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Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental and sustainability policies despite having limited constitutional powers in the management of natural resources. The Commonwealth Government has, over the past three decades, developed strategic policies aimed at sustainably managing forests, water, soils and agricultural lands. The design and implementation arrangements of environmental policies that have endured is not well studied, and this paper addresses this knowledge gap in the context of a federal system. The National Forest Policy Statement, the National Water Initiative and the Natural Heritage Trust have endured centre-left Labor and centre-right Coalition Governments, and serve as case studies. These policies have required structural adjustments to industries to varying degrees to limit impacts on the environment, leading to contestations about policy objectives. The policy cycle serves as the primary heuristic for analysis and the research finds that policy objectives are constrained by the Commonwealth Government's limited constitutional powers on environmental matters. Its participation in strategic policies is driven through notions of resolving a crisis and the policies endure in a phase of indifference to the original policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opening paper outlines the rise of public sector performance measurement and performance governance from New Public Management, its trajectory from an administrative tool for organisational monitoring and management, to its insertion into service performance and accountability, to a policy tool defining policy itself. Four key conceptual ways of approaching public sector performance measurement are outlined, and the significance of understanding performance measurement as a socio-technical policy instrument is argued. The paper thematically reviews the papers that follow and how they demonstrate new points of critical analysis in policy studies, including the multiple, mixed and sometimes contradictory purposes for performance measurement, the formation of performance measurement tools, the linkages of performance numbers and governance structures from macro to micro, and the reconfigured roles of professionals in public service delivery. The paper issues a clear challenge to policy researchers to take performance measurement more seriously in understanding the dynamics of policy performance, the achievement of policy objectives, the reframing of policy and the experience of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the influence of political traditions on policymaking at the interface of national and transnational governance. It uncovers various dimensions of influence on boundary-setting through policy change, derived from a case study examining how Australia reconceptualised longstanding freedom of residential movement and equal treatment for citizens across the Tasman. These policymaking activities spanned boundaries across policy subsystems at the interface of both domestic and transnational arenas, in response to perceived dilemmas. This paper focuses on the enabling role of neoliberal ideations to effect an agenda driven by more covert motives. In context of bilateral economic integration, conflicting traditions created a dilemma for Australia, which sought to maintain the advantages of the free labour-market whilst minimizing the problem of granting access to social security and citizenship to those perceived to be unsuitable. I find that Australia, in resolving this dilemma, allowed neoliberal conceptions of labour as a commodity, thereby enabling traditions of exclusion and border control, to override longstanding trans-Tasman traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments and international organizations increasingly pursue the development of integrated policy strategies to govern persistent societal problems that crosscut the boundaries of traditional jurisdictions. In spite of the rising popularity of such integrated strategies, little is known about their effects. Although it is generally assumed that integrated strategies result in better outcomes, the evidence base to support this claim is sparse. This is not to say that no attempts to study the relationship between integrated strategies and policy outcomes have been undertaken at all; this paper presents a research synthesis of the fragmented evidence base. Eligible studies are interpreted and discussed by using a heuristic that distinguishes between programmatic and political success and failure. Apart from synthesizing the impacts that integrated strategies have had, the paper reflects on associated explanatory conditions and methodological approaches that have been used. The review almost exclusively finds reports of failure and constraining conditions. At the same time, methodological approaches are found to be largely unconvincing and considerable research gaps remain. The paper, therefore, ends with a nuanced answer to the question of whether integrated strategies are worth pursuing and sets out various avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance measurement has an implicit performance theory embedded within its practice; performance measurement perforce performs. Performance measurement has a performative effect on performance. Drawing together and building on the various empirical observations from the preceding papers in this collection, this concluding paper firstly examines the circumstances in which performance measurement performs, that is, when it produces ‘authentic’ performance improvements, compared to when performance measurements misfire. The paper secondly explores several paradoxes of performance measurement – such that performance measurement measures only part of the performance it seeks to be performative on, incentives to perform incentivise poor performance and so on. These paradoxes, contradictions and ironies must be apprehended and appreciated in discovering, discerning and deciphering the diverse dynamics of measuring performance. They also demonstrate that analysing and working with performance measurement requires a perspective that eschews absolutes and clear directions, and embraces the uneasy and potentially destabilising tension of Escher’s performative art. