ABSTRACT
Top-down approaches had dominated thus far due to the prevalence of monolithic government departments being responsible for delivering policy objectives, thus allowing a large degree of control of implementation by political masters. The policymaker must then devise a policy that directs resources at the units likely to have the greatest effect. One of the problems for students of policy is finding ways to measure success without relying on only the original or modified policy aims as a yardstick or relying upon claims by politicians about the success of a given policy. P. Pierson argues that political science and the social sciences in particular have become increasingly decontextualised; that analysis has moved away from historical explanations of phenomena. Top-down theory sees policy implementation starting with policy formulation at government level with those implementing policy following through on policy intentions and delivering services that meet these intentions.
