Ending the Transformation before the Goal is Fulfilled: The Case of Head Start

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

To make a comprehensive policy change, actors often turn to the gradual path where they introduce small-scale changes hoping that their accumulation will meet their goal over time. Nonetheless, they often stop the transformative process before meeting their original goal. This paper argues that this can be explained by policy learning. When actors learn from reliable information that the accumulation of the small-scale changes does not meet their expectations, they stop the transformative process. At the same time, the policy is not illuminated due to feedback effects and beliefs by the majority of actors that the small-scale changes are beneficial.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)381-404
Number of pages24
JournalAdministration and Society
Volume55
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

  • child care
  • gradual transformative change
  • policy learning

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