When Less Means More: Policy Accumulation, Administrative Capacities, and Policy Performance

Democratic governments have consistently introduced new policies to address various societal, economic, and environmental issues. However, this ongoing expansion of policy measures risks overburdening the public administrations responsible for their execution. To explore this challenge, we examine how the relationship between the size of sectoral policy portfolios and available implementation capacities impacts the effectiveness of sectoral policies. Our analysis of environmental policies across OECD countries reveals a growing disparity between the number of policies requiring implementation and the resources available to carry them out, which in turn negatively affects policy performance.