Policy failure and the Transantiago: Theoretical analysis of a failed implementation

The following thesis is a qualitative case study, utilizing Congruence Analysis Approach to study the Transantiago, a public transportation policy implemented in Santiago, Chile on February 2007 that is still operating to this day. This policy was implemented in order to ‘fix’ the previous public transportation system, by imitating successful Latin American public transportation policies, the Transmilenio (Colombia) and the BRT (Brazil). The main theoretical puzzle is how this policy continued after its initial policy failure implementation and later evaluation on 2010. Hence, it was studied if the policy was a success by the year 2010 following McConnell’s (2015) conceptualization of successful policy. Also, two theoretical lenses (historical institutionalism approach and rational decision making approaches) were compared in order to establish which theory explains more holistically the structure and the behavior of policymakers since its implementation until the year 2010. It was...Show moreThe following thesis is a qualitative case study, utilizing Congruence Analysis Approach to study the Transantiago, a public transportation policy implemented in Santiago, Chile on February 2007 that is still operating to this day. This policy was implemented in order to ‘fix’ the previous public transportation system, by imitating successful Latin American public transportation policies, the Transmilenio (Colombia) and the BRT (Brazil). The main theoretical puzzle is how this policy continued after its initial policy failure implementation and later evaluation on 2010. Hence, it was studied if the policy was a success by the year 2010 following McConnell’s (2015) conceptualization of successful policy. Also, two theoretical lenses (historical institutionalism approach and rational decision making approaches) were compared in order to establish which theory explains more holistically the structure and the behavior of policymakers since its implementation until the year 2010. It was concluded that the Transantiago continues to be a policy failure and historical institutionalism approach explains more holistically the implementation process rather than rational decision making approach. The findings prove Parsons’ (1995) policy cycle theory is no longer relevant for studying modern policy failures and policies cannot be studied in a vacuum: they are affected by a myriad of factors (actors, history, contingencies, among other factors).Show less

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Policy failure and the Transantiago: Theoretical analysis of a failed implementation