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of the political settlement has risen to occupy a central place in British policy toward conflict-affected and fragile states. Yet, at around the turn of the millennium, the term was barely mentioned in official circles and the so-called ‘good governance’ approach held sway as the dominant operational mode. So, how had this transformation in policy approach come about and what was the role of research? In this article, we demonstrate that research played a central role in influencing the rhetoric of policymakers through a process we term ‘cumulative influence’. Indeed, the subject of political settlements represents an excellent case study for understanding the dynamics of research utilisation. It allows us to build on existing models and suggest useful ways forward in this important area of public policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Empirical evidence of the relationship between administrative capacity and the use of EU funds is plentiful. According to this strand in literature, the complexity of spending rules is key in explaining the implementation gap. What would happen should administrative requirements be relaxed? This paper looks into the implementation of the European Fund for the Integration of third country nationals (EIF), a fund with simpler spending rules and yet a higher rate of unused money. Adapting the hypotheses put forth in absorption literature to the specifics of the EIF, I confront capacity-based explanations to (under-explored) preference-based ones in a comparative fashion. Even when spending EU money is easier, strong support is found for capacity explanans and little for preferences. Even so, administrative capacity appears to be only one factor amongst many, with financial capacity and decentralization playing strong roles too. Empirical evidence is drawn from the application of time-series cross-section methods to an original dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a proliferation of composite indicators or indexes of governance and their use in research and policy-making. This article proposes a framework of 10 questions to guide both the development and evaluation of such indexes. In reviewing these 10 questions – only six of which, it argues, are critical – the paper advances two broad arguments: First, more attention should be paid to the fundamentals of social science methodology, that is, concept formation, content validity, reliability, replicability, robustness, and the relevance of particular measures to underlying research questions. Second, less attention should be paid to other issues more commonly highlighted in the literature on governance measurement, that is, descriptive complexity, theoretical fit, the precision of estimates, and ‘correct’ weighting. The paper builds on review of the literature and on three years of research in practice in developing a well-known governance index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle the undeclared economy, an emergent literature has called for the dominant "rational economic actor" approach, which increases the sanctions and risk of detection, to be replaced and/or complemented by a "social actor" approach that fosters citizens' commitment to compliance. Reporting two waves of the Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2007 and 2013 across Europe, fixed-effects logistic regression analysis reveals that although both approaches reduce participation in undeclared work, the strength of the impact of deterrents on the likelihood of participation in undeclared work has weakened between 2007 and 2013, but has strengthened for vertical and horizontal trust. The paper concludes by discussing the policy implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "policy advisory systems" was introduced by Halligan in 1995 as a way to characterize and analyze the multiple sources of policy advice utilized by governments in policy-making processes. The concept has proved useful and has influenced thinking about both the nature of policy work in different advisory venues as well as how these systems change over time. However, to date this work has examined mainly cases of developed countries and its application to developing and transitional countries is less certain. This paper sets out existing models of policy advisory systems based on Halligan's original thinking on the subject and assesses the findings of many existing studies into OECD countries that advisory systems have been changing as a result of the dual effects of increased use of external consultants and others sources of advice – "externalization" – and the increased use of partisan advice inside government itself – "politicization". Determining whether or not such changes have also characterized the situations found in developing and transitional countries and at the international-domestic and state-sub-state levels is the subject of the papers in this Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with an increasingly complex policy environment, policymakers have sought to leverage upon non-state resources and expertise to supplement their policy efforts. What have emerged are collaborative efforts at policymaking, founded upon close relations between public and private actors. This paper focuses on policy co-creation in Singapore's financial sector, differentiating between formal and informal processes of policy co-creation. In doing so, it aims to provide a policy-oriented approach to understanding government-business relations that can both expand on and contribute to existing corporatist studies of economic development in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the world the combined pressures of population growth and a drying climate have resulted in the proliferation of water focused policies which aim to increase the resilience of socio-ecological systems. Until recently, these policies often reflected surface water centric views of water resources, with groundwater receiving scant attention. In this paper we provide an introduction to the importance of groundwater for water-dependent socio-ecological systems and why it needs to be better incorporated into environmental water management policies. Specifically we highlight the key role of groundwater in buffering the environment and socio-economic activities against drought. We also outline some of the key challenges that face policy-makers and managers implementing groundwater management policies. These include dealing with groundwater resources that are spatially and temporally mismatched with surface water resources; transboundary governance issues; challenges between focusing on either preventative or restorative actions and most importantly limited knowledge about groundwater resources and groundwater–ecology relationships. We hope that the information in this paper will assist in the development of sustainable surface-groundwater water management policies, as well as highlight important challenges that should be considered before implementing groundwater related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a study of innovation policy configurations in two BRICS countries, Russia and China; the fastest growing and most innovative countries in recent years. Employing a three-dimensional framework which maps policy objectives, policy instruments and policy implementation, the research analyzes a database of 485 policy items issued between 1990 and 2013. Twenty-five innovation policy variables have been scrutinized vis-à-vis the three policy dimensions. The paper compares the experiences of Russia with China, across these three policy dimension areas, revealing the similarities and differences in innovation