Implementation and Evaluation of Public Policies

Abstract

Abstract In Switzerland, policy implementation is determined by the strongly federalist structure of the state. Two factors are decisive. First, bottom-up federalism assigns responsibility to the cantons for all tasks that the constitution does not explicitly allocate to the federal state. This means that the cantons are responsible for designing and implementing key tasks such as education or health care. Second, the cantons are also in charge of implementing many policies designed on the federal level, such as agricultural or migration policy. The pronounced Swiss federalism leads to implementation models and intensities that may vary greatly from canton to canton. Implementation research assesses this phenomenon differently. On the one hand, it has been shown that federalism can contribute to increasing the acceptance and effectiveness of policy measures through canton-specific implementation. On the other hand, federalism can cause implementation deficits or even non-implementation of national policies in the cantons. This impairs the equal treatment of citizens in Switzerland. The Swiss ‘federalist laboratory’ offers opportunities to identify and test different implementation models. The diversity of implementation in Switzerland also provides an excellent basis for evaluation research. Cantonal comparative studies make valuable contributions to assessing the effectiveness of policy measures. In addition, the Swiss federal constitution stipulates the obligation to have the effectiveness of laws systematically evaluated. This has facilitated an in-depth scientific reflection on the contribution of evaluation as an instrument of legitimacy and control in a democratic state.