Politics: The Basics, 4th Edition

language has emphasised the symbolic function of many policy
declarations. A fine-sounding policy may have its origins in a political
compromise at central level which was acceptable because it was too
vague to be implemented unambiguously.
‘Perfect implementation’, then, is not necessarily desirable – and
certainly is not inevitable. To overcome the barriers to imple-
mentation may well be costly in both communication effort and
need to offer sanctions/inducements to the implementer. Following
Neustadt (1960), the requirements for implementation seem to
include:

POLICIES 227

INTEREST

GROUPS

LEGISLATURE

CORE

EXECUTIVE

EXECUTIVE

AGENCY

LOCAL

AUTHORITY

VOLUNTARY

ORGANISATION

CLIENTS

DEPARTMENT

Figure 8.1 Levels of inter-organisational bargaining