Lihi Lahat – författare

This incisive Handbook provides an overview of how social policies are implemented and how implementation often diverges from political expectations. It demonstrates that delivering welfare services is not only a technical task but a complex, contested process influenced by frontline workers, organizations, and broader social and political forces. Leading international scholars examine how today’s welfare states face new challenges, including digitalization, declining administrative capacity, multi-level governance, and changing relationships between the state and society. Addressing key topics such as capacity and resources, the role of emotions, and policy reforms for elder care, the authors illustrate that social policy implementation is a dynamic, interactive process in which rules, resources, professional norms, and power are constantly changing. Offering conceptual tools, empirical analysis, innovative research methods, and comparative perspectives, this Handbook advances research on the application of social policy, presenting new directions and methods for future study. The Handbook of Social Policy Implementation is a crucial resource for scholars and students of social and public policy, politics, public administration, and sociology. Practitioners employing social policy in welfare organizations, public agencies, advocacy groups, and state governance will also benefit from its valuable theoretical insights and practical guidance.

This book is the first to explore collaborative governance arrangements in Israel. It offers a new, modular definition of collaborative governance, focusing on its contributions toward public values and democracy. The book discusses different kinds of collaborations, their scope, implications and impact on governability in Israel, a country which provides an interesting setting for learning about collaborative governance, given its heterogenous population and the nature of the relationship between the state’s civil service, the business sector and the civil society. The book presents examples derived from local, and central government levels, and from policy areas such as education, regulation and local government.