Public policy making, implementation and development in Zambia

This dissertation discusses developmental policy-issues linked to events before and after the change of policy-actors in 1991 and the re-election of MMD state players in 1996 national elections. While its focus is on comparing institutional policy-making and policy-implementation capacity of the Second and Third Republic, it draws upon background data from the colonial government and the First Republic sovereign regime of Zambia. It notes, among its major findings, setbacks in policy-making capacity in central government institutions during the Second Republic. The Third Republic, having been born at a time when human resource development in the country was quite advanced, and having had the advantage of learning from the errors made by and the criticisms levelled against the policy practitioners of the Second Republic, is recorded to have made some improvements. The investigation further notes equal failure by both the Second and Third Republics to allow vibrant policy-inputs from civil-society institutions. While weaknesses have been identified with the bureaucracy's capacity to implement policies in the Second Republic, the Third Republic has been credited with both merits and flaws. The investigation draws upon sources of data from diverse disciplines, and it is this multi and inter-disciplinary admixture of its content which gives hope that the thesis will evoke greater academic curiosity and arouse further research interest among intellectual enthusiasts and practitioners of policy-issues in Development Administration.