Some Altered Thoughts on Policy Termination

摘要

Recently there has been a great deal of attention within policymaking offices to program cutback, policy termination, and, in some cases, the actual closure of government agencies, both minor (e.g., the Community Services Administration) and major (e.g., the U.S. Department of Energy). These activities have occasioned a reconsideration of the earlier literature on policy termination to assess its current relevancy upon present and future contingencies. The motivation for the immediate exercise is the budget trimming efforts of the Reagan Administration, which provide anybody interested in termination research ample food for thought, but similar examples can be drawn from the on-going debates in England and Sweden. Policy termination is hardly a parochial act.