Anatomy of Public Policy Implementation The Case of Decentralization Policies in Ghara

9781856289573

1856289575

Although the implementation of decentralization policies in Africa specifically and, more generally, the whole of the Third World have engaged the attention of governments and international agencies as well as scholars, there has not been as thorough a survey of decentralization policies in one state. In An Anatomy of Public Policy Implementation, Ayee attempts to fill this gap with a survey of decentralization policies in Ghana, a survey which also allows an inside comparison of programmes built on differing basic assumptions. The author identifies two obstacles that contributed to the under-achievement of the stated goals of decentralization policies in Ghana. First, the large number of government institutions and interest groups involved in the implementation of the decentralization policies. Second, the failure of the successive governments to see the implementation process as an evolutionary learning process. To get round these obstacles, Ayee stresses the need to build the implementation process into the design of the decentralization programmes.