Searching for “the usual suspects”: The role of discretion and target group constructions in the frontline of policy implementation

Abstract

This study investigates the implementation of preventive policy targeting children. Based on longitudinal survey data we analyze how frontline workers assign meaning to core concepts of the policy and categorize the children and in this light how their exercise of discretion affects policy implementation. Many studies problematize the effects of limiting the discretion in the frontline. We identify a case where the policy is highly ambiguous, the definitions of target groups, core concepts, or central goals are vague, and the general steering of the frontline is not characterized by a lack of discretion but a lack of organizational boundaries to shape the discretion. This expands not only the policymaking role of the frontline but also becomes a barrier to developing a stronger preventive effort. The findings give nuanced insight into how organizational boundaries affect the discretion and target group construction in the frontline during frontline implementation of welfare policies.

Pay-for-performance in healthcare provision: the role of discretion in policy implementation in Turkey

“…The policymaking role of the SLBs (Lipsky, 2010), is based on the space for discretion that is created by the gap when a government or the purchasing institution is a principle who assign tasks aiming to improve health outcomes to a healthcare provider institution and/or health workers, who are the agents (Renmans et al, 2016) enacting the policy, furthered by the degree of perceived and enacted autonomy of the actors. Public service workers' decisions and routines shape the public policies they implement and how citizens experience policies (Lipsky, 2010;Brodkin, 2012;Nørup and Jacobsen, 2022). SLBs, or "civic entrepreneurs" (Durose, 2011) and "streetlevel policy entrepreneurs" (Arnold, 2015), are in effect creating policy in the process of implementing it.…”

“…, 2016) enacting the policy, furthered by the degree of perceived and enacted autonomy of the actors. Public service workers' decisions and routines shape the public policies they implement and how citizens experience policies (Lipsky, 2010; Brodkin, 2012; Nørup and Jacobsen, 2022). SLBs, or “civic entrepreneurs” (Durose, 2011) and “street-level policy entrepreneurs” (Arnold, 2015), are in effect creating policy in the process of implementing it.…”