Harald Saetren
Biographic Data
| ID | 1127856 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Harald Saetren |
| GIVEN NAMES | Harald |
| FAMILY NAME | Saetren |
| SIGNATURE | SAETREN H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bergen |
| ORCID | 0009-0000-3575-4767 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Moving Beyond Third Generation Policy Implementation Research Towards a Fourth Generation
Policy implementation research has progressed significantly in line with the third generation paradigm, particularly regarding methodological diversity and research design. However, the anticipated theoretical convergence has not materialized. This article explores how the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), a leading policy process theory, could support this theoretical development. We first discuss empirical trends in policy implementation resear…
Policy Implementation in an Age of Governance
Four main findings stand out in this state-of-the-art analysis of policy implementation research. First, after a sudden rise in research interest and publications on this topic since the early 1970s up to the mid–late 1980s, scholarly interest stagnated and declined until the late 1990s and beginning of the new century. Then research publications started to rebound to an unprecedented new high level. Second, during these five decades or so, resea…
From controversial policy idea to successful program implementation
Comparative Implementation Research
The study of policy implementation developed steadily and considerably in the 1970s and 1980s through two generations of research. Since then progress towards a more rigorous scientific “third generation research paradigm”, assumed to be crucial for further theoretical development, has been much slower and more uneven. Comparative studies figure prominently in this respect. On one hand they are strongly encouraged but on the other they are diffic…
The Politics of Policy Design and Implementation
When two policy programs, identical in many important respects, are implemented in the same national context, similar program results would be expected. If this is not the case, an explanation is needed. In this article two Belgian voucher programs are compared: one for household services and one for childcare services. The first program was termed a success while the latter was abandoned after disappointing results. Ideological differences betwe…
Crucial Factors in Implementing Radical Policy Change
Why do public policies succeed or fail? The aim of this article is to contribute to answering this enduring research question in policy research through a comparative study of the variable efforts by Nordic governments to relocate their central agencies from the capital regions over a period of several decades. This was a radical redistributive policy program premised on a policy instrument – coercion – which was very alien to political systems c…
Tales From the Crypt
This rejoinder challenges and refutes the alarming decline thesis posited by Howlett and Lejano in their Disputatio article in this journal in 2012. Using their own data Source - JSTOR - updated to 2009 and search term “policy design” as well as the more comprehensive Social Science Citation Index in terms of journal coverage and supplementary search terms ‘policy instrument’s and ‘policy tool’s we clearly demonstrate that policy design research …
Implementing the third generation research paradigm in policy implementation research
A comprehensive literature review a few years ago found, contrary to a commonly held belief, research on public policy implementation to be still alive and have developed further well into the 21st century in quantitative terms. We pursue this line of inquiry by asking whether this conclusion also applies to progress in qualitative terms. All articles published in core journals in political science, public administration/management and public pol…
The sustainable future of implementation research
As fashionable as implementation studies were in the 1970s and 1980s, as en vogue it has become currently, four decades later, to consider implementation as an obsolete research theme. It is clear that in the study of government, new themes and concepts have been put on the agenda. In the ‘age of governance’, that study takes place under a variety of headings beyond ‘implementation’. At the same time, a continued attention to what happens with po…
Facts and Myths about Research on Public Policy Implementation
Despite several decades of research on public policy implementation we know surprisingly little, not only about cumulative research results, but also about several other key aspects of this research field. This article tries to amend these deficiencies by presenting the results of a comprehensive literature survey. Its main purpose is to challenge, revise, and supplement some conventional wisdom about implementation research. A second motivation …
Comparative Public Policies
A better understanding of political system performance from a public policy point of view requires a more rigorous concern with methodological and theoretical aspects of research design. In many comparative studies the lack of focus on the sub‐systemic, intermediate level of the political system is striking and it is maintained that recent developments in organizational theory offer rich opportunities to analyse the effects of institutional and o…
Democracy and Political Power in Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Facts and Myths about Research on Public Policy Implementation
Despite several decades of research on public policy implementation we know surprisingly little, not only about cumulative research results, but also about several other key aspects of this research field. This article tries to amend these deficiencies by presenting the results of a comprehensive literature survey. Its main purpose is to challenge, revise, and supplement some conventional wisdom about implementation research. A second motivation …
Implementing the third generation research paradigm in policy implementation research
A comprehensive literature review a few years ago found, contrary to a commonly held belief, research on public policy implementation to be still alive and have developed further well into the 21st century in quantitative terms. We pursue this line of inquiry by asking whether this conclusion also applies to progress in qualitative terms. All articles published in core journals in political science, public administration/management and public pol…
From controversial policy idea to successful program implementation
The Politics of Policy Design and Implementation
When two policy programs, identical in many important respects, are implemented in the same national context, similar program results would be expected. If this is not the case, an explanation is needed. In this article two Belgian voucher programs are compared: one for household services and one for childcare services. The first program was termed a success while the latter was abandoned after disappointing results. Ideological differences betwe…