policy configurations. The research identifies how innovation management in both Russia and China has been shaped by contrasting histories, state institutions and economies. The paper offers an alternative perspective to the debate on the effective management of innovation, a debate currently dominated by the experiences of the USA, Japan and Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several studies of the impacts of the EU on modern policies and polities evade investigation of the most detailed level of Europeanisation, that is, gradual legal changes. This seems odd as it is exactly these small gears turning that constitute perhaps the most real and concrete of all types of Europeanisation. This paper looks at a range of cash benefits in Denmark. Applying a novel framework of silent versus loud Europeanisation, it investigates how legal changes since 1972 came into being by digging into both the legal details and the preparatory and parliamentary work. The conclusion is that Denmark – often mentioned as an archetype universalist welfare state at odds with the European logics of free movement and non-discrimination – has indeed altered the very nature of its most universalist cash benefits, but these changes have been very gradual and have often not even been recognised as Europeanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of this special issue examining policy transfer between the Labour parties in Australia and Britain, this paper seeks to explore the relationship between the two on ideological positioning. In the 1990s there was substantial ideas transfer from the Australian Hawke–Keating government to Blair ‘New Labour’ in Britain, as both parties made a lunge towards the economic centre. This paper analyses how the inheritors of that shift, the Rudd/Gillard government in Australia and the Miliband and Corbyn leaderships in Britain, are seeking to define the role and purpose of Labour parties in its wake. It examines the extent to which they are learning and borrowing from one another, and finds that a combination of divergent economic and political contexts have led to strikingly limited contemporary policy transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Strategies for the prevention of police corruption, for example, bribery, commonly neglects its social dimension in spite of the fact that police corruption has societal causes and undertaking a reform of the police requires, to some extent, reforming society. In this paper, we built a decision tree from socioeconomic profiles of 103 countries classified according to their level of police corruption using data from the United Nations Statistics Division and Transparency International. From the rules of the resultant decision tree, we identified and analyzed social determinants of police corruption to assist policy-makers in designing societal level strategies to control police corruption by improving socioeconomic conditions. We found that school life expectancy, involvement of women in society, economic development, and work-related indicators are relevant to police corruption. Moreover, empirical results indicate that countries should gradually improve social indicators to reduce police corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting Research and Development (R&D) and innovative activity is a key element of the EU Lisbon Agenda and is seen as playing a central part in stimulating economic development. In this paper we argue that, even allowing for benevolent policy-makers, informational asymmetries can lead to a misallocation of public support for R&D, hence government policy failure, with the potential to exacerbate preexisting market failures. Initially, we explore alternative allocation mechanisms for public support, which can help to minimize the scale of these government policy failures. Of these mechanisms (grants, tax credits, or allocation rules based on past performance), our results suggest that none is universally most efficient. Rather, the effectiveness of each allocation rule depends on the severity of financial constraints and on the level of innovative capabilities of the firms themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks to propose an alternative conceptual framework that could help policy studies to better capture the complexity and multifaceted character of contemporary policy processes. Mixing science and technology studies with critical policy studies, it sees policies as assemblages formed by an ample array of heterogeneous elements, from technical standards to everyday practices. Three major configurations of policy assemblages are explored: problematization (when an issue is turned into a matter of policy), infrastructuration (when a new infrastructure is organized trying to transform the issue at hand), and regime (when the infrastructure is put to work). In order to explore the empirical applicability of this conceptualization, the second half of the paper analyses one particular case: the introduction of ramps for wheelchair access in public transport buses in the city of Santiago, Chile. This case study will show how policies are never the pure application of rational guidelines or the result of powerful individuals but multifaceted processes in which a multitude of entities, all of them carrying different agencies, intervene and are continually reenacted, changing the policy's outcome in accordance with the presence/absence of certain articulations and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public sector employees with responsibility for purchasing are under increasing pressure to implement small and medium enterprise (SME)-friendly policies. Such policies are intended to make it easier for SMEs to compete for and win public sector contracts. In spite of the socio-economic importance of this issue, there remains a dearth of evidence on what is happening in practice. Using primary survey data from 271 public buyers in Ireland, this paper examines the extent to which SME-friendly procurement policy is being implemented and the individual and organization factors that affect implementation. The findings reveal a gap between what government policy recommends public buyers and their organizations should do to facilitate SMEs versus what they are actually doing. Policy familiarity, procurement involvement, organization size and the maturity of the procurement function are shown to be positively associated with the implementation of SME-friendly policy. For managers and legislators, the findings underline the need to invest in the human capital dimension of public procurement if policy implementation rates are to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent criticism of representative liberal democracy has spurred democratic experiments involving citizen consultations in deliberative forums. However, more research is needed in order to understand the conditions necessary to make them work. The aim of this paper is to help mitigate this deficiency and at the same time contribute to