ABSTRACT
Over the last thirty years the governments of most developed nations have implemented sport policies focused on two key pillars – supporting elite sport performance and increasing rates of participation in organized competitive sport. The elite performance policy area has been well researched, as exemplifi ed by Green and Houlihan (2005) and Houlihan and Green (2008). The participation area, however, has not received nearly as much attention. There have been a range of texts that have intersected with the broad area of sport development (Coalter 2007; Houlihan and White 2002; Hylton et al. 2001; Hylton and Bramham 2008) or sport for all (DaCosta and Miragaya 2002), but none have specifi cally focused on participation policies. This is surprising given that most national governments have policies that emphasize increasing sport participation. This book attempts to fi ll a signifi cant gap in the research literature by examining national sport participation policies via an international comparative framework. In the process it is hoped that the sport policy research agenda will be broadened, a starting point being the collection in this book of chapters that explore the effi cacy of government involvement in sport participation within diverse settings and contexts.
