POL5601

Policy Processes and Analysis

Lecture 6:
Policy Implementation
Nick H. K. Or
Feb 25, 2021
nick.or@cityu.edu.hk
Office: B7410

1
Recap

• Decision-making
• Policy formulation
• Problems? Options?

2
Weekly assignment 4: a summary

• Able to list out policy alternatives

• Policy instruments (N.A.T.O.) and choices
• Recipients
• Well done for highlighting the pros and cons of each options
• Good demonstration on prioritization
• Finance
• Feasibility
• Urgency / time
• The level of service provision
• Public desirability
• ….. So froth

• No weekly assignment this week.

3
Group presentation

• Deliver a 30-min group presentation on

• 2 Apr for Group 1 to 4
• 9 Apr for Group 5 to 8, and
• 23 Apr for Group 9 to 12
• Imagine you were a group of policy analysts who are eager to tackle a
public/social problem. Now, you have a chance to meet senior
officials in the Hong Kong SAR Government and convince them with
original policy proposal that can improve policymaking in Hong Kong.
• Proposal has to be original, innovative yet feasible
• Submit your topic by 11 Mar for approval

4
Presentation Topic Submission (By 11 Mar
23:59)
Broad

A whole range of different

A certain sector
measures

Policy subfields Public activities in policy

subfields

Distinctive
policy issues
Distinctive policy issues within
policy subfields
Particular
policy actions Connections with regulatory
instruments
Particular

5
Presentation Topic Submission(By 11 Mar
23:59)
Broad

A certain sector E.g. Labour policy

E.g. Wage protection

Policy subfields policies, re-employment
policies, training policies,
standard working hours,
Distinctive
E.g. Minimum wage level,
policy issues
minimum wage legislation,
minimum wage review

Particular
policy actions
E.g. Initial statutory Minimum
wage rate in 2010
Particular

6
Take-home test

• 29, 30 Apr or 1 May?

• (For, POL6203 I will propose 23, 24 25 Apr)

7
 Today’s Schedule
• Policy implementation: A conceptual review

• Top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid model

• Determinants of implementation success

• Hong Kong’s Experience

8
Concepts of policy implementation

• Policy implementation is to put the formulated policy

strategies into action.

• It is a stage in the policy-making process where a policy is

put into effect by the responsible bureaucrats.

• Implementation is the stage of policy cycle where there is

a connection between policy-makers and policy
addressees, mediated by the implementers.

9
 Concepts of policy implementation
• The successful implementation requires four basic skills, including:

• (1) interacting skill (the ability to manage people during

implementation),

• (2) allocating skill (the ability to provide the organizational

resources necessary to implement policy),

• (3) monitoring skill (the ability to use information to determine

whether a problem has arisen that is blocking implementation)

• (4) organizing skill (the ability to create throughout the organization

a network of people who can help solve implementation problems)

10
PRINCIPAL-AGENT THEORY (Tamm and Snidal
2014)
• principal delegates authority to an agent to perform tasks on its
behalf
• contract to maximise the benefits and minimise the costs of
delegration
• Recall the definition of power?
• In reality, it involves multiple principals and multiple agencies
• chains of delegation

11
PRINCIPAL-AGENT THEORY

• Effective policy implementation requires a healthy relationship

between the principal(s) and the agent(s).
• Can you list out all the challenges to maintain this relationship from
an public policy perspective?
• What are the possible solutions to these challenges?

https://padlet.com/nickhkor/c3vgu6ps03b5zw7d

12
PRINCIPAL-AGENT THEORY (TAMM AND
SNIDAL 2014)
What are the problems?
• Unclear who are the principals and who are the agents?
• Information asymmetry
• Credible commitment

13
Public sector in policy implementation

• Policy implementation is primarily carried out by different

levels of bureaucracy.

• (1) core government (comprising important centralized

functions such as education, defense, finance, security,
and overall policy-making responsibility)

• (2) Decentralized government agencies or other public

sector organizations which are often concerned with the
delivery of social policies such as social welfare and
healthcare.

14
15
 Public sector in policy implementation
• Core government
• Fully funded and take important policy functions e.g. security,
economic, social welfare
• Examples: 3 secretaries, 13 policy bureaus, 56 departments

• Closely-controlled public bodies

• Fully funded but enjoy some independence on proposing
legislation
• Examples: Advisory bodies (more decisions on legislation)

• Semi-autonomous public bodies

• (1) Some are fully funded with high degree of independence
and monitor the government e.g. ICAC, Audit Office
• (2) Self-funded and operation but the government is the
largest shareholder e.g. public corporations, MTR

16
 Public sector in policy implementation
• The international trend of delegating implementation and
competencies to autonomous agencies is based on the
assumption that these will improve the overall
implementation performance and efficiency.