Comparative Implementation Research
The study of policy implementation developed steadily and considerably in the 1970s and 1980s through two generations of research. Since then progress towards a more rigorous scientific “third generation research paradigm”, assumed to be crucial for further theoretical development, has been much slower and more uneven. Comparative studies figure prominently in this respect. On one hand they are strongly encouraged but on the other they are diffic…
Crucial Factors in Implementing Radical Policy Change
Why do public policies succeed or fail? The aim of this article is to contribute to answering this enduring research question in policy research through a comparative study of the variable efforts by Nordic governments to relocate their central agencies from the capital regions over a period of several decades. This was a radical redistributive policy program premised on a policy instrument – coercion – which was very alien to political systems c…
Tales From the Crypt
This rejoinder challenges and refutes the alarming decline thesis posited by Howlett and Lejano in their Disputatio article in this journal in 2012. Using their own data Source - JSTOR - updated to 2009 and search term “policy design” as well as the more comprehensive Social Science Citation Index in terms of journal coverage and supplementary search terms ‘policy instrument’s and ‘policy tool’s we clearly demonstrate that policy design research …
Democracy and Political Power in Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Comparative Public Policies
A better understanding of political system performance from a public policy point of view requires a more rigorous concern with methodological and theoretical aspects of research design. In many comparative studies the lack of focus on the sub‐systemic, intermediate level of the political system is striking and it is maintained that recent developments in organizational theory offer rich opportunities to analyse the effects of institutional and o…
Facts and Myths about Research on Public Policy Implementation
Despite several decades of research on public policy implementation we know surprisingly little, not only about cumulative research results, but also about several other key aspects of this research field. This article tries to amend these deficiencies by presenting the results of a comprehensive literature survey. Its main purpose is to challenge, revise, and supplement some conventional wisdom about implementation research. A second motivation …
Implementing the third generation research paradigm in policy implementation research
A comprehensive literature review a few years ago found, contrary to a commonly held belief, research on public policy implementation to be still alive and have developed further well into the 21st century in quantitative terms. We pursue this line of inquiry by asking whether this conclusion also applies to progress in qualitative terms. All articles published in core journals in political science, public administration/management and public pol…
The sustainable future of implementation research
As fashionable as implementation studies were in the 1970s and 1980s, as en vogue it has become currently, four decades later, to consider implementation as an obsolete research theme. It is clear that in the study of government, new themes and concepts have been put on the agenda. In the ‘age of governance’, that study takes place under a variety of headings beyond ‘implementation’. At the same time, a continued attention to what happens with po…
Comparative Implementation Research
The study of policy implementation developed steadily and considerably in the 1970s and 1980s through two generations of research. Since then progress towards a more rigorous scientific “third generation research paradigm”, assumed to be crucial for further theoretical development, has been much slower and more uneven. Comparative studies figure prominently in this respect. On one hand they are strongly encouraged but on the other they are diffic…
The Politics of Policy Design and Implementation
When two policy programs, identical in many important respects, are implemented in the same national context, similar program results would be expected. If this is not the case, an explanation is needed. In this article two Belgian voucher programs are compared: one for household services and one for childcare services. The first program was termed a success while the latter was abandoned after disappointing results. Ideological differences betwe…
Crucial Factors in Implementing Radical Policy Change
Why do public policies succeed or fail? The aim of this article is to contribute to answering this enduring research question in policy research through a comparative study of the variable efforts by Nordic governments to relocate their central agencies from the capital regions over a period of several decades. This was a radical redistributive policy program premised on a policy instrument – coercion – which was very alien to political systems c…
Tales From the Crypt
This rejoinder challenges and refutes the alarming decline thesis posited by Howlett and Lejano in their Disputatio article in this journal in 2012. Using their own data Source - JSTOR - updated to 2009 and search term “policy design” as well as the more comprehensive Social Science Citation Index in terms of journal coverage and supplementary search terms ‘policy instrument’s and ‘policy tool’s we clearly demonstrate that policy design research …
From controversial policy idea to successful program implementation
Policy Implementation in an Age of Governance
Four main findings stand out in this state-of-the-art analysis of policy implementation research. First, after a sudden rise in research interest and publications on this topic since the early 1970s up to the mid–late 1980s, scholarly interest stagnated and declined until the late 1990s and beginning of the new century. Then research publications started to rebound to an unprecedented new high level. Second, during these five decades or so, resea…
Moving Beyond Third Generation Policy Implementation Research Towards a Fourth Generation
Policy implementation research has progressed significantly in line with the third generation paradigm, particularly regarding methodological diversity and research design. However, the anticipated theoretical convergence has not materialized. This article explores how the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), a leading policy process theory, could support this theoretical development. We first discuss empirical trends in policy implementation resear…
Policy Transfer and Learning (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Economics (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Engineering (5 works)