Implementation moves policy away from the enacting coalition's intent as agencies exercise discretion.
McCubbins, Noll and Weingast's account of why legislatures write detailed procedural requirements: statutory language is the only lever they retain once implementation begins.
In practice
- A statute intended to speed up planning is implemented by an agency that adds a consultation stage nobody legislated for.
- A board approves a simple bonus scheme and the compensation team ships one with eleven conditions, each defensible.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- Why organisations learn, harden and decline