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Researchers in public policy and public administration agree that policy integration is a process. Nevertheless, scholars have given limited attention to political aspects that facilitate or impede integration. This paper aims at filling that gap, by looking at how different theories of the policy process can help in explaining the process of policy integration as shaped by policy subsystems. By building on insights from theories of the policy process, we develop pathways regarding adoption and implementation in policy integration that account for the politicization and the role of actors and subsystems in the policy process. Our main argument is that policy integration is in permanent political tension with the sectoral logic of policymaking, which predominantly happens between actors in subsystems. Policy integration is, thus, not a single moment when those tensions are solved once and for all, but a political process that requires deliberate efforts to overcome the pull toward sector-specific problem definition, policymaking, implementation, and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy evaluation is a complex task. Most approaches now adopt a mixed method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative techniques. A shortcoming of the standard approaches is that they fail to measure or investigate deeper perceptions of the policy. In this paper the usefulness of projective techniques as a tool for policy evaluation is investigated. Projective techniques are widely used in psychology and consumer studies but their usefulness in policy evaluation has still to be assessed. A simple evaluation is done in this paper by reporting on a study of owner-managers of tradeable-services small and medium size enterprises attitudes to government e-business policy. The survey included firms from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and New Zealand. Traditional quantitative and qualitative survey techniques were used, however these failed to produce conclusive evidence. To overcome this limitation two projective techniques - word association and completion tests - were employed as an additional evaluation method. The paper illustrates how the results of projective techniques can be analysed using both context and matrix analysis. Given that the area of e-business is dynamic and fast changing and that SMEs are extremely heterogeneous, it is argued that the application of projective techniques to assess their attitudes and perceptions of government policy is a good test of the usefulness of the method. The results of the projective techniques lead to more insight into the perceptions and attitudes of the owner-managers and provide interesting individual perspectives into the issues. Problems with the method, such as costs, the level of skill needed to apply the technique and generalization are highlighted. The overall conclusions are that projective techniques could provide an interesting additional tool for policy evaluation and that further assessment of its usefulness is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to capture the manner in which the public administration of Romania evolved during the post-communist transition period. Likewise, this approach intends to identify the challenges and the opportunities associated with the adaptation and increase of the Romanian administrative capacity in the context of the adhesion to the European Union. The aim of these changes was the shift from a controlled, political administration to a democratic one. As we will observe, the institutionalization of the formulation, implementation and evaluation systems of public policies in Romania is directly linked to the efforts of integration in the European Union and, implicitly, to the reform of the administrative system. The hypothesis that we support is the following - the development of the administrative capacity and the reform of the public system was stimulated from outside the central administration and under the pressure of the obligations arising from the status of a Member State of the European Union. Unfortunately, in Romania, despite the changes made at central levels, the reform of the administration has not brought an improvement in the planning or implementing of the policies. In terms of policy evaluation, things do not seem to be any better, the culture of evaluation, the satisfaction of the public interest or the improvement of the activity remaining the exception rather than the rule, despite the constant support provided by European-funded programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the evolution of public performance evaluation from the early nineties to the present, age of the so-called spending review. It is a re-reading of facts with an operational dimension, also to orient future choices and the growth of the country, promoting policies for the development of productive public spending and acknowledging merit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses the importance of evaluating the implementation of public programs as an integral component of organizational actions performed by public administrations. Drawing on contributions from policy studies and organization theory, the authors assign a dual role to evaluation: valuable cognitive resource and accountability tool for the policy makers. This exploratory case study contributes to the literature on implementation evaluation by providing an encompassing theory-grounded perspective on a recent e-government project by the City of Milan. The authors' preliminary findings confirm the heuristic potential of an evaluation approach where interdisciplinary inputs can enlighten not only the results, but also the process of design, adoption and the use of e-services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Public policies are a set of specific actions intended to solve concrete public problems. Given the specificity of the policy approach, its unit of analysis is the policy itself. This attribute may lead to a myopia problem: to focus on each public policy without studying the whole, or to believe that the set of public policies is, automatically, harmonious. Yet, a series of well-designed and implemented public