ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ideational aspects of policy proposals, the participatory arrangements, and the administrative workings of public bureaucracy into an analytical framework, which is then used to examine the role of structure and agency in interpreting, shaping, and importantly contesting the strategic vision of cohesion policy. It reviews policy implementation literature, in an effort to analyze key factors, which might affect implementation processes. The chapter shows that the political devil is very much in the detail of normative perceptions about the policy aims and administrative handling of ambiguous interests and values by unpacking the intricacies of Social Fund programming. Cohesion policy is an example of extremely complex decision-making procedures, operating in a multifaceted institutional landscape and adhering to a range of principles, regulations, and interests. Scholars invested in administrative behaviour began to contest a notion that a clear template for action on its own can orchestrate and restrain a host of interactions involved in realizing official decisions.
