A persistent gap between intended policy outcomes and actual implementation exists across diverse social domains. We argue this gap stems not from execution failures, but from a fundamental ontological mismatch: policy texts often operate from a relational ontology (viewing systems as fluid, context-dependent networks of meaning), while implementation fields default to a substantive ontology (treating systems as fixed, measurable objects). This mismatch forces ontological translation(OT)—a process where meaning is restructured across this divide. Translation manifests through three interlocking dynamics: proceduralization (turning fluid goals into step-by-step processes), metricization (reducing complex outcomes to quantifiable targets), and specification (fixing context-dependent practices into rigid templates). To demonstrate the framework's analytical power, we provide an illustrative analysis from a representative domain. This framework is designed for cross-disciplinary application. Its core structure, presented here in its systematic conceptual form, establishes a new theoretical lens for analyzing systematic implementation gaps. This preprint and its permanent DOI constitute the primary citation reference and cornerstone for all future work derived from this framework.
Zhifeng Huang (Mon,) studied this question.