policies is not equivalent to a set of complementary and self-reinforcing policies that solve complex public issues. In this paper, we analyze three levels of coherence for public policies: internal coherence (the causal theory), coherence among policies in the same policy domain, and coherence across policy domains. We show that internal coherence is not guarantee of external coherence. We use mexican government programs to exemplify the consequence of incoherent policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an outputs assessement of the Sistema Unico de Assistencia Social's implementation after four years of its conception. Therefore, some relevant issues are subject of this article analysis: i) has the new implementation framework had an impact on local government improvement? ii) has Suas implementation had positive outputs in reducing inequality among municipalities? iii) What are the determinants of municipalities' improvement in welfare policymaking after this institutional change? In order to do so, data exploratory analysis and multiple regression are employed based on 2005 and 2009 Munic/IBGE surveys. As a result, the inquiry demonstrates that overall Suas has been successful improving the welfare policy, reducing the disparity among municipalities and, especially, political system's aspects impacted the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy evaluation is, in a general sense, a function of techniques and methods upon which to assess the objectives, efficiency and impact of public action. This paper identifies a new dimension, notably politics, which provides improved social results despite the fact that it remains hidden, rather than emerging as a key asset for improved governmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Moderne Staat is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The imbalanced sex ratio at birth (SRB) is a significant factor that influences the stability and security of nations. This study sought to test whether the presence of government and civil society initiatives intended to curb the SRB in India was accompanied by a positive change in the child sex ratio (CSR) over the time of the intervention. An empirical model was created to test 112 initiatives, which included 80 state-level and 35 district-level initiatives. The CSR was calculated before and after each initiative. Of the initiatives, 51% were linked with a positive CSR over time. States that had a 5% and above positive change in the CSR also had 7+ initiatives over time, indicating that intervention may be influencing the CSR. Program best practices are recommended based on initiatives with a positive CSR over time. Based on the analysis of these findings, leadership structures of these nonprofits ought to shift toward shared leadership, and nonprofit curriculum ought to emphasize and grow international service learning programs and transnational distance learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As policy evaluation matures, thoughts are turning to its governance. However, few scholars have combined insights from the evaluation and governance literatures to shed new light on this matter. In order to address this important gap, this article develops a new typology of ways to comprehend and perhaps ultimately govern ex-post policy evaluation activities. The article then explores its validity in the context of climate policy evaluation activities, a vibrant policy area in which the demand for and practices of evaluation have grown fast, particularly in Europe. The analysis reveals that the typology usefully guides new thinking, but also highlights important gaps in our empirical knowledge of the various modes of governing policy evaluation. The article identifies a need for a new research agenda that simultaneously develops a fuller understanding of these evaluation practices and the options for governing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heightened fiscal constraints, increases in the chronic disease burden and in consumer expectations are among several factors contributing to the global interest in evidence-informed health policy. The present article builds on previous work that explored how the Australian Federal Government applied five instruments of policy, or policy levers, to implement a series of reforms under the Australian National Mental Health Strategy (NMHS). The present article draws on theoretical insights from political science to analyse the relative successes and failures of these levers, as portrayed in formal government evaluations of the NMHS.Methods: Documentary analysis of six evaluation documents corresponding to three National Mental Health Plans was undertaken. Both the content and approach of these government-funded, independently conducted evaluations were appraised.Results: An overall improvement was apparent in the development and application of policy levers over time. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution due to variations in evaluation approach according to Plan and policy lever. Tabulated summaries of the success and failure of each policy initiative, ordered by lever type, are provided to establish a resource that could be consulted for future policy-making.Conclusions: This analysis highlights the complexities of health service reform and underscores the limitations of narrowly focused empirical approaches. A theoretical framework is provided that could inform the evaluation and targeted selection of appropriate policy levers in mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we expound on the possible effects of eGovernment evaluation studies on countries' eGovernment policy. Performance measurement and benchmarking are two well-known tools for policy evaluation and feedback. Performance information has a supply side as well as a demand side, which do not necessarily match. In the eGovernment sphere we notice a large supply of performance information. We ask ourselves to which degree this supply meets an actual demand from governments. We discuss the results of a thorough analysis of 18 international comparative eGovernment studies and warn for an unreflective feedback of these studies' results in countries' eGovernment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)