50 International Journal of Sport Management Volume 7, 2006, 50-66 Sport for ’Some’: Elite Versus Mass Participation Kalliopi Sotiriadou Shayne Quick David Shilbury Introduction A considerable degree of ambigu- ity surrounds the use of the term pubfic poficy. Dye (1987) argued that, at the level of government organi- zation as well as at any level of any for- mal organization such as sport organi- zations, public policy studies are con- cerned with "what governments/ organizations do, why they do it and the difference it makes" (p.1). VanderZwaag (1998) argued that policies are designed to have an effect over an extended period of time, and this is why it is ap- propriate to think in terms of policy development. He explained "policy development is the continuous process of making significant decisions on recur- ring matters resulting from issues or problems involving the use of critical re- sources from the standpoint of long-term perspective" (p. 10). According to Webb, Rowland and Fasano (1990) there are two distinct levels of policy. On one level there are two policies: Policies for show and those for real, with the latter "designed to im- plement change, to either solve a prob- lem, improve a situation or respond to a challenge" (p. 7). On another level there is policy content and policy process, with the latter incorporating two seg- ments (i.e., formulating and implement- ing policy). Real life policy processes do not take place in a vacuum but rather in what Hogwood and Gunn (1984) call policy space. This space, as applied in the Australian context, occurs within na- tional, state and local organizations and marks the area of activity for which gov- ernment takes responsibility, regulates and provides support. The hierarchy of sporting organizations, the relationship between them and the assistance gov- ernment provides defines the policy space for the Federal government (Webb et al., 1990). More specifically, the sporting organization structure in Australia is a reflection of the Australian Federated model. This includes the na- tional, state and local levels. As such, sport organisations are structured ac- cordingly into the same levels and are represented by the National Sporting Organizations (NSOs), the State Sport- ing Organizations (SSOs) and the local clubs. Sports in Australia are managed and co-ordinated by NSOs (Wester- beek, Shilbury & Deane, and Kellett INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT MANAGEMENT