Multilevel policy implementation and the where of learning: the case of the information system for school buildings in Italy

Abstract

The paper builds on the case of the design and implementation of the National Information System for School Buildings in Italy. The project is one of digitalization of the public sector and involve several layers of territorial governments (the State Department for Education, Regional and local governments) and ICT experts, and is becoming a tool for policy making in the field. Nonetheless, the programme was initially designed with a top-down approach immediately stuck. Its effective implementation only took place some years later by downsizing policy design and allowing Regions to implement those digital solutions which, in the meanwhile, had been designed and implemented from the bottom-up. The paper draws from the case study theoretical considerations about the importance of where policy learning happens and the strategies that policy makers may adopt in case of policy failure in order to re-establish the conditions for effectiveness. Response to Reviewers: Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, We are glad for the opportunity we have to resubmit our paper. We are aware that we received major remarks and by consequence we deeply restructured the paper, in particular concerning the theoretical section and its connections with the empirics. These is a summary of the main changes we made and that are highlighted in bold throughout the main file: Major points. 1.Section 2 has been unfolded in two new section. New section 2 has been completely rewritten and now explicitly focus the theoretical argument of our paper, which addresses the issues of the loci of policy learning. New section 3, instead provide a succinct review of the literature on the implementation of e-government solutions. 2.Section 4 (previously section 3) discusses more in detail the methodological standpoint, explaining the case selection and the unit of analysis (the implementation

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