Improving policy effectiveness: land use planning in a devolved polity

Improving public policy efficiency and effectiveness in land use planning is an established priority on the prevailing political agenda in the UK. Practical measures to enhance policy formulation in local land use development plans in Scotland offer an interesting case study of an attempt to improve policy consistency, and to secure efficiency gains in policy authorship. This article considers the specific focus on the drafting stage of public policy-making drawing on insights provided by research into the production of model policies in Scotland. It questions the extent to which such an initiative will promote a more robust public policy-making discipline in light of the policy cycle. The discussion of the case study illustrates a practical attempt by central government to enhance public policy-making at the local level, while raising questions about the dangers of invoking a technocratic and instrumentalist approach to policy analysis.