The role and significance of strategic and normative factors in public policy design and implementation in Slovenia: A Content Analysis

Abstract

Policy processes are complex systems and require an in-depth and comprehensive analysis. Literature review reveals a lack of methodological approaches that in the broadest sense analyse and evaluate the successfulness of public policies. Especially, factors that affect policy design and policy implementation as two important phases of policy cycle have not been sufficiently explored. To address this gap, the application of several relevant public policy theories can help identify and investigate key factors relevant for analysing public policies.

The principal objective of this paper is to define, analyse and study the relationship between two critical factors that influence the successful policy design and implementation of public policies in Slovenia, namely the strategic factors and normative factors.
In order to study selected critical public policy factors twenty-two structured interviews and object-oriented discussions were conducted with the prominent public policy experts in Slovenia. The interviews were performed from February to September 2017, covering various relevant fields of public policies. Subsequently, the exploratory qualitative content analysis was applied in order to investigate the role and significance of the selected factors for successful design and implementation of public policies in Slovenia, and their interdependence and impact on the performance of public policies.

The findings from this analysis reveal that although strategic factors are identified by the interviewees as the most important among all factors, the role of normative factors is also of utmost important and should not be underestimated. For various reasons, in practice, the normative factors often turn out to be crucial.