Learning From Experience: Lessons From Policy Implementation

The first generation of implementation analysts discovered the problem of policy implementation—the uncertain relationship between policies and implemented programs—and sketched its broad parameters. The second generation began to unpack implementation processes and to zero in on relations between policy and practice. Together, these examinations generate a number of important lessons for policy, practice, and analysis; for example: policy cannot always mandate what matters to outcomes at the local level; individual incentives and beliefs are central to local responses; effective implementation requires a strategic balance of pressure and support; policy-directed change ultimately is a problem of the smallest unit. These lessons frame the conceptual and instrumental challenge for a third generation of implementation analysts—integrating the macro world of policymakers with the micro world of individual implementors.