Difficulties associated with delivering public policy have long been a focus of investigation for institutionalists (Chapter 2). The extent to which promises made during elections campaigns can be delivered by the political party or parties that win office is of fundamental concern to those interested in the operation of democracy in Australia (Chapter 1). The fact that public servants can place their own ideas about how things ought to be done ahead of those of their ministers is important for behaviouralists (Chapter 3) and, in that it suggests that they are part of the social elite that monopolises resources at the expense of other Australians, abhorrent to critical theorists (Chapter 4). Discourse theorists and post-structuralists (Chapter 5) would seek to identify the discourses through which policy problems and their solutions are defined, while international politics theorists would examine the impact of the interplay between domestic and international forces on shaping policy delivery (Chapter 6).