Policy entrepreneurship in the development of public sector strategy: the case of London health reform

Eivor Oborn, Michael Barrett, Mark Exworthy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The development of health policy is recognized as complex; however, there has been little development of the role of agency in this process. Kingdon developed the concept of policy entrepreneur (PE) within his ‘windows’ model. He argued inter-related ‘policy streams’ must coincide for important issues to become addressed. The conjoining of these streams may be aided by a policy entrepreneur. We contribute by clarifying the role of the policy entrepreneur and highlighting the translational processes of key actors in creating and aligning policy windows. We analyse the work in London of Professor Sir Ara Darzi as a policy entrepreneur. An important aspect of Darzi’s approach was to align a number of important institutional networks to conjoin related problems. Our findings highlight how a policy entrepreneur not only opens policy windows but also yokes together a network to make policy agendas happen. Our contribution reveals the role of clinical leadership in health reform.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)325-344
JournalPublic Administration
Volume89
Issue number2
Early online date7 Mar 2011
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

Keywords

  • policy entrepreneur, London, Health reform, Darzi

Cite this