• This is also related to the ideas of separating politics from

administration and insulating certain decisions from political
considerations which is expected to minimize deviations
from the original intentions of policy-makers and prevent
delays.

17
 Policy implementation through
privatization
• Privatization can be defined in both narrow and broad
senses.

• In its narrow sense, privatization means transfer of

publicly owned assets to the private sector or partial
transfer of ownership.

• A much broader definition can be defined as the range of

policies designed to reduce the involvement and influence
of the public sector while at the same time enhancing
private sector involvement in the delivery of public
services.

• Improve efficiency and performance

• Example: MTR, Stock exchange.

• How about police force?

18
 Community effort?
• A community-led pandemic containment effort in Hong Kong (Yuen et
al. 2021)
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2021.1877769
• collective effort initiated by actors in civil society to serve the
common good.
• Four key functions
1. offers a sense of group solidarity through community-based
initiatives;
2. offers access to protective resources through mutual assistance;
3. increases public awareness of the severity of the crisis; and
4. pressures authorities to introduce more effective and attentive
policies

19
 Community effort?
• From policymaking perspective: bottom-to-bottom and bottom-
up, rather than top-down
• characterized by citizens’ self-reliance effort that seeks to tackle or
alleviate problems of the pandemic on their own.
• In Liberia, during the outbreak of Ebola, community provides quality
health support and infrastructure rather than the government
(Abramowitz et al., 2015).
• civil society coalition urged Brazilian government to tackle HIV and AIDS
(Parker, 2009).

20
 Analytical perspectives in implementation
research
• Policy implementation encompasses various actions by
public and private actors that are directed at the
achievement of certain goals specified in terms of their policy
outputs.

• Example: Food labels to enhance consumers’ trust (the

objective)

• The food industry is monitored by responsible administrative

agency (e.g. Centre for Food Safety) (top-down approach).

• Consumers can complain about food products that are

insufficiently labeled (bottom-up approach).
21
 Concepts of policy implementation:
Top-down version
• Top down implementation is a way of studying policy
implementation that considers the goals of the highest-
level policy designers and traces implementation of
policy through lowest-level implementers.

• It primarily emphasizes on the ability of policy-makers

to produce specific policy outcomes, most are
characterized by an “evaluative” strategy for analysis.

• Example: Public security and environmental regulations

22
 Concepts of policy implementation:
Top-down version
• Starting point of analysis: Decisions taken by political and
administrative authorities (e.g. laws, regulations, action
plans).

• Process for identifying the main actors: From the top and
public sector down to the bottom and private sector

• Criteria for evaluating the quality of policy implementation:

Regularity of implementation procedure and effectiveness
(extent of realisation of the formal policy objectives)

• Basic Question: Which implementation modes (structures

and procedures) must be adopted to ensure the best
possible achievement of official objectives?

23
 Concepts of policy implementation:
Bottom-up version
• Bottom-up implementation is a way of studying
policy implementation that considers the abilities
and motivations of the lowest-level implementers
and tracks policy design from that level to the
highest level of government.

• Bottom-up implementation stresses on the

characteristics of the actors implementing policy
outputs, local implementers make ongoing choices
themselves about the appropriate course of actions
in specific contexts.

• Example: The District Minor Works Programme

($20 million per district each year) and Signature
Project Scheme in District Council ($100 million are
reserved)

24
Examples in District Minor Works
Programme

25
Music fountains at Kwun Tong (Signature
Project Scheme in District Council )

26
 Concepts of policy implementation:
Bottom-up vision
• Starting point of analysis: Activities of actors participating to the
implementation network at local level (actor’s network)

• Process for identifying the main actors: From the bottom (street
level) to the top with simultaneous consideration of public and
private actors

• Criteria for evaluating the quality of policy implementation: level of

participation of actors involved, degree of conflict in
implementation

• Basic Question: Which interactions between the public and private

actors of a policy network should be considered during
implementation so that it will be accepted.

27
Questions

• When shall we use top-down mode, and when bottom-up mode?

