The Implementation Game: What Happens after a Bill becomes a Law.

Abstract

Eugene Bardach's new book, the first volume in M.I.T.'s Studies in American Politics and Public Policy series, is an attempt to improve upon recent efforts to think more systematically about implementation as process and problem. Bardach's principal tool is the metaphor of game, which he uses to summarize the behavior of actors involved in implementation of various policy decisions. The metaphor, he says (p. 56), directs us to look at the players, what they regard as the stakes, their strategies and tactics, their resources for playing, the rules of play (which stipulate the conditions of winning), the rules of 'fair' play (which stipu-