When does policy design occur?

The foci of design activities within the policy process, as the discussion in Chapters 1–4 has shown, are around policy formulation and implementation (Hood 1986c, 2007b; Linder and Peters 1991; Varone 1998; Varone and Aebischer 2001). It is at these two stages of the policy cycle that the possible techniques to be used in realizing policy are first mooted and appraised and then, finally, executed and put into practice (Goggin 1987). The key stage of policy design, however, is policy formulation, with successful implementation and the barriers to it being one concern of formulation activity.