Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management

Abstract

Jodi Sandfort and Stephanie Moulton. Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2015). 388 pp. $70.50 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-118-77548-6.

Introduction and Objective of the Book

In Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management, Jodi Sandfort and Stephanie Moulton provide insight into how to craft effective policy and implement the developed programs, then suggest alternative tools for improving the complex implementation system. The review consists of introduction and objective of the book, key arguments, and critiques and conclusion.

The purpose of Sandfort and Moulton’s Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management is to explain how policy ideas are transformed and implemented effectively. In policy implementation, the lessons-learned emerge and can be the tools for improving policy and program implementation. The authors integrate both challenges and successes from various fields (e.g. public policy, economics, sociology, public administration, etc.). This helps identify “strategic actors” and “leaders of productive change” in order to enhance the effectiveness of policy and program implementation. To understand real world practices in policy implementation, the book uses two policy cases: the US housing crisis and early childhood education (p. xiv).

The goal of this book is to enable policy and program implementers in various societal sectors to understand how to use scientific approaches to help achieve desired outcomes. In addition, the authors aim to help policy and program implementers to understand how to address unforeseen circumstances that may emerge at any time. The authors encourage policy practitioners to create problem-solving mechanisms by learning from changes in complex implementation systems and also from changes in the political environment. Then, policy and program implementers can apply analytical and social skills and situational factors to cope with the complex systems in real world situations. The authors developed the processes of implementation dynamics and created new conceptual language that can be applied to various levels of policy practice and complex systems. The authors focus on a small piece of the whole policy system; this small action may trigger large changes or improve the whole operational process.