|
|
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
—Winston Churchill |
|
Much of this report looks into the general characteristics of policymaking in different countries, with the implicit assumption that such general characteristics will tend to permeate policymaking in all areas of public policy. Yet policymaking processes may differ across sectors, as a result of the different actors and institutions that may be relevant, as well as differences in the nature of the transactions required for policy implementation.
The chapters in Part IV look into the making of policy in a number of different sectors. They provide cross-country comparisons of policymaking in these sectors and show how policy outcomes in each of them can be linked to the characteristics of their policymaking process. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 focus on tax policy, public services, and education, respectively. Chapter 11 is somewhat different in nature. Rather than looking at the impact of the policymaking process on policy outcomes, it focuses on feedback effects from policy reform to the policymaking process and illustrates these effects with examples from the areas of decentralization and budget processes.
The chapters in Part IV constitute an important step toward one of the main purposes of this report: to provide guidance in and orientation toward understanding the policymaking processes surrounding specific reform initiatives in particular areas in particular countries at particular points of time.
|
