The need for governance institutions in Ghana to focus on policy results that impact directly on citizen's wellbeing rather than results that are achieved immediately after implementing program of activities has become more relevant than ever before due to widening policy gaps (the difference between policy intention and policy outcome) in Ghana. Defective policy implementation by the Ghanaian Civil Service is widening policy gaps in Ghana. With the aid of the institutional analysis and development framework, this quantitative study examined the relationship between policy gaps and governance in Ghana. Empirical data were collected from 539 Civil Servants in Ghana using a web-based survey. The 539 Civil Service participants in this study were chosen from a list of all Civil Servants obtained from the Office of the Head of Civil Service in Ghana. Multiple linear regression was employed to test the extent to which 6 governance indicators affected policy gaps. Findings showed a significant negative relationship between the regulatory quality governance indicator and policy gaps. The study also found no significant relationship between policy gaps and other governance indicators, namely voice and accountability, political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law, governance effectiveness, and control of corruption. These results suggest that implementing public policies relating to trade and investment, taxes, tariffs, and other regulatory issues that seek to enhance the development of the private sector significantly reduces policy gaps. This study leads to positive social change by helping the civil service improve policies and procedures to services for the citizens it serves.

Since the terrorist attacks on the United States of America on September 11, 2001, approach to policing has observably been shifted across the country. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, this study explored the perceptions of community members from a Chicago, Illinois community regarding the shift in policing style post 9/11. Cooley's theory of the looking glass self, coupled with a phenomenological approach to understand the deeper meaning associated with the perceptions of the residents and the shift in policing styles in Chicago communities. The data were obtained from participants who were at least 40 years old and held a residence for at least 3 years in the area prior to 9/11 and 3 to 5 years immediately after 9/11. The study included the use of a semi-structured interview guide and the findings were analyzed using inductive coding with thematic analysis. The findings indicated that residents of the community want a positive relationship with the police but perceive that they are viewed negatively by the police and that police fear them. Participants agreed that they recognized a shift in policing strategies and consistently noted a desire for police to return to community policing strategies that they perceive have been abandoned in favor of more militaristic approaches to law enforcement. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to police executives to consider the strategic and tactical demilitarization of the police department and integrate community preferences in future decision making regarding critical standard operating procedures including stop and frisk policies, training initiatives, and zero tolerance declarations. Adherence to these recommendations may improve oversight of officers and improve relationships with the community.

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This thesis looks at policy formulation in a Revenue Office over the nine-year period, from 1984 to 1993. It presents a case study that is based on actual events; but, because of the difficulties in reporting on the events in a large organisation without the possible influence of some staff, particularly senior management, it was decided to change the names of the organisation, the people and policies. The thesis is based on an examination of a number of policy initiatives that were 'quilted' together. Its focus is not on the contents of the policies or primarily on their economic success, but on the bureaucratic and stakeholder processes involved in their formulation. The purpose of the thesis is to provide a way of understanding events in organisations that are portrayed or categorised by research as policy formulation. Policy formulation is considered to be a core process in organisations, but it is still poorly understood or explained by current models, particularly those based on a rationalistic view of the world. Many of these models have their roots in economic theory and rationality, which promotes the idea that policy is a fundamental and almost inevitable part of organisation goal attainment. These ideas permeate and structure the theory and depiction of organisations and, hence, the way we understand the nature of the social actions and interactions supporting policy formulation. The thesis rejects the assertion that organisations move in a consistently calculated and logical direction based on goal setting and developing policies to meet objectives. An alternative view is proposed: that policy formulation must be understood within the phenomenon of an organisation where people enact a particular form of social reality. Under this model organisations are created and maintained by social processes that are continually executed by people. In this context, individuals and groups use processes of negotiation and power to manipulate and re-define the meanings attributed to problems and solutions to maintain a perception of consistent and coordinated change and goal attainment in policy formulation. This social practice is an attempt to define reality and maintain legitimacy for the policy changes. Thus, the emphasis is on social processes rather than outcomes, thereby focusing on the development and maintenance of perceptions of problems and solutions. This thesis analyses policy formulation as a distinctive kind of social practice using a case study of policy developments in a revenue office, as a means of explaining the basic nature of ongoing corporate life. The case study explores the way that core revenue office policies, proposed as 'logical' change, were formulated by individuals and groups who constantly used 'legitimising' management models and principles, agenda management, and bargaining and power processes to negotiate, influence, modify and manipulate the perceptions of change. The aim is to explain how policy options were generated in the 'Charisma period', to examine their origins and how they were acted upon, and to develop a set of summary concepts that might be used to understand policy development behaviours. / Master of Commerce (Hons)

