Policy as the Transformation of Intentions: Producing Program From Statute

The sociological investigation of public policy continues to be plagued by scholarly adherence to a conventional framework that reifies the policy process as a set of segmented and sequential stages. To overcome this problem, policy is presented as the processual, ongoing practical accomplishment of the transformation of intentions. Within this framework, the realization of intentions is shown as both constrained and enabled by (1) organizational context and conventions, (2) linkages between multiple sites and phases of the policy process, (3) the mobilization of resources, and (4) a dynamic and multifaceted conceprualization of power.