Ezra's Bookshelf

Implementation

by Jeffrey L. Pressman and Aaron Wildavsky · 312 pages · ~5.5 hrs

Politics & Government

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Jeffrey Pressman and Aaron Wildavsky's study of a federal employment program in Oakland, California, became the founding text of implementation studies, demonstrating why policies that seem straightforward in conception become nightmarishly complicated in execution. The Economic Development Administration announced in 1966 that it would create three thousand jobs in Oakland through public works projects; years later, few jobs had materialized despite millions in expenditures. Pressman and Wildavsky trace the program through what they call a 'complexity of joint action'--the dozens of decision points where different agencies, levels of government, and private actors had to agree for anything to happen. Each step required approvals that seemed minor but cumulatively created enormous friction. The book develops a methodology for analyzing implementation as a chain of reciprocal causation rather than top-down execution. Its subtitle--'How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland; Or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All'--captures the sardonic wit with which the authors illuminate bureaucratic dysfunction. The book launched a subfield and influenced generations of policy scholars and practitioners. Its lessons apply beyond government: any complex initiative requiring coordination across multiple actors faces similar challenges. Pressman and Wildavsky's work remains required reading for anyone trying to understand why good ideas so often fail to become good outcomes.

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