Implementation of public policies. The compatibility of the model of public policy with the target space of the policy

Abstract

New realities bring to the fore a series of challenges referring to the implementation of public policies. One of the major challenges is caused by the lack of compatibility between the chosen model for the elaboration of policy, on the one hand, and the target public space, on the other. That could mean that either the technical solutions formulated by the researchers, to be applied to the target space are totally unrealistic, or in the target space there are zones of confusion, of instability, of unpredictability, where the model chosen by the policy-makers cannot be applied. The degree of difficulty is so much more difficult as the members of the community and society, in general, are preoccupied, predominantly, with the problems that appear in the target public space, while almost not at all interested in the technical problems faced by the policy-makers. Despite this lack of interest, anyway, the problems that the community/society faces cannot be solved but by the implementation of their initiatives and models proposed by the policy-makers. The success of a policy is, in our opinion, firstly, a matter of compatibility between the model of the public policy proposed and the target public space characterised by a high degree of inertia and tendencies manifest in maintaining the status quo. How could there be reached the compatibility between a public policy, whose vision is based on the behavioural change of the institutions(1), organisations and people, on the one hand, and the unreformed public space, aligned to the exigencies much exceeded by reality, on the other? Which are the approaches necessary to a compatibility between the models of the policies and the target space? What strategies must be chosen? How must the efforts and resources in the public space be graduated and oriented to become compatible with the model chosen by the policy makers? These are questions which we will try to answer in this article.