an informed reflection over the specific conditions for deliberative democracy in Korea. The study focuses on a unique deliberative process organized in order to establish a Charter of Human Rights for Seoul Citizens. Several lessons from this democratic experiment are discussed. While the process worked surprisingly well, its legitimacy was questioned because of controversies over the representativeness of participants and the involvement of external stakeholders. Although a complete consensus was not reached, initially disrespectful attitudes changed within the process to a situation where diverging positions were better acknowledged. How ideas of deliberation can be implemented in real-world public policy-making is discussed based on these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines an approach to the global circulation of policies/models. This ‘policy assemblage, mobilities and mutations’ approach has emerged in recent years, primarily through the work of geographers. It is both inspired by, and somewhat critical of, the policy transfer approach associated with work in political science. Our argument is that the focus of geographers on place, space and scale, coupled with an anthropological/sociological attention to ‘small p’ politics both within and beyond institutions of governance, offers a great deal to the analysis of how policy-making operates, how policies, policy models and policy knowledge/expertise circulate and how these mobilities shape places. In making this argument, we first briefly review the literatures in human geography and urban studies that lie behind the current interest in the mobilisation of policies. We then outline the key elements of the policy transfer approach that these geographers have drawn upon and critiqued. In the third and fourth sections we compare and contrast these elements with those of the burgeoning policy mobilities approach. We then turn to the example of the Business Improvement District policy, which has been moved from one country to another, one city to another, in the process becoming constructed as a ‘model’ of/for economic development. We conclude the paper by arguing for an on-going multi-disciplinary conversation about the global circulation of policies, one in which geographers are involved alongside those from other disciplines, such as anthropology, history, planning and sociology, as well as political science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The view that regulatory provisions protecting the employment conditions of workers need to be minimised in order to protect the business needs of employers has been an ongoing theme in British governmental policy discourse over the past three decades. For the present Coalition government, the assumption that current levels of regulation are unduly burdensome on employers and hence harmful to the economy has continued to be enthusiastically voiced, most notably in respect of the regulation of workplace health and safety. Against this backcloth, this paper develops a critical examination of the conclusions of an ‘independent’ review of health and safety regulations commissioned by the present UK Government to shed light on the way in which a deregulatory policy agenda is being furthered. The paper commences by locating the recent review of health and safety regulations, the ‘Löfstedt review’, in the context of other recent government initiatives aimed at alleviating the burden of health and safety regulation from the shoulders of employers. It then moves on to outline the nature of this review and its main conclusions and recommendations, before considering in turn its use of evidence, deployment of the notion of ‘low risk’ and lack of attention to the issue of enforcement. Finally, a concluding section draws together the key points to emerge from the preceding analysis and highlights how the Löfstedt review can be seen to form an integral part of a misleading deregulatory discourse that threatens to engender the wholesale undermining of workplace health and safety protections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper sets the scene for this Policy Studies special issue on plant closures by outlining the form of the auto cluster in the West Midlands, the nature of structural changes unfolding in the industry, and the decline and eventual collapse of MG Rover (MGR). Structural changes highlighted include: greater pressure on firms to recover costs when technological change has been intensifying, driving up the costs of new model development; increased international sourcing of modular components; and a shift of final assembly operations towards lower cost locations. All of these make maintaining mature clusters such as the West Midlands more challenging for firms and policy makers. The paper then looks at 'what went wrong' at MGR. Given long-run problems at the firm and its inability to recover costs, BMW's sale of the firm in 2000 left MGR virtually dead on its feet, and by 2002/2003 it was clear to many that the firm was running out of time. Whilst recognising that the firm's demise was ultimately a long-term failure of management, the paper also looks at other contributing factors, including government policy mistakes over the years, such as the misguided 'national champions' approach in the 1950s and 1960s, a failure to integrate activities under nationalisation in the 1970s, a mistaken privatisation to British Aerospace in the 1980s, and a downside of competition policy in 'allowing' the sale to a largely inappropriate owner in BMW in the 1990s. The considerable volatility of sterling in recent years hastened the firm's eventual demise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and health policy analysis is at the heart of ‘value for money’ considerations in public provision and/or production. Economic appraisal is about meeting a potential efficiency test in the use of resources. In an increasingly ‘silver’ society providing for older people in the community, who are over time less likely to be living in a close-knit family, will be a growing resource commitment. Such provision can be organised in a number of ways and as such is an important area for government policy (eg the 2005 Department of Health Green Paper, Independence, Well-being and Choice) and policy appraisal. In particular this paper examines one dimension of provision in the form of delivery by integrated health and social care teams and by traditional arrangement. The analysis covers some of the theoretical and conceptual issues related to modelling ‘integrated’ team production and introduces the concept of ‘team capital’. Some empirical evidence from a three-stage eighteen-month interview based study is reported. As regards the main benefit explored the study revealed that the delivery of services through ‘integrated’ health and social care teams did not result in a greater proportion of older people remaining living independently in the community indicating the importance of relative costs of provision. The focus is the