Advances in the national research agenda on public policy implementation

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the research agenda in the field of public policy implementation, comparing the topics most frequently addressed by national and international authors between 2017 and 2025. Based on a state-of-the-art review, articles are mapped and classified according to the topics covered in the field, including: accountability and transparency; state capacities; discretion, agency and autonomy; social effects of implementation; political entrepreneurship; involvement of non-state actors; strategies for coping with pressures; governance structures; multi-level governance; politicization; bureaucratic representation; and bureaucrats' values and behaviours. The results point towards the construction of a Brazilian agenda of studies on implementation, although the topics covered by national and international studies have little convergence. In turn, most of the gaps previously mapped remain open, indicating that there is potential to be explored.