Making Implementation More Democratic through Action Implementation Research

Public administration scholars often associate increased publicparticipation in policy implementation with the advancementof democratic values. Likewise, scholars engaged in the variousforms of action research (AR) promote their efforts as a meansto democratizing the research process or contributing to improvedsocial outcomes. Despite these common interests in participationand democracy, there have been few attempts to apply AR methodsto policy implementation problems. Drawing on Matland's conflict-ambiguitymatrix, we develop a framework for matching particular AR methodsto specific policy implementation contexts.     

Intraorganizational Implementation Research: Theory and Method

The article presents a process by which qualitative case studyimplementation research may be cumulated. Using the conceptof the hermeneutic spiral, an iterative process is employedin order to increase understanding of welfare implementationsince the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity ReconciliationAct. This process involves a review of recent welfare reformliterature, the use of the knowing organization model (KOM)as a research frame for understanding the existing literatureand the application of the KOM to primary data collected fromcounty welfare offices in Pennsylvania.