Search

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the various topics within the issue, including the policy procedure in the U.S., lobbying, and punctuated equilibrium to partisan polarization.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss articles in the issue on topics including policy subsystems in relation to clean energy transitions, social equity in public policy design and federal intergovernmental cooperation.

This article examines whether changes in policy design lead to incremental or punctuated changes in policy outputs. Leveraging a synthesis of policy design and punctuated equilibrium literatures, we analyze whether changes in policy targets, policy instruments, and policy incentives have differing effects on the distributions of changes in policy outputs. Our empirical examination is a study of net metering policy in the United States over the years 2007–2016. A key finding is that there is a relationship between policy designs that change more frequently and less punctuated distributions of outputs; namely, that changes to certain elements of policies are related to a greater frequency of gradual changes in policy outputs than changes to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen Este artículo proporciona una introducción a una colección de artículos que involucran un enfoque de análisis institucional llamado Gramática Institucional (GI). Durante la última década, los académicos han empleado la GI de diversas formas y dominios para estudiar conceptos y aspectos clave del proceso de formulación de políticas, como el diseño de políticas, el cambio de políticas y la implementación de políticas. A lo largo de este período, los estudiosos de las políticas públicas y de varios otros campos han mostrado cómo se puede usar la GI en la evaluación de las mismas, así como cómo se puede usar la GI junto con varios enfoques metodológicos para responder a una amplia gama de objetivos de investigacion Esta introducción (i) proporciona una descripción general del IG; (ii) identifica temas transversales presentados dentro de la colección de artículos publicados recientemente en el Policy Studies Journal que presentan aplicaciones de la GI; y (iii) identifica oportunidades para futuras investigaciones basadas en este y otros trabajos publicados recientemente que presentan esa GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy Studies Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Administrators and policymakers increasingly rely on collaborative policymaking groups to inform policy development. While this trend is observed in a wide array of policy domains, it is particularly common in the regulation of natural resource-based industries which requires the simultaneous consideration of an interrelated set of economic, technical, and social factors. In this article, we examine outcomes associated with collaborative policymaking groups involved in informing state aquaculture policy, referred to herein as aquaculture partnerships. We define outcomes here as consequences on relevant contextual conditions (social, political, and environmental) that follow from the work or design of collaborative processes. Using data collected through an online survey of partnership participants (n = 123), we examine individual and procedural factors that significantly associate with partnerships’ positive or negative influence on a set of policy and social outcomes, as perceived by their participants. Overall, we find that participants’ ability to mobilize scientific and technical resources to achieve group objectives, perceptions of procedural fairness, and individual-level learning are all positively associated with partnership influence on policy and/or social outcomes. We conclude our article by highlighting the value of this research for both scholars and practitioners interested in better understanding collaborative group dynamics and outcomes relating thereto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy designs are selected to achieve specific policy outcomes. The policy process, however, contains multiple junctures when a policy's design may diverge from its original intents. Despite this fact, few theoretically valid and methodologically reliable approaches exist to assess policy divergence as it occurs during the policy process. This article presents a method for assessing policy divergence during implementation with a comparative analysis of a legislative law and corresponding regulation. The case analysed is US organic food policy in the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act and 2002 National Organic Program regulation. The article draws theoretical leverage from Mazmanian and Sabatier's implementation framework and methodological leverage from the institutional analysis and development framework. The analysis indicates that the designs of both policies are fairly robust with relatively minor divergence. The conclusion discusses the gains and challenges in developing a comparative approach to studying policy designs and assessing policy divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently in the field of policy studies, there has been a renewed interest in research that connects policy design with broader governance outcomes. As opposed to past studies of policy design that have characterized policies along broad categories of variables, however, recent studies have sought to systematically assess the language of public policies and resultant outcomes. This paper contributes to the existing and emerging literature on policy design by coupling a content analysis of polices governing the aquaculture industry in two U. S. states and interviews with aquaculture community members to understand policy design and perceptions of policy legitimacy, coerciveness, and enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the leading theories for understanding the policy process is the theory of social construction and policy design developed by Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram. The theory incorporates the social construction and power of target populations to understand the development and implications of policy design. In order to better understand its empirical breadth, depth, and general utility, our analysis reviews all past publications of the theory, focusing specifically on empirical applications (N = 111), from 1993 to 2013. Based on this review, we find: a recent increase in the number of applications of this theory; that these applications appear across a wide range of outlets, relate to numerous policy domains, and are conducted by a diverse group of domestic and international scholars; that the target population proposition has been applied with greater frequency than the theory's feed-forward proposition; and that scholars have a notable interest in understanding causal mechanisms leading to changes in the positioning of target populations among advantaged, contender, dependent, and deviant target population categories. Following a descriptive review of past publications, we offer specific suggestions for theoretical development and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]