Policy Implementation

Policy Implementation
South Africa has good policies, the problem is implementation

Yes or No
 Policy implementation
• Is a process of interaction between the setting of goals and actions
geared to achieve them.
• Those actions by public or private individuals (or groups) that are
directed at the achievement of objectives set forth in prior policy
decisions.
• Is a dynamic conversation process of policies and plans into
specific programs and projects.
• The stage between decision and operations.
• Stage in policy cycle where formulated policies, intentions, plans
and visions are executed and operationalised.
 Policy Implementation
• In normal terms policy implementation is an execution.
• This mainly or sometime happen through programs and project
execution.
• It is a delivery of services to the communities.
• It involves Public Private Partnerships and e-governance in
order to be successful.
• In the public service officials comply with new adopted policy.
 Policy Implementation
• Policy implementation is the stage of the policy process
where decisions are translated into action.
• There are different approaches to understanding
implementation (Bottom Up, Top Down and Hybrid
Theory)
• Generation stages have also formed part of
implementation literature
• 7C Protocol also forms part of implementation literature
 Stages in the policy implementation
Stage One: Implementation as an automatic, mechanistic
process
• The first (classical) generational thinking on the subject began
with the assumption that implementation would happen
automatically once appropriate policies had been authoratively
proclaimed.
Stage Two: Implementation as too complex to manage
systematically
• The second (empirical) generation assumption set out to challenge
this assumption, to explain that implementation is a political
process no less complex (and often more complex) than policy
formulation.
 State three: Acceptance of the need to explain the
complexity of implementation
• The third (analytical) generation, on the other hand, has
been less concerned with specific implementation failures
and more with understanding how implementation works
in general and how its prospects can be improved.
Immigration policy in South Africa
• DHA currently do not have data of how
many illegal foreigners in South Africa.
• 2,2 million people born outside South
Africa (Stats SA, 2011).
• Huawei, is 90% staffed by foreign
nationals.
• 213 foreign truck drivers had been
arrested for operating illegally in South
Africa since January this year.
• 18,000 foreigners in SA prisons.
 7C Protocol
• While policy can be defined in several ways,
implementation moves from set political goals to results
on the ground.
• The 7-C protocol is a useful vehicle for making sense of
these variables because implementation involves
complex intra-organisational interactions.
 Content
• A policy can either be distributive, regulatory, or
redistributive.
• In addition, distributive policies create public goods for
the general welfare and are non-zero-sum in character.
• Regulatory policies specify rules of conduct with
sanctions for failure to comply.
• Redistributive policies attempt to change allocations of
wealth or power of some groups at the expense of others.
 Content
• There is also a widespread implicit realisation that the
content of policy is important not only in the means it
employs to achieve its ends, but also in its determination
of the ends themselves and how it chooses the specific
means to reach those ends.
• The content of the policy consists of the goals, how it
problematises the issue at hand and how it aims to solve
the perceived problem.
 Context
• The focus of context is on the institutional context which,
like the other variables, will necessarily be shaped by the
larger context of social, economic, political, and legal
realities of the system.
• The implementing organisation must be a unit of the
governmental bureaucracy.
• The following are three key variables to consider in the
context of the implementation of policy.
 Context-Continues…

• The organisational structure and personnel, which

refers to the stability of the structure and the
qualifications of the personnel who must
implement the policy.
• These are important because unstable
administrative organisation and unqualified
personnel may reduce the capacity to implement.
 Commitment
• This variable is critical to implementation.
• For instance, if the person responsible for carrying
out the policy is not willing or unable to do so,
little will happen.
• Thus, resulting a policy not to be effectively or
successfully implemented.
• Commitment is fundamental at all levels through
which the policy passes.
 Commitment-continues…
• Commitment relates to both willingness and the
ability of the actors to implement a given policy.
• Good policies with all the necessary features to
effective implementation can be put in place, but if
the various actors in the policy process are either
unwilling or unable to implement, the said
intervention will remain ineffective.
 Capacity
• The capacity of the public sector is evident as the structural,
functional, and cultural ability to implement the policy objectives.
• For example, the ability to deliver those public goods and services
aimed at raising the quality of life of citizens such as quality
education, in which the government has set out to deliver,
effectively as planned over time.
• If the objective is to optimise scarce tangible or non-tangible
resources, the following changes in traditional government
functioning are needed to achieve successful policy
implementation.
 Capacity-continues…
• The following prerequisites must be active, which
are, committed, strong and honest political and
administrative leadership and direction.
• The availability and optimally creative and
coordinated use of resources.
 Clients/ coalitions
• Clients/ coalitions are defined as those who are
required to adapt new patterns of interaction by
policy.
• They are the people within organisations or groups
most affected by the policy.
• These people must change to meet the demands of
the policy.
 Clients-continues…
• There are several factors that must be taken into consideration
when distinguishing between clients that are affected by policy
implementation and those that can use their social power or status
to influence implementation.
• These factors be, the degree of organisation or institutionalisation
of the clients.
• The leadership of the target group, leadership can be aligned for
or against the policy.
 Communication
• The communication of the policy meaning, goals, objectives,
roles and responsibilities to those stakeholders responsible for
policy implementation.

Coordination

• The coordination of the policies, strategies and plans of the

various stakeholders (cooperation is often an important
requirement for coordination, which includes joint programming,
planning and monitoring and evaluation).
How the 5-C protocol influences the success of the policy implementation
• Policy implementation is the result of interactions among a
variety of separate actors with separate interests, goals, and
strategies.
• For example, a national education policy may be implemented at
the national, provincial, and local levels.
• The 7-C variables mentioned above assume the complexity of the
implementation process, which arises from the fact that
implementation is far from being a simple administrative process
in which implementers simply carry out what the policymaker has
enacted.
• The variables influence and shape each other in the policy
implementation domain.
 The Top-Down Approach to Policy Implementation

• The top-down approach is often referred to as classical generation or

scientific management.

