Do Governments Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is? Policy Adoption And Administrative Resource Provision in 15 OECD Countries

Bibliographic Data

ID6319752
AuthorsXavier Fernández-I-Marín (0000-0002-9522-8870), Markus Hinterleitner (0000-0001-9909-2715), Christoph Knill (0000-0002-8562-2102), Yves Steinebach (0000-0001-7453-7204)
Year2025
Pages1-19
Publication date2025-02-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePerspectives on Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1537-5927 • E-ISSN: 1541-0986
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1537592724001944
OpenAlexW4407424044
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited80

Government programs often fail because administrative actors receive insufficient financial and personnel resources for their implementation. Despite the importance of resource provision for policy implementation, we know very little about when and why implementers are equipped with the resources they need. We examine the conditions under which new policies go hand in hand with resource increases for the administration. We match data on policy adoptions and budgetary changes in the area of social policy for 15 European countries over 30 years (1990 to 2020). The analysis reveals that governments tend to provide more financial resources when 1) an issue is prominently discussed among parties, and when 2) institutional fragmentation is low. Moreover, governments provide fewer additional resources for policy implementation 3) when their chances of getting re-elected are low due to intense political competition. These findings contribute to our broader understanding of democracy and public administration

Business · Economic policy · Economics · Public economics · Resource (disambiguation · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Social Policy and Reform Studies