theoretical and empirical problems concerning the cost of provision services under different arrangements. The study was unable to fully explore whether the integrated model of provision was any more costly than the traditional approach. The partial data on costs that were obtained are suggestive of the integrated approach being relatively expensive. However, it would be premature to base any policy decisions on the data presented as a more extensive evaluation needs to be furnished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective water governance is essential for sustainable global futures. However, conflicting water values increases tension in water governance, highlighting the need for governance systems able to cope with competing objectives. In this paper, we explore the potential for ‘localism’ to improve water governance through increased social learning and institutional integration. We argue that localism can provide a bridge between policy-makers and policy-implementers, as long as there is sufficient capacity to effectively engage. Following the work of Orsini [2013. “Multi-Forum Non-State Actors: Navigating the Regime Complexes for Forestry and Genetic Resources.”Global Environmental Politics13 (3): 34–55], we consider that this capacity is influenced by the availability of ‘power resources’; namely material, ideational and organizational power. Using a conceptual framework combining power resources and localism strategies, two examples of localism in the implementation of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan are explored. We find that localism can provide the necessary resources for effective water governance, although consideration of the challenges of localism highlights the need for a mix of localism strategies due to variable resource availability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Implementing policies to return water to the environment is challenging. We developed an approach to integrate ecological responses with river management models to provide a link between flow and ecology. This paper aims to summarize the findings of a multifaceted project bringing together multiple lines of evidence to achieve a proof-of-concept approach for optimizing water use to support water policy and management decisions. We developed an eco-hydrology model that represents rivers, water storages, operational constraints, flow management, an ecological response and consumptive irrigation demands, which is linked to climate. To demonstrate the proof of concept, we describe a case study where modelling optimization seeks solutions to minimize terrestrial vegetation encroachment (an ecological response) and maximize irrigation net value through flow management. The solutions provide a range of alternative ‘optimal’ management options to consider. Ultimately, hydrological modelling that integrates both consumptive use and ecological response simultaneously is important to enhance stakeholder understanding of the complexities and trade-offs involved in implementing different decisions. Although proof of concept at this stage, the approaches offer potential for integration of river management models and quantitative ecological response models (derived by considering available evidence from many sources) to support water policy and management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of government by indicators, by figures may reveal a new wave of rationalization organized by the state in the classic Weberian sense. Contemporary forms of government are marked by the rise of indicators, measures and new metrics to compare, certify, codify and evaluate. In many countries, performance measurement has become one of the symbols of the transformation of governance. The paper aims to show how performance indicators are a particular type of policy instrument that increases competitive pressure within societies even if that cannot be analysed only in terms of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of health targets as a form of performance measurement has become more prominent internationally as governments have sought to control public expenditure, produce greater efficiency and improve accountability. However, health targets have faced criticism for their potential to produce negative outcomes within a health system. This paper examines how a health target was used as a policy instrument within the New Zealand health system to improve immunisation coverage at two years of age. It explores how the immunisation health target was implemented within four case study sites and discusses the effectiveness of the health target as a policy instrument for improving immunisation coverage and addressing persistent immunisation inequities. Measuring and monitoring performance towards the immunisation health target improved accountability for immunisation coverage within the New Zealand health system and focused attention on improving immunisation coverage in a way that previous policy attempts had failed to do. Health targets may be an effective policy instrument for creating change within specific areas of a health system if their potential for dysfunctional consequences are taken into consideration at the outset. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years ‘nudge’ has come into fashion as a form of policy intervention, under the inspiration of behavioural economics. It has encouraged policy analysts to move away from models of the ‘rational actor’ and instead to start from consumers, clients and citizens as they actually are. Nevertheless, nudge raises larger questions about public policy and the relationship between government and the citizen. This paper takes critical stock of nudge, offers an alternative in terms of ‘nuzzle’ and lays out the very different standpoint on policy to which this points. In doing so, it also puts in question the disciplinary paradigms which underpin ‘nudge’ in the scientific literature, and their underplaying of the social and institutional context of individual behaviour. It offers a perspective on public policy as providing security and supporting creativity: with government under critical scrutiny by citizens, rather than vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A steady decline in major party support in Commonwealth nations has resulted in changing parliamentary compositions, including the growing prevalence of minority government. Such situations pose new questions for notions of government legitimacy within Westminster systems. For instance, is negotiation with cross-benchers an example of government illegitimacy? What is the legitimate role of non-ministerial members when the composition of parliament gives them the final say on the enabling legislation for public policy? What is the legitimate response of the public sector regarding policy-making in the context of minority government? In this paper, we reflect on how a ‘marginal member’ concept can provide new insights into such issues and their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurozone