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This article addresses the life and educational thinking of Victor Lytton, second Earl of Lytton, who not only involved himself in a wide number of social causes but was instrumental in contributing to the development of progressive education in the early decades of the twentieth century. This he did through his work with the New