Deductive Models of Policy Implementation and their Impact on Policy Outcome: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

Deductive models of policy implementation emerged as a response to the inability of inductive approaches to provide nuanced theories of policy implementation and performance. They are said to be parsimonious and precise in studying complex social interactions. Hence, over the last decade or so, there has been ascending interest in the use of deductive approaches to get deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which policy implementation is more likely to succeed. However, giving the fact that numerous programs and policies continue to fail despite being replicated from the best deductive models, one is entitled to wonder: what is the true value of these models? And how effective are they in translating the intentions of policymakers into desired policy outcomes? The present contribution seeks to provide answers to these questions by first, discussing some hands-on deductive models of policy implementation and second, analyzing the potential of each model, their strengths, their weaknesses, and appropriate contexts for use. To reach these aims, the study utilized the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to gauge the assumptions of each of the following models: the Rational, Management, Organizational Development, Political, and Bureaucratic Process. The results have shown that, although deductive models of policy implementation (or at least, the models here-in discussed) seem to offer tangible promises to deliver more accurate and nuanced explanations of policy action, they fall short to combine the three criteria of Motivation, Information, and Power, necessary for any candidate model of policy implementation to be deemed effective. The results have also shown that an integrated model, one that combines the strengths of all the above cited models, but none of their weaknesses, could be a credible offer of a successful theory of policy implementation.