This thesis addresses a significant gap in Australian social policy literature about the relationship between the impact of economic rationalism on social policy and interest representation during policy implementation. Michael Pusey, for instance, argues that economic rationalism displaces social values in social policy. However, other theorists, such as Robert Alford and Rod Rhodes, caution that policy often changes when it is implemented. With a foundation in Weberian social theory about participant values, the analytical framework incorporates three institutional policy implementation concepts to capture the dynamic characteristics of the policy process. These are: policy stages to describe policy change over time; structural interests of policy organisations; and policy networks within which participants act. The thesis tests this framework to explain the impact of values of economic rationality in the Australian coordinated care policy. The policy attempted to coordinate the care of people with chronic care needs, using a funds pool, case managers and care plans. The research methods are interviews with policy participants; analysis of public documents; and participant observation as an evaluator in one trial. Data about the policy process from 1994 to 2001 are analysed with a critical interpretive approach. The study reveals that central agency officials acted primarily on values of economic rationality. In contrast, health agency officials acted primarily on organisational values. The transfer of responsibility for the policy process from a central agency to the health agency after the policy statements reinforced health provider organisational interests, rather than either the rationalist interests of central agencies or the social interests of consumer groups. The policy consequently changed away from economic rationality. The policy process in the planning, implementation and revision stages was in no sense an instrumental application of the values of economic rationality apparent in the policy statements stage. Neither, however, did social values predominate in any policy stage. The study argues that insights from policy implementation research can refine the literature on economic rationalism. This research further advances policy network theory. It recognises that understanding which organisation is responsible for the policy, at various policy stages, advances our understanding of whose values shape social policy.

The debate over the role and the size of state activity in public economics remains controversial despite more than a century of active research. As a result, several explanations have been suggested to explain the expansion of the size of the public economy and a large amount of literature has been produced. In the late 19th century, the German economist Adolph Wagner predicted that economic development would be accompanied by a relative growth in the public sector. This thesis argues that the way the Wagner Hypothesis has been interpreted in the existing literature has been incomplete both on theoretical and empirical grounds. Data shows that the independent variable is an important determinant of the growth of government share in income. This result is generally consistent with the WH and lends support to the logistic and the Gompertz processes of government growth. Following discussion, the principal conclusion is that the rise of the share of government expenditure in income in the cross section sample of 88 countries can be partly explained by the changes in the levels of real GDP per capita for those countries. The thesis concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of these results and suggestions for further research. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The central objective of this study is to examine the factors that have influenced the evolution of the drug patenting regulatory framework in Canada from 1965 to 2005. The principal focus is on the extent to which in formulating that regulatory framework the Canadian federal government has been influenced by domestic and international interests and forces. In examining the domestic interests and forces attention is devoted to the financial interests of the two sectoral associations representing the patented and generic drug manufacturers and the economic and political interests of the governing and opposition parties. In examining the international interests and forces the focus is both on the emergence of international institutions and agreements and on the interests of various countries and drug companies located therein which wanted to ensure that Canadas regulatory framework would not have an adverse effect on them. This study reveals that there was three relatively distinct phases in the evolution of Canadas drug patenting regulatory framework and that each was influenced primarily by different sets of factors. The first phase which lasted from 1965 to 1991 was influenced entirely by domestic interests and forces produced by a highly charged political debate over reduced patent protection and drug price restrictions on the one hand, and increased patent protection and economic development on the other. The second phase, which lasted from 1992 to 2001, consisted largely of international forces. This included the emergence of new international institutions and agreements such as the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created new intellectual property obligations for Canada and provided for even longer periods of patent protection than what had already existed. The third phase which began 2002 and continues to the present day, consists of a combination of domestic and international forces which attempt to reconcile domestic issues such as price restriction and economic development with international issues such as allowing Third World countries an opportunity to import drugs at reasonable prices. The Government of Canadas response to all of these pressures has predominantly reflected the objectives of patented drug manufacturers.

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The central objective of this study is to examine the factors that have influenced the evolution of the drug patenting regulatory framework in Canada from 1965 to 2005. The principal focus is on the extent to which in formulating that regulatory framework the Canadian federal government has been influenced by domestic and international interests and forces. In examining the domestic interests and forces attention is devoted to the financial interests of the two sectoral associations representing the patented and generic drug manufacturers and the economic and political interests of the governing and opposition parties. In examining the international interests and forces the focus is both on the emergence of international institutions and agreements and on the interests of various countries and drug companies located therein which wanted to ensure that Canadas regulatory framework would not have an adverse effect on them. This study reveals that there was three relatively distinct phases in the evolution of Canadas drug patenting regulatory framework and that each was influenced primarily by different sets of factors. The first phase which lasted from 1965 to 1991 was influenced entirely by domestic interests and forces produced by a highly charged political debate over reduced patent protection and drug price restrictions on the one hand, and increased patent protection and economic development on the other. The second phase, which lasted from 1992 to 2001, consisted largely of international forces. This included the emergence of new international institutions and agreements such as the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created new intellectual property obligations for Canada and provided for even longer periods of patent protection than what had already existed. The third phase which began 2002 and continues to the present day, consists of a combination of domestic and international forces which attempt to reconcile domestic issues such as price restriction and economic development with international issues such as allowing Third World countries an opportunity to import drugs at reasonable prices. The Government of Canadas response to all of these pressures has predominantly reflected the objectives of patented drug manufacturers.