Summary: “Policy” has long meant to the public sector what “strategy” means to the private sector. In both cases, a highly rational model has long been dominant: that policy or strategy is formulated consciously, preferably analytically, made explicit, and then implemented formally. Much research and other evidence has raised all kinds of doubts about the validity of this traditional model. But, especially in the public sector, the alternative has been to fall back on descriptions that emphasize incremental and political processes, as if policy or strategy did not exist, thereby slighting the concept as well as the efforts of those who deal with it.
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