ABSTRACT
In many respects, this chapter follows closely upon the previous one. We begin with the realization that policy, at least the kind that effects change, does not simply land upon a latent field from above. Rather, policy evolves on the ground, within and part of a context. In this manner, the solution might stand some chance of matching the breadth and complexity of the policy context, which involves real communities, contingencies, and dynamic processes. The other way of understanding this is, if a policy solution is to be effective and be maintained in a situation, then it must, somehow and in different respects, “fit” that situation. This chapter entails analyzing policy through the notion of institutional “fit” or, as we hereon refer to it, “coherence.”
