DISSECTING THE DIMENSIONS OF POLICY SUCCESS
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Abstract
Despite the greatest desire for policies to succeed, and abhorrence at failures, academic efforts to write on the subject are rare. This paper explores how successful or unsuccessful a policy could be according to some predefined criteria. It coins policy as having three domains: processes, programs and politics. Policies may succeed or fail in each of these realms, along a spectrum of success, resilient success, conflicted success, precarious success and failure. Criteria for success in each sphere are not categorical but we can argue that they reflect the majority of ways in which policies might be considered successful. The article below gives the examples of polices from around the world and in Pakistan’s context according to these criteria. The shortage of literature on policy success is a significant gap in our understanding of the world.
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