Problems in the implementation of policy are common in all countries, be they developed or developing. Even with relatively good administrative structures, public policy often does not have its intended impact due to conceptual and political problems. 5
1 Conceptual Problems Implementation of public policy has been hindered by conceptual problems in understanding the nature of contextual problems, and the kinds of policies and procedures necessary to address these problems. These conceptual problems may be related to policy design and policy analysis
2 Political Problems Political problems in the implementation of public policies are grave and complex. These hamper effective implementation as discussed in the following areas of politics.
i) Centralized Policy Process : Friction between central and state government relations has affected the policy implementation processes adversely. Policy decisions taken at the central level, including goal setting and procedure, ignore the local culture. Although the central government has been enthusiastic in adopting innovative population, health, education and environmental policies and programmes, the state governments have been dragging their feet when it came to effective implementation as the latter often lacked the requisite political will.
ii) Unionization of Bureaucracy : Another glaring implementation lacunae is due to the unionization of civil services, at the lower levels in particular. This has destroyed not only the work culture and discipline, but it also demoralized, considerably the supervisory levels into withdrawal and prompting them to take the line of least resistance.
iii) Interest Group Politics : In many cases, it is observed that the policies are not implemented because of interest group politics. Honest policy implementers face many problems and challenges from the vested interests. To protect their profit margins the industrialists go to any extent. They enlist the support of the corrupt officials and put obstacles in the way of honest officials.
3 Administrative Problem :
One way of analyzing implementation problems is to begin by thinking about the limits of administration. Christopher Hood uses the term ‘perfect administration’ in comparison to economists’ use of ‘perfect competition’.
i) Lack of Institutional Capacity : The institutional structure and administrative capabilities for implementation of environmental laws and policies, for example, are by no means adequate in the face complexities of environmental ,political, social, and economic problems.
ii) Lack of Personnel and Financial Resources Further, it is, observed that most of the policies are not implemented because of deficient staff, and lack of financial resources.
Social policies in many developing countries have not been implemented in full scale owing to lack of trained staff.
iii) Pressure of Time : It is observed that the pressure of time often creates the implementation gap. Normally, while fixing the time frame, the policy formulators do not take into consideration the prevailing conditions
iv) Lack of Administrative Will and Motivation Without the conscious co-operation of implementers, nothing can be done. It is found that social policies have remained unimplemented largely for lack of administrative will and motivation.
v) Lack of Coordination and Cooperation : Poor coordination and missing links among the administrative agencies have also stood in the way of adequate and appropriate policy actions.
4 Lack of Public Involvement : Public involvement in policy implementation programmes, such as, education, health, population control, pollution control, forest conservation, etc. puts tremendous pressure on administrative staff to produce results.
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Urban Development Policies Study notes for M. plan Sem-II
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