Policy Tools Theory and Implementation Networks: Understanding State Enterprise Zone Partnerships

Mapping public support for innovation: A comparison of policy alignment in the UK and France

“…For the last 20 years, policy researchers have been looking for general and very common characteristics of policies that would allow comparisons across states and countries (Schneider and Ingram, 1988;Blair, 2002). Some frameworks have been put forward and used for analysing and evaluating programmes and policies 2 based in three to five policy aspects.…”

“…In particular, these three dimensions have been analysed and used individually or in combination, by both innovation and policy researchers. In particular, public policy researchers have made efforts to explore bridges between delivery and implementation mechanisms, and policy tools (Sabatier, 1986;Peters, 2000;Blair, 2002).…”

“…This means understanding policy programmes as well-run enterprises that coordinate different kinds of knowledge and organisations and that require extensive active involvement in diagnosing problems and designing solutions (Kooiman, 1993). However, the reason for changes through time and countries in the design, implementation and choice of policy instruments cannot be completely explained by learning or national styles (Peters, 2000;Blair, 2002). Policy programmes are launched within a specific policy paradigm, which shapes the way problems are defined, the type of solutions offered and the policies proposed (Mytelka and Smith, 2002).…”

“…Again, these dimensions are widely used in the innovation and policy literature to capture the main characteristics of programme implementation and management so as to differentiate the role of government in design, implementation and management, and the importance of the role of the network of actors in those processes. In particular, the policy literature refers to them as topdown and bottom-up approaches to policy implementation (Sabatier, 1986;Blair, 2002). These dimensions seem to affect symmetrically the interaction with private sector and the complexity of the implementation networks (Blair, 2002).…”

“…In particular, the policy literature refers to them as topdown and bottom-up approaches to policy implementation (Sabatier, 1986;Blair, 2002). These dimensions seem to affect symmetrically the interaction with private sector and the complexity of the implementation networks (Blair, 2002). In the innovation literature, Foray and Llerena (1996) make a similar distinction in the nature of programme implementation, but using a different term (centralised versus decentralised).…”