28
Concepts of policy implementation:
Hybrid models of policy implementation
• Hybrid models seek to integrate the “macroworld” of the
policy-makers with the “microworld” of the implementers
or service recipients.

• This model identifies additional conditions of scope that in

a given constellation render a distinctive approach.

• Hybrid model of policy implementation analyses the

ambiguity and conflict levels of policies.

29
Concepts of policy implementation:
Hybrid models of policy implementation
• Ambiguity and conflict perspective in policy implementation

• Ambiguity refers to make the delegation of discretion likely.

(goal definition)

• Conflict implies a desire of control. (upper control from

politicians VS lower resistance from implementers)

• Actors claiming hierarchical rights will seek to assert them and

this will be particularly evident in the absence of consensus.

• If low ambiguity is involved, then rules will be formulated.

• High conflict and high ambiguity is a difficult combination.

30
 Concepts of policy implementation: the
impact of conflict and ambiguity
Low conflict High conflict

Low ambiguity Administrative implementation Political implementation

(goal is clearly defined without resistance from (goal is clearly defined with strong
implementers) resistance from implementers)

Example: a social insurance where there is Example: Controversial reforms (health care
general acceptance of the case for it and the change, or service privatization) where, on
qualification test is simple the face of resistance, government can
nevertheless still drive through change.

High ambiguity Experimental implementation Symbolic implementation

(goal is not clearly defined without resistance (goal is not clearly defined with strong
from implementers) resistance from implementers)

Example: measures to try to reduce health Example: equal pay legislation involving
inequalities where there is general acceptance complex comparisons and contested goals.
of the case for action but uncertainty about
what is effective

31
 Determinants of implementation success

• (1) Choice of policy instruments

• The appropriateness of the choice of policy instruments

depends on: (1) the complexity of the policy environment
and (2) capacity of the state.
High complexity policy environment Low complexity of policy environment
High capacity of the Directive instruments (favourable for Authoritative instruments (favourable for
state
• measures such as government re- creating specialized independent regulatory
organization) commissions which help to cultivate ideas)

Low capacity of the Subsidy instruments (favourable for grants or Informative instruments (favourable for
state specific funding schemes to induce policy campaigns or information discourse)
addressees)

32
 Determinants of implementation success
• (2) Precision and clarity of policy design

• It concerns quality of policy formulation.

• Such problems of policy design can first of all be

the result of vague and ambiguous design.

• High degrees of distributional conflict and

politicization favour a negotiation context that is
the dominated by bargaining rather than problem
solving.

• Distributional conflict and politicization might lead

to the formulation of ill-designed policies.

• Example: Hong Kong and Mainland customs,

immigration and quarantine procedures at the
West Kowloon Station (WKS) of the Hong Kong
Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong
Express Rail Link 33
Determinants of implementation success

• (3) Institutional design

• Policies generally have institutional implications such as

the requirements for the establishment of appropriate
structures and procedures for their proper implementation.

• (1) A distinction can be made between policies that can

be implemented by single organizations or authorities.

• (2) Also, institutional design measures whose proper

implementation entails horizontal and vertical coordination
across several administrative units and levels.

34
 Determinants of implementation success
• (4) Social Acceptance

• There are certainly some policy measures that

are welcomed by policy addresses such as
increases in social benefits.

• By the same token, there is legislation that is less

well received either because it imposes costs on
the target group or because its implications are
not well received.

• In such cases, implementers might approach

interest groups to seek their support actively for
the policy measure in question.

35
 Policy implementation in Hong Kong
(see Scott 2010 Chapter 9)
• (1) Policy instruments defined as the methods and
techniques which governments use to achieve their policy
objectives;

• (2) strategies of implementation examines the major

approaches of the colonial, transitional and post-1997
regimes to implementation; and

• (3) evaluation refers to the way in which the Hong Kong

government and the public assess its policy performance.

36
 Policy Instruments (Regulations)
• Policy instruments can be classified into a
positive element and negative element.

• Regulations (or the stick) may be used to

encourage (discourage) particular kinds of
behaviour which is positive (negative) instrument.

• Codes of conduct for civil servants, for example,

are designed to encourage appropriate
behaviour but they do not usually have an
explicit sanction attached to them.

• Regulations may also be used to prohibit certain

kinds of behaviour with penalties, such as fines
or jail sentences which is negative instrument.

• Example: Littering is an offence punishable by a

fine.
37
 Policy Instruments (Economic)
• The economic policy instruments may have positive and negative
aspects.

