Applicability and Adaptability of Some Public Policy Models to African Countries

Abstract

This paper examines the applicability of several models of public policy for ordering public policymaking, implementation, evaluation or assessment and policy research in African countries. In doing so, the paper chronicles some of the ecological specificities of public policymaking in Africa and, on the strength of similarities of social structures and political conditions among African and other Third World countries, queries the applicability of these mostly Western-oriented policy models for understanding and analyzing public policymaking and implementation structures and processes in such countries. On the basis of identified challenges with public policy processes and structures in such countries, the paper makes suggestions for straightening, structuring and strengthening public policymaking and implementation in African and other Third World countries. Specifically, the paper argues the need to advance appropriate analytical frameworks to record, analyze and interpret public policy processes and procedures in African and other Third World countries with similar characteristics. This, it argues, is a means of bridging the gap between public policy theory and practice in such countries.

Keywords: Theories; Models; Public Policy; Third World; African Countries.