crisis has rekindled the debate on the democratic deficit of the European Union (EU). In this paper, the debate is reconsidered by contrasting the modus vivendi of ‘We the People’ in the USA with the modus vivendi of ‘We the Heads of States’ in the EU. It is demonstrated that many of the solutions to the alleged democratic deficit focus on how more voice can be given to ‘We the People’ on the input side, but that this goes against the functional logic of the EU system, thereby undermining its ability to govern. Instead, we argue that more attention should be given to how to increase output legitimacy, and a number of proposals are put forward. Such a reshuffling of the analytical focus is the best way forward to escape the current impasse in the debate on how to ‘fix’ democracy in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial capability is a controversial area of public policy. Critics allege that it is part of a ‘financialisation’ agenda to turn people from citizens into subjects while supporters say that financial capability is important to lead an independent life. But what do people think of financial capability? This matters because public support is important for the success of financial capability policies. This paper reports evidence of public attitudes from a focus-group study in London which asked two questions. What do people think of financial capability? Do people think policy should target financial institutions rather than individuals? The results show that people support financial capability and do not think they are turned into financial subjects. However, some of their views overlap with a weaker version of financialisation, particularly on home ownership. Participants also suggest that the priority now is to target institutions rather than individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study looks at the natural gas industry, with particular reference to recent Australian developments. It connects with the issues of ownership and regulation within the global financial system, using the Australian experience to show how these issues are playing out in this industry. Whether the interaction of independent regulation and competition has attracted more non-government investment in natural gas infrastructure is considered, with conclusions that may have relevance for other utility industries and infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the seminal work of Baumgartner and Jones, the punctuated equilibrium approach has won wide popularity. A series of studies have documented how policy areas are characterised by long periods of stability, which are disrupted from time to time by dramatic attention shifts leading to policy changes. The approach has so far overwhelmingly been applied in a US setting, while studies of punctuations in parliamentary systems are lacking. The paper presents a theoretical framework and empirical test that integrates the punctuated equilibrium approach with the work on pivotal parties as policy dictators. A policy dictator can veto reforms even following a focusing event that dramatically alters the policy image in an area. If the policy dictator is averse to the new policy image, all reform initiatives will be blocked; if the policy dictator is non-averse, reform initiatives will be allowed. The framework can help explain why dramatic attention shifts do not always lead to policy changes, but are mediated by the strength and policy position of the pivotal party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other international and national development targets in developing countries hinges on capacities of individuals, organisations and societies to transform in order to reach their development objectives. Without supportive strategies, policies, laws and procedures, well-functioning organisations, and educated and skilled people, developing countries lack the foundation needed to plan, implement and review their national and local development strategies. Capacity development helps to strengthen and sustain this foundation. This paper defines capacity development; outlines its objectives, fundamental principles and the key areas of capacity deficits; and proposes and discusses a basic framework for developing countries to adopt for investing in the development of national capacity. The implementation framework proposed is developed based on a critical assessment and analysis of capacity development and its results in developing countries drawing from the author's experience in implementing capacity development projects. The findings indicate that investing in capacity development must now become a critical aspect of development policy in developing countries. In fact, national capacity development strategies are emerging in several countries to underpin development plans and poverty-reduction strategies. In pursuing capacity development, developing countries must also ensure that such initiatives are comprehensively designed to be simultaneously related to change and transformation at the individual, institutional and societal levels. Investing in capacity development means not only to train individuals, but also to help developing countries to build up self-sufficient institutions and an environment where individuals can serve the needs of their countries. Moreover, such initiatives are likely to be more successfully implemented if done through semi-autonomous entities and taking into consideration that the type of knowledge required to develop capacity in developing countries is locally determined and not easily transferable from developed countries. Donor agencies must accept this reality and tailor their capacity development assistance accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telework as a 'flexible work practice' is often mythologised as a revolutionary form of work. However, to varying degrees, teleworking opportunities have been undermined by policy instruments predicated on assumed equalities between economic actors. This research suggests that while the request-based policies in the UK are not a guaranteed right, they do provide an important basis for employees to internalise their 'rights' and initiate a process for flexible working arrangements. They also imbue a corresponding obligation of firms to consider delivering on those expectations. By contrast Australian privilege-based policy instruments particularly restrict access for those employed in precarious and unskilled areas of the economy. Drawing on international and national telework policy approaches, this paper reflects on tensions between what could be described as 'rights' and 'privilege' policy approaches to teleworking. It argues that if telework is to become a legitimate employee expectation, policy instruments in Australia must be based firmly on rights, rather than privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government has committed itself to building a high skills future for the UK. However, despite widespread use of terms such as the 