challenges in Public Sector Management’ in Meredith Edwards and John Langford (ed.), New Players, Partners and Processes: A Public Sector Without Boundaries? National Institute on Governance, University of Canberra, and Centre for Public Sector Studies, University of Victoria, Canberra and Victoria, p.153-75.
Lindquist, Evert A. 2004, ‘Strategy, Capacity and Horizontal Governance: Lessons from Australia and Canada’, Optimum Online: The Journal of Public Sector Management, v.34, no.3 (December) at http://www.optimumonline.ca/
Lindquist, Evert A. 2000, ‘Reconceiving the Center: Leadership, Strategic Review and Coherence in Public Sector Reform’ in OECD, Government of the Future, OECD, Paris, pp.149-183.
Mazmanian, Daniel A. , and Paul A. Sabatier 1983, Implementation and Public Policy, Scott, Foresman, Glenview, Illinois.
Meyer, John W. and Brian Rowan 1977, ‘Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, v.83, pp.340-63.
O’Toole, Jr., Laurence J. 2004, ‘The Theory-Practice Issue in Policy Implementation Research’, Public Administration, v.82, no.2, pp.309-29.
Pal, Leslie A. 2001, Beyond Policy Analysis: Public Issue Management in Turbulent Times, 2nd Edition, Nelson, Toronto.
Peters, B. Guy 2003, ‘Administrative traditions and the Anglo-American democracies’ in John Halligan (ed.), Civil Service Systems in Anglo-American Countries, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Potter, Evan H. 2000, ‘Treasury Board as Management Board: The Re-Invention of a Central Agency’, in Leslie A. Pal (ed.), How Ottawa Spends 2000-01: Past Imperfect, Future Tense, Oxford University Press, Toronto, pp.95-129.
Pressman, Jeffrey, and Aaron Wildavsky 1973, Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Richards, David and Martin Smith 2005, ‘Central Control and Policy Implementation in the UK: A Case Study of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit’, a paper presented to the Second Annual International Comparative Policy Analysis Workshop, Vancouver, October 3, 2005.
Rose, Richard 1993, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning Across Time and Space, Chatham House, Chatham, New Jersey.
Savoie, Donald J. 1999, Governing From the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Schofield, Jill and Charlotte Suasman 2004, ‘Symposium on Implementing Public Policy: Learning from Theory and Practice: Introduction’, Public Administration, v.82, no.2, pp.235-48.
Shergold, Peter 2003, ‘A Foundation of Ruined Hopes? Delivering Government Policy’, Address to Public Service Commission SES Breakfast Briefing (15 October 2003).
Tiernan, Anne 2005, ‘Working With the Stock We Have: The Evolving Role of Queensland’s Implementation Unit’, a paper presented to the Second Annual International Comparative Policy Analysis Workshop, Vancouver, October 3, 2005.
Wanna, John 2005, ‘From Afterthought to Afterburner: Australia’s Cabinet Implementation Unit’, a paper presented to the Second Annual International Comparative Policy Analysis Workshop, Vancouver, October 3, 2005.
Weller, Patrick 2003, ‘Cabinet Government: An elusive ideal?’, Public Administration, v.81, no.4, pp.701-22.
Williams, Walter 1982, et al, Studying Implementation: Methodological and Administrative Issues, Chatham House, Chatham, New Jersey.
Wilson, James Q. 1989, Bureaucracy, Free Press, New York.