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This is How to Think About and Achieve Public Policy Success

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  • Matt Andrews

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

Abstract

Officials working on public policies must answer questions like ‘What does policy success mean?’ and ‘How should I pursue policy work in order to achieve success?’ These are difficult questions, but there are ways to respond. One way draws on what I call the program logic of policy success, which suggests that: (i) Success requires efficiently meeting goals that stakeholders view as relevant, (ii) by doing work focused on impacting high-level objectives through programs that deliver promised time-sensitive outputs and outcomes according to a clear, logical plan. I believe this logic dominates the global public policy community, as ‘the way’ officials and organizations should think about and do policy work. This paper tests such belief, showing that officials do think in this way and that this thinking is influenced by common budgeting and evaluation mechanisms. I conclude by asking if this way of thinking poses any concerns, especially if it biases policy organizations to produce some kinds of policy success and not others.

Suggested Citation

  • Matt Andrews, 2022. "This is How to Think About and Achieve Public Policy Success," CID Working Papers 413, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:413
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    File URL: https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/files/bsc/files/2022-05-cid-wp-413-thinking_success.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrews,Matt, 2013. "The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107016330.
    2. McCONNELL, ALLAN, 2010. "Policy Success, Policy Failure and Grey Areas In-Between," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 345-362, December.
    3. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2017. "Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198747482.
    4. Matt Andrews, 2021. "Successful Failure in Public Policy Work," CID Working Papers 402, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    5. McLaughlin, John A. & Jordan, Gretchen B., 1999. "Logic models: a tool for telling your programs performance story," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 65-72.
    6. Kathryn L. Heinze & Klaus Weber, 2016. "Toward Organizational Pluralism: Institutional Intrapreneurship in Integrative Medicine," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 157-172, February.
    7. Wolman, Harold, 1981. "The Determinants of Program Success and Failure," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(4), pages 433-464, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Matt Andrews, 2022. "Public policy actors view success differently, and it matters," CID Working Papers 418, Center for International Development at Harvard University.

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