Implementing Public Policy: An Introduction to the Study of Operational Governance

by Michael Hill, Peter Hupe

Overview

The gold standard for navigating the literature about policy implementation and governance, this modern classic is the leading introduction to the study of implementation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529724875
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	05/04/2022
Edition description:	Fourth Edition (Revised Edition)
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.53(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Hill is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Newcastle, UK. Before entering academic life at the University of Reading he was a street-level bureaucrat in a local social assistance office. He later worked on research at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol on the implementation of social policy. Since retiring from Newcastle he has held part-time visiting professorships in London University at Goldsmiths College and Queen Mary College and also in the London School of Economics and the University of Brighton. His long-standing text The Public Policy Process reached its eighth edition in 2021 in a joint version with Frédéric Varone of the University of Geneva. In 2020 he published Exploring the World of Social Policy with Zoë Irving of the University of York.

Peter Hupe is Visiting Professor at the Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium. He is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK. While teaching Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, he had academic affiliations in Leiden, Leuven, London, Oxford and Potsdam. The major part of his research regards the theoretical-empirical study of policy processes, particularly implementation and street-level bureaucracy. He discovered the relevance of the latter during an earlier career as a policymaker in the Dutch national civil service. Publishing regularly in journals like Public Administration, Public Policy and Administration and Public Management Review, in 2019 he composed the Research Handbook of Street-Level Bureaucracy: The Ground Floor of Government in Context. With Tony Evans he edited Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom (2020).

Table of Contents

PART I: Implementation as a Scholarly Theme
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Implementation Studies Positioned
Chapter 3: The Top-Down/Bottom-Up Debate and Comprehensive Approaches
Chapter 4: Implementation Theory: Constitutive Elements
PART II: Implementation as Government-In-Action
Chapter 5: The Policy-Implementation Paradigm: Historical Evolution
Chapter 6: Implementation and the Rise of Populism
Chapter 7: Implementation and the Quest for Appropriate Action
PART III: Implementation as Object of Research
Chapter 8: Implementation Research as Governance Analysis
Chapter 9: Street-Level Bureaucracy Research and Implementation Theory
Chapter 10: Doing Implementation Research
Chapter 11: The Policy-Implementation Paradigm: Present and Future

Editorial Reviews

This new edition of Michael Hill's and Peter Hupe's classic work on policy implementation is a most welcome addition to the literature. The book provides a comprehensive review of key implementation topics, from the top-down vs. bottom-up debate, to the influence of contemporary populist movements on implementation processes. While it is a serious academic work, with updated references and solid theoretical discussions, the book is written in a very accessible way. Each chapter is filled with interesting insights and useful boxes that summarize key points. For all this, the book might be relevant for both graduate and undergraduate students, and for policymakers and practitioners interested in learning how policy ideas are translated into policy actions. As with the previous editions, Hill and Hupe's book is both the best introduction to the subject, and an excellent point of departure to reflect about the future of implementation studies.

email - Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna

Ever since the first edition of Hill and Hupe’s masterful book Implementing Public Policy was published in 2002, it has become the first port-of-call for those interested in unpacking and discussing the theories, tools and techniques behind putting policies into practice. Each edition has become the ‘Doctor Who’ of policy implementation – retaining its core characteristics but regenerating for a new era. This new 4^th edition has done it again – retaining classic issues of policy implementation (such as top down vs bottom up debates), but tackling the impact on implementation of contemporary governance, populism, Brexit, ‘post-truth’ financial crises, climate change and COVID. In a nutshell, there is no greater challenge for policy implementation than ‘populist’ policies, disregard for science and expertise, and the vilification of street-level bureaucrats on the front-line of trying to make policies work.

Implementing Public Policy is the ‘go to’ work on the subject, written by two academic experts who are steeped in findings ways to help us understand the opportunities, perils and pitfalls of putting policies into practice in a complex, politicised and ever-changing world. It is best to avoid thinking of policy implementation as mundane and mechanistic. Just like the Tardis, the 4^th edition of Implementing Public Policy is bigger on the inside.

Email - Professor Emeritus Allan Mc Connell

Hill and Hupe's "Implementing Public Policy" remains an enduring, essential, and invaluable resource for anyone interested in the study of policy implementation. Proposing a pioneering perspective on the operational facets of public policy, the fourth edition boasts significant enhancements, prominently featuring the inclusion of two new chapters. In Chapter 6, these esteemed scholars delve into the repercussions of populism, while Chapter 9 focuses on characterizing street-level bureaucracy research and its invaluable contributions to implementation studies. These newly added chapters distinctly fortify the enduring significance of this classic book.

