IMPLEMENTATION THEORY AND PRACTICE: UNCOVERING POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION LINKAGES IN THE 1990s

Over the past two decades and “three generations of implementation research” policy scientists and public administrators have made impressive progress in both theory and practice. However, many recent articles published in leading public administration journals continue to work from the theoretical and empirical assumptions of the first generation of implementation research. The leading research in the field is shifting the focus from policy formation variables to address the effects of institutional and interorganizational relationships. This work reaffirms that public administrators are crucial players in street-level policy making.