When politicians do not care for the policy: Street-level compliance in cross-agency contexts

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Publication date
2023
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01A - Journal article
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Public Policy and Administration
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Volume
38
Issue / Number
3
Pages / Duration
267-286
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SAGE
Place of publication / Event location
London
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Abstract
The non-implementation of political decisions is a major challenge of contemporary political life. Policy analysis has devoted careful attention to implementation gaps resulting from administrative non-compliance with political orders. However, the fact that political authorities actually want to enforce all policies should not be taken for granted. This article proposes a conceptual model that systematically accounts for cross-agency divergence and convergence processes both at the political and at the street levels. We find that in inter-sectoral policies, dissent between different heads of agencies (political level) or between groups of implementing bureaucrats (street level) rather than dissent between the political and the street-level can be a major cause of non-compliance. Based on a comparative dataset on the implementation of the smoking ban in 12 Swiss states, the article analyzes cross-agency fragmentation processes. It advocates a stronger dialogue between street-level bureaucracy and policy coordination literatures, and nuances the conceptualization of (non-)compliance in a cross-agency context.
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1749-4192
0952-0767
Language
English
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No
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Published
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Citation
Mavrot, C., & Hadorn, S. (2023). When politicians do not care for the policy: Street-level compliance in cross-agency contexts. Public Policy and Administration, 38(3), 267–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076721996516