'knowledge economy', 'the high skills society' and 'the learning society', there remains much confusion as to the kind of economy or society different commentators are actually aiming at. The paper seeks to add clarity to current debates by mapping the various visions to emerge from three key groupings: (i) government and 'social actors', (ii) those writing from an educationalist background and (iii) those coming from a broadly industrial relations tradition. By highlighting the confusion, tensions and contradictions that exist, it soon becomes clear that high skills are far from being the consensual policy option they initially appear. It is only by opening up these issues that we can appreciate the different aims that exist at the centre of the UK skills debate and begin to confront the real political choices available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel's reproductive policy has always aimed at raising fertility rates within the country's Jewish population. The present paper traces this policy and its implications on various population sectors from the mid-1940s to the present, as situated within a web of political, economic and religious interests. It reviews main changes in reproductive policy throughout the state's history and then addresses three related dilemmas, which are of particular interest in the Israeli context: (i) women's reproductive autonomy within a proactively pronatalist climate, (ii) civil and state reproductive responsibility in a country that encourages exceptionally high fertility among a relatively poor, uneducated, religious population and (iii) the implications of a politicised notion of childbearing, as a contribution to the nation-building effort, on the reproductive and civil rights of Israeli women. The discussion ends by pointing at the complexities of morally assessing reproductive policies even within a given context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little knowledge of how policymakers manage governance networks ("metagovern") within climate policy and especially at non-executive levels of public management. One strategy to metagovern is through using intermediary actors such as funding bodies. However, as novel actors within climate governance, such "climate intermediaries" are under-researched. We address these gaps by exploring the metagovernance through an intermediary actor, namely the Norwegian "Klimasats" Fund. We find that the logic of funding bodies lends itself to "carrots" as opposed to "sticks", weakening the potential for transformation. Funding bodies can also increase existing differences in climate action between larger and smaller local authorities. However, funding bodies have a beneficial bi-directional functionality, incentivising local innovation whilst feeding lessons both up to and across government. Funding bodies also have the power to make local actors into intermediaries in their own right and can influence policy discourses. Thus, in assessing metagovernance at the non-executive level and using intermediary actors such as funding bodies, we reveal significant challenges, but also surprising opportunities, for the low-carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy formulation is a crucial stage of the policy cycle, where social problems and demands are addressed, and transformed into government policies. This stage is complex and is one of the least analytically developed stages of the policy making process. In this article, we propose an adaptation of the EMMIE framework (created to review and rate the quality of evidence on crime reduction initiatives) as a practical means of encouraging an evidence based, systematic way of formulating policies. We argue that the five components of EMMIE (i.e. Effect, Mechanisms, Moderators, Implementation and Economics) provide useful dimensions that policy makers can apply to understand, plan and formulate successful policies. We suggest the application of the adapted EMMIE framework can improve policy formulation and in turn increase the likelihood of effective policy implementation and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies aim to promote the social good, but they do not always meet this goal. We argue that to improve policy and policy analysis, it is important to pay attention to the cumulative effect of policies on how people use their time. In this study, we looked at the effect of certain policies on sleep. Our exploratory study yielded intriguing findings on sleep in Israel in the specific policy context of a dual burden of work and caregiving. We surveyed 671 participants on the effect of work and care hours on sleep. The findings showed participants slept an average of 6.6 hours and expressed the desire to sleep one hour more. The desire to sleep more was higher than for all other uses of time and was evident in all employment categories. Part-time workers slept more than full-time workers and women, and younger people asked to sleep more than older ones. Long work hours and care hours led to lower sleep hours. Our findings suggest the need to be aware of possible 'side effects' in the policy design stage and are relevant to other countries with a care-work burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We trace the evolution of understandings and applications of policy capacity through a meta-analysis of studies in the policy and administrative sciences that focus on definitions or conceptualizations of capacity, capability or competency, political resources and the functioning of policy systems, and variables or mechanisms leading to outcomes. We critique and disentangle common operationalizations, such as policy success and failure, to enable more complete assessments of whether the state's policy capacity has diminished in recent times, as often is suggested. Previous research has concentrated on two key properties of the "supply" of policy responses, namely sufficiency and changes over time and across contexts. We argue that there needs to be more consideration of societal demands on governments or governance systems and the (dis)equilibrium between demand and supply generation. Using the analogy of the battery, we propose three interconnected dimensions of policy capacity that better capture the qualities and relationality of supply and demand: administrative capital; contingent political management; and expectations satisfiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial planning is a comprehensive field of public policy and characterized by a considerable diversity of policy tools. Some of these policy tools have a long tradition, but a broadening scope of spatial planning over recent decades in many liberal democracies, accompanied by policy reforms to the way in which spatial planning operates, has altered the nature and type of policy instruments in use. Previous analyses have given limited attention to policy tools for urban and regional planning, yet in this article it is argued that a focus on procedural policy tools can allow a structured