• It is characterised by the fact that the policy designers, who are usually at the
top of the bureaucratic pyramid, are the main actors in both policy design
and policy implementation and in the effectiveness of policy implementation.

• The top-down approach assumes that subordinates, i.e., those working at the
lowest level of government, are inactive and unquestioned recipients and
executors of instructions imposed on them by officials at the top.
 The Top-Down Approach-Continues…

• According to this model, those who have high status in a political

system, such as executive officials, members of parliament,
judges, and city councillors, are the policy makers.
• It assumes that policy implementation is a machine-like process.
It also takes into account the subordinates, those whose daily task
is to provide services and goods to the community, because they
obediently and dutifully begin implementation.
Arguments against the top-down approaches
• Top-down approaches have also been criticised for claiming or
assuming that policymakers have the necessary skills, abilities,
and all the information they need to make rational policy
decisions.
• Considering the ever-changing and unpredictable environment in
which policy is made and implemented, and the limited capacity
of the human mind to process vast amounts of information.
• The main criticism of the top-down approach is that it ignores the
fact that humans do not function like pre-programmed robots or
computers.
• Another drawback of the top-down approach is that it assumes
that subordinates operate with military precision, which is not the
case.
 The Bottom-Up Approach to Policy Implementation

• The bottom-up approach is a more complex model introduced in

the late 1980s and early 1990s to replace the top-down approach.
• It represents a reversal of the top-down approach and emerged
primarily in response to weaknesses and reactions to criticisms of
the top-down approach.
• The bottom-up approach explicitly rejects common notions of
universal management principles.
• It also emphasises the importance of public, stakeholder, and
lower-level public participation in both policy making and policy
implementation.
 The Bottom-Up Approach-Continues…
• Street- level bureaucrats, also referred to as frontline staff, are the actual
implementers and decision-makers of policy because they are the ones who
change or adjust a policy as they perform their duties.

• At the local level, where policy is implemented, bureaucrats/senior officials

not only have professional training and experience, but they are also
committed to the effectiveness of a service, whether in health or education.

• A practical example is the submission of reports and ideas to city councils,

through which they strongly influence policy.
 Street bureaucrats and policy
implementation
• Street bureaucrats can influence policy and its implementation in
the following ways.

• Namely, by controlling the policy agenda.

• By controlling the agenda administrators, they can ensure that a

number of issues do not even make it onto the agenda.
 Street bureaucrats-continues…

• The street-level bureaucrats are the real implementers of the

policy because they are the ones who decide what benefits the
beneficiaries of the policy receive.

• Unfortunately, given the critical role that street-level bureaucrats

play in the success or failure of policy design and
implementation, there are no checks and balances.
Combining Both Top-Down and Bottom Up Approaches

• The problem with the top-down and/ or bottom-up frameworks is not

whether they are right or wrong.

• It is that none of them is sufficiently comprehensive to make it possible to

apply either one on its own in all circumstances.

• Consequently, when used or applied on their own without regard to

contextual factors, each one falls short of an understanding of the realities of
the environment in which policy implementation takes place and the ways in
which a model influences the effectiveness of policy implementation.
 Combining Both Top-Down and Bottom Up
Approaches-Continues

• Neither the top-down and bottom-up approaches are not, and should not be
understood as two mutually exclusive alternatives approach.

• The challenge for policymakers and administrators, therefore, is to determine

the right time to switch from one model to the other, or to combine different
implementation models, in order to maximise the outcomes and effectiveness
of the policies being implemented.
 Hybrid theory
• In the policy implementation research, hybrid theory is regarded
as one of the three theories of analysing the implementation of
policies.
• Hybrid theory views policy implementation as what takes place
because of a wide range of stakeholders through their interaction
between different levels.
• In the history of public policy, more in particular implementation,
the purpose of the development of hybrid theory was to try and
combine both elements of theories top-down and bottom-up, with
a view to avoid the implications caused by the use of a single
dimensional approach.
 Hybrid theory-continues
• The integration of both elements of the two theories assisted in
eliminating the weaknesses of the two theories and by combining
them created an opportunity for the strengths of both theories to
meaningfully contribute for equal influence on policy
implementation.
• Thus, both central policy makers and local actors are equally
important to policy implementation
 Policy implementation through e-governance
• Is defined as the governmental use of ICT to improve the
quality and effectiveness of service delivery for citizens
(United Nations, 2008).
• Goes beyond merely improving service delivery for
government and delves into area of enhancing
democracy and citizen participation in the policymaking
process.
 Critique(s) of E-governance
• E-governance definitions focus on the delivery
component as being critically important to its
development.
➢E.g. Improvements in tax filing through online systems,
payments of public service bills online, and renewal of
vehicle registration online are common examples used to
successfully implemented e-governance.
 Critique(s) of E-governance
• E-governance is seen as a transformative force of change.
• E-governance is seen as a process that will reinvent
government, increase its efficiency, decentralize
structure, and be transparent and accountable to its
citizens.
• E-governance is seen to be offering a diverse number of
solutions to a problem through applications.
 Critique(s) of E-governance
• There is the international dimension of e-governance.
➢Governments around the world in both developed and
developing governments are looking at e-governance as a
way to change their operations, reach out to citizens, and
transform their organization.
 Importance of E-Governance
• The integration of government information and services
to promote better governance are important for e-
governance.
• E-governance is important because it addresses the use of
IT to increase citizen participation in government.
Implementation Challenges