Workshop 2 Institutional relations, network structure and network management: what

does it matter?

Policy Implementation in Hybrid Contexts:

the coordinating impact of Networks of Local Implementers in a social policy in Portugal

Lus Mota and Maria Engrcia Cardim

As documented by several scholars, the hybridization of public governance models is not only
an increasing reality, but also a pressing issue, considering the co-existence between elements
of hierarchy, market and networks is not always pacific.
Revealing features from its Napoleonic administrative tradition and from a significant, despite
late and somehow unsuccessful, managerialist public sector reform, Portugal is not an
exception to this trend. This hybrid system was particularly visible within a social policies
movement launched during the 2000s, under a Third Way spirit.
The lifelong learning policy Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades (recognition of adults prior
learning + complementing learning courses) was an example of it, since it had an implementing
structure based on a national regulating public agency (ANQ, later ANQEP) and a large set of
public, private and non-profit contracted-out local implementers (CNOs) and it had a tailor
made implementation scheme.
As reported within earlier studies, the initial implementation steps were characterized by two
significant relational problems, which were also causing some delivery quality problems: a
certain rivalry between local providers, mostly promoted by high contracted output goals and
an unbalanced territorial distribution of local providers; and, an autonomy paradox, since
some local providers complained about lack of discretion but frequently requested for more
concrete guidelines.
In order to cope with some of these problems, several networks of local implementers (a sort
of communities of practice) were created after 2009, aiming not only to pacify the
relationships among local providers, but also to promote peer-review accountability and to
promote inter-organizational learning.
Having the implementation process and structure of this policy as the main research object,
this paper aims to understand: a) how the previously existent hierarchy and market dynamics
have affected the emergence and development of these networks; b) which network
management strategies were more effective and under which conditions.
To do so, we launched a survey on local providers (total of 456; response rate of 24%), in order
to characterize these networks in what is related with their main triggering agents and
motives, their dynamics and the main relational and performance impacts of their activity.
After that process, we interviewed representatives of the national agency and representatives
of 10 of the identified networks* to deepen our knowledge about the dynamics and impacts of
these networks.

* Considering several of these networks had informal roots, there was no list of the existing
networks and therefore it was impossible to determine how representative these 10 networks
were.

Authors:
Lus Filipe Mota is a PhD fellow in Public Administration at ISCSP-ULisboa (School of Social and
Political Sciences - University of Lisbon) and member of the research Center for Public
Administration and Public Policies. His research interests are: Policy Implementation process,
actors and instruments; Network Governance and Management; Public Sector Reform. Lately,
he collaborated with the FP7 consortia YOUNEX: Youth, Unemployment and Exclusion in
Europe and COCOPS: Coordinating for Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future.
Contact: mota.lfo@gmail.com

Maria Engrcia Cardim is a senior member of the research Centre for Public Administration
and Public Policy and is a retired Assistant Professor from ISCSP-ULisboa (School of Social and
Political Sciences - University of Lisbon). Besides an academic career dedicated to the domains
of Policy Process and Labour Sociology, she was, for several years, a top public manager and
advisor of management board of public institutions within the domains of vocational training,
education, human resources and youth.