• The positive aspects (the carrot) often relate to programmes

which the government wishes to see introduced or expanded
but which it does not have the capability to provide.

• Example: subsidising higher education places or the provision of

specific programmes in technology or in professional fields

• The negative aspect of economic policy instruments is that the

government has to collect taxes to fund its programmes.

• Example: taxes on cigarettes that pollute the environment are

clearly designed to send the message which is hazardous to
health.

38
 Policy Instruments (The provision of
information)
• The provision of information is the effort that all governments
make to persuade their people to act in certain ways,
objectives which may also be achieved through the use of
regulation or economic policy instruments.

• Example: The Leisure and Cultural Services Department

and the Department of Health, for example, run an
annual “Healthy Exercise for All Campaign” which
encourages people to exercise regularly and provides
facilities for them to do so.

• The campaign stresses the health benefits of regular

exercise and warns implicitly of health problems if you do not
do so.

39
Policy Instruments (Combined Example)

• In November 2002, the Hong Kong government announced that it

intended to legalise soccer betting.

• The problem was that illegal and unregulated betting on soccer

matches was already prevalent.

• Penalties would continue to apply to anyone betting outside

this government-created monopoly (regulation).

• The tax on betting also had benefits for the (economic policy
instrument)

• A fund was launched to help problem gamblers and new initiatives

were to be introduced to provide more public education and to
warn teenagers of the dangers of gambling (information).

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Implementation Strategies

• When the government has chosen its policy instrument, there is

the question of the degree to make sure the programme to
completion.

• Within government, the ways in which departments might

proceed to implement the same programme could differ
greatly in terms of the administrative values which the strategy
seeks to maximise.

• Because of this, there is the possibility that failure to attend to

the issues involved could lead to faulty implementation.

• Therefore, the government needs to adopt appropriate methods

to ensure success.

41
 Implementation Strategies (Top-down)
• Hierarchical and centralised structures with focused but
limited policy-making capabilities.

• Orders are transmitted vertically from the top of the

organisational pyramid and are expected to be implemented
without question by those at the base of the pyramid.

• There is often only limited/no communication or consultation

with those affected by the decision or policy.

• Example: Emergence Regulation Ordinance and Prohibition

on Face Covering Regulation

42
Implementation Strategies (Rational)
• Policy is formulated within a civil service
structure, which maintains its autonomy and
distance from politics by co-opting elites.

• More attention is given to planning, co-ordination

and cost-benefit analysis than in a dominant top-
down system but organisational difficulties remain.

• Communication and consultation are limited to elites

at both central and local levels.

• Implementation takes place by stages with progress

evaluated on completion of each stage.

• Example: Fugitive offenders ordinance

43
Implementation Strategies (Symbolic)
• Policy implementation procedures is made of the
coercive power of the state to ensure
implementation.

• More extensive consultation is carried out with

concerned groups.

• The government is less concerned with meeting

objectives than with avoiding friction with pressure
groups and parties.

• Example: Land supply for future

• The Task Force proposed eight methods to increase
land supplies (e.g. small size of land reclamation,
developing brownfield sites, and Alternative
uses of sites under private recreational leases)
44
 Implementation Strategies (Disarticulated)
• The civil service attempts to implement policies with attention to
planning, co-ordination, estimations of costs and the value of
public investment.

• However, unchannelled and disparate political demands increase

as the policy-making system itself becomes more porous.

• Demands from the political executive, pressure groups, political

parties and the Legislative Council require bargaining both to get
policies accepted and to try to implement them.

• Implementation becomes more difficult because of post facto

resistance from grass-roots pressure groups.

• Examples: most policies in Hong Kong

45
 Implementation Strategies (Ideational)
• The political executive is strengthened in an attempt to
resolve existing policy difficulties with radical new
ideas.

• The civil service is circumvented as the political

executive looks to providers outside the system to
implement its ideas.

• No strategy of implementation is developed but there is

an expectation that those affected will work together in
good faith to implement the new proposals.

• Example: the building of the high-end technological hub

Cyberport and the construction of a Disneyland (Each
of these projects involved government providing or
funding an infrastructural development with private
operators running the projects
46
In-Class Exercise

• In-Class Exercise
• “Redundancies in the delivery of public service is a bad thing.
Illustrate with examples in Hong Kong.”

• Two key questions to reflect on:

• Why redundancy matters in the delivery of public service and when?
• Why redundancy in the delivery of public service can be a problem and
when?