Email - Nissim Cohen

This updated edition consolidates its position as the leading text on implementation, and is fast approaching the status of a ’modern classic’. With its comprehensive coverage of the field by two leading scholars, it will be valuable to both students and specialists.

Professor Martin Powell

In this new edition, Michael Hill and Peter Hupe provide an essential handbook to students, teachers, and practitioners of the art of implementation. The authors' thoughtful and theoretically-informed perspective brings clarity and insight to the study and practice of implementation.

Professor Evelyn Brodkin

This advances on earlier editions with a more explicit conceptualization of implementation in terms of governance. Two entirely new chapters have been added: addressing the consequences of populism and exploring the contribution of street-level bureaucracy to the study of implementation. Additionally the chapter on research stresses the need for it to have a comparative, particularly cross-national, character; and the concluding chapter explores the extent to which recent approaches such as the introduction of the notion of ‘implementation science' provide new insights.

Social Policy Association

The Third Edition of Implementing Public Policy enhances what has become the gold standard for navigating the literature about policy design, implementation, and governance. This edition serves as a clarion call for rethinking how policies serve as instruments for governing.

Peter J. May

Hill and Hupe’s Implementing Public Policy remains a classic, indispensable, and useful reference for scholars of policy implementation. Providing an original perspective on the study of the operational side of public policy, the fourth edition contains many timely updates including two thoughtful chapters on populism and street-level bureaucracy.

Eva Thomann

This text is essential reading for anyone interested in implementation. Hill and Hupe cover critical debates in their own distinctive voice, but also explore key avenues that make the study of implementation so essential in the context of the multiple crises of the state in the 21st century. This new edition deserves to be at the centre of any conversation about the future study and practice of implementation.

Martin Lodge

The second edition of this key text by two of the leading scholars in the field makes it the primary guide to the study of implementation
Martin Powell
Professor of Health and Social Policy, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham

'The second edition of Implementing Public Policy builds on the extremely useful first edition, and is an excellent and timely contribution to the literature on implementation. As well as providing a thorough review of the literature on implementation it makes a number of important contributions to that literature. This volume represents the most extensive and useful treatment of implementation available
B. Guy Peters
Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

'This is by far the best textbook ever published on the topic of public policy implementation... Thus, it gives a much needed up-to-date and complete state-of-the-art review of this research field for graduate students and teachers while at the same time serving as an excellent introduction on the topic for those at the undergraduate level
Harald Saetren
University of Bergen, Norway

'Greatly enriched by recent scholarship, this second edition is even more valuable to students of public policy theory and governance and to a subfield of public administration and political science whose ranks are growing owing to efforts such as this one
Laurence E Lynn, Jr.
Emeritus Professor, University of Chicago

'Implementing Public Policy …not only gives a detailed overview of state-of the-art theory and research in policy implementation, but also discusses the profound implications of implementation studies for our understanding of the policy-making process. This book is a must-read for all scholars and students interested in public policy
René Torenvlied
Utrecht University, The Netherlands

This book is based on the authors' well-acclaimed first edition of the same title. Considerable work has gone into updating and re-contextualizing some of their earlier arguments and analysis in the light of an updated research and literature base. The second edition should be as valuable and well received as the first... This is a very useful publication, likely to be the main guide to implementation for some time
Duncan Mc Tavish
Public Management Review

From the Publisher

This new edition of Michael Hill's and Peter Hupe's classic work on policy implementation is a most welcome addition to the literature. The book provides a comprehensive review of key implementation topics, from the top-down vs. bottom-up debate, to the influence of contemporary populist movements on implementation processes. While it is a serious academic work, with updated references and solid theoretical discussions, the book is written in a very accessible way. Each chapter is filled with interesting insights and useful boxes that summarize key points. For all this, the book might be relevant for both graduate and undergraduate students, and for policymakers and practitioners interested in learning how policy ideas are translated into policy actions. As with the previous editions, Hill and Hupe's book is both the best introduction to the subject, and an excellent point of departure to reflect about the future of implementation studies.

email - Mauricio Dussaunge