Implementing the third generation research paradigm in policy implementation research: An empirical assessment

Abstract

A comprehensive literature review a few years ago found, contrary to a commonly held belief, research on public policy implementation to be still alive and have developed further well into the 21st century in quantitative terms. We pursue this line of inquiry by asking whether this conclusion also applies to progress in qualitative terms. All articles published in core journals in political science, public administration/management and public policy under the label implementation or implementing were used to investigate this research question. Key defining features of the plea for a more rigorous third generation research paradigm was used as benchmark to measure progress or lack thereof in the policy implementation literature over more than four decades of research. Our investigation basically supports conclusions from more intuitively based earlier state-of-the-art reviews: (1) policy implementation research has reached a relatively mature stage of development, (2) more progress has been achieved on methodological than theoretical fronts and (3) this field of study progressed fairly rapidly through two previous generations of research, coinciding roughly with the 1970s and 1980s with some assumed characteristics while progress since 1990 has been much slower and more incremental. The latter fact can probably best be explained by the very demanding nature of the third generation research paradigm itself and some inherent tensions and contradictions between its defining features. Our contribution in this respect is that we have been able to provide more detailed and nuanced information about exactly where progress has been achieved and when as well as where it is still lagging.