assessment of implications of major policy reforms for substantive instruments and societal outcomes. A framework for the study of policy tools according to different stages of the policy cycle is proposed. This is applied to recent planning reform in South Australia to understand changes to procedural tools and how these can influence the effectiveness of substantive policy tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An empirical puzzle exists regarding the failure of state parties to comply with international agreements. Offering new empirical insights, this article aims to enhance understanding of non (or weak) compliance with international human rights agreements by state parties. Documentary analysis supplemented with semi-structured interviews is used to explore UK compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Through the empirical case study, the results provide valuable insights into the domestic compliance system and compliance barriers within the under researched human rights sector. The results show that multiple barriers impact compliance within the UK and its four nations, to varying degrees. Differences also exist regarding the extent to which specific barriers emerge within the state and domestic compliance systems. Lastly, the findings provide evidence to support a cyclical model of the domestic compliance system, thereby advancing the current, linear understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines regulatory policy transfer into a transitioning economy and explores the impact of corruption and weak state institutions on the resulting regulatory design and implementation. The study looks at an accreditation programme aimed at lifting the safety performance, compliance and business efficiency of truck operators in South Africa. In this case study a heavily state directed programme operating in Australia undergoes significant modification and redesign to achieve similar regulatory effect in the South African context. The case highlights how in transitioning settings the requirement to deal with local cultural and contextual issues such as corruption and weak state institutions, results in innovative regulatory design and delivery frameworks. While highlighting adaptation progressed through transfer, this study points to the important role industry can play independent of government in delivering the regulatory effect. The findings demonstrate the value transfer studies can bring to the analysis and understanding of policy and regulatory practice. This is a qualitative study drawing on interviews and participant observation with industry and government officials involved in the South African trucking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) has developed into one of the major theoretical lenses to explain policy change. However, it has been mostly used to explain policy formation whereas studies on policy termination remain scarce. This article addresses this gap. It combines the MSF and the literature on policy termination to study both the formation and the termination of one and the same policy. We explain why an algorithm-based university admission system in France, Admission Post Bac (APB), was introduced in 2008 before being abolished ten years later. While we find that the problem stream and the political stream were ripe and facilitated policy change in both cases, a policy entrepreneur coupling a policy solution with the open window could only be found for the introduction of APB. Instead, the termination was mainly characterized by enormous problem pressure. Our results contribute to theoretical refinement of the MSF and to empirical studies on political dynamics in the understudied field of algorithmic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars across the social sciences, including in the studies of institutions and policy, have found useful various elements of evolutionary and complexity research. Though sharing the same worldview, these streams of research emphasize different aspects of change and lack a shared set of assumptions and tools. As a result, they remain largely disconnected. Inspired by innovation research and its novel theory of change in technological systems, this article aims to bridge these gaps and advance a unified view of policy change called the structure-in-evolution approach. The structure-in-evolution analysis accounts for both the dynamics and the structure of change by positing that policy systems, like other technological systems, evolve according to distinct patterns and exhibit complex and adaptive properties of such systems. This approach, the article argues, thus promises not only to integrate our understanding of evolutionary change but also a major leap forward in our ability to study and develop public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative importance of public opinion in shaping foreign policy is a central area of research in international relations and public policy. This article aims to show how public opinion has influenced South Korea's foreign-policy decision-making process and explores unique aspects of the Korean foreign policy. To this end, the article argues that the THAAD deployment and the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) are examples of foreign policies that were influenced by the traumatic memory of historical events, focusing on four variables: stage of the policy process, strength of the opposition, an imminent sense of threat, and the impact of national trauma. The theoretical framework presented in this study will contribute to a more analytical understanding of the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy in many states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nudge and co-design are gaining popularity as innovative approaches to solving similar policy problems. Nudge is an approach to public policy that changes the context in which decisions are presented to citizens in order to encourage a particular choice. Co-design uses creative and participatory methods to engage citizens, stakeholders and officials in an iterative process to respond to shared problems. Both nudge and co-design supposedly achieve more effective outcomes, address big societal problems, and, in contrast to traditional policy approaches, consider humans' actual behaviour in a real-world context. In practice, we see them emerging and even merging together, despite significant tensions and contradictions between them. We critically examine the use of the approaches as policy instruments and consider the instrument constituencies that support them. By comparing and contrasting the two concepts in scholarship for the first time, the article highlights the assumptions underpinning the use of both nudge and co-design, arguing that each approach has its own underlying philosophy and claims on knowledge and authority. We reflect on the implications for policy effectiveness, political trust, and subsequently on government legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]