Towards a new pattern of strategy formation in the public sector: first experiences with national strategies for sustainable development in Europe

Despite lengthy debates about planning versus incrementalism, there is still no consensus on what strategy processes should look like in the public sector. In the environmental policy field, the decline of formal policy planning was nonetheless followed by a surge of national strategies for sustainable development (NSSDs). After summarizing this development, we highlight some key characteristics, good practices, and weaknesses of NSSDs with regard to participation, horizontal and vertical policy integration, policy implementation, and monitoring. It is shown that NSSDs go well beyond former environmental policy plans, not just in terms of their thematic scope, but foremost because they resemble evolving rather than static strategy processes. Finally, we explore what model of strategy formation may be adequate for the public sector in general. Based on the empirical evidence presented here and by drawing on strategic management theory, strategic public management is proposed as an ideal pattern for strategy formation, which reconciles planning and incremental learning.