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The policy process : an overview

SUTTON, Rebecca
August 1999

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The paper offers an introduction to analysis of the policy process. It identifies and describes theoretical approaches in political science, sociology, anthropology, international relations and management. It then reviews five cross-cutting themes: a) the dichotomy between policy-making and implementation; b) the management of change, c) the role of interest groups in the policy process; d) ownership of the policy process; and e) the narrowing of policy alternatives. The paper concludes with a 21-point check-list of 'what makes policy happen'. A glossary of key terms is also provided. The key argument of the paper is that a 'linear model' of policy-making, characterised by objective analysis of options and separation of policy from implementation, is inadequate. Instead, policy and policy implementation are best understood as a 'chaos of purposes and accidents'. A combination of concepts and tools from different disciplines can be deployed to put some order into the chaos, including policy narratives, policy communities, discourse analysis, regime theory, change management, and the role of street-level bureaucrats in implementation

Communications framework for HIV/AIDS : a new direction

JOINT UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
1999

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This framework, the product of a participatory research project on the use of communications for HIV prevention, finds conventional communications that focus on behaviour change limited in their scope and effectiveness. It questions the relationship between knowledge and behaviour, and the stress in ‘behaviour change’ communication on individual change. For sustainable change, the influence of a number of domains of social context need to be addressed, including: political and policy frameworks, gender, socio-economic status, spirituality and religion, and culture. It builds on these domains to create broad regional strategies for communications in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. Its suggestions for future national strategies combine interpersonal communication and mass media in key areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. It stipulates that participatory processes are central to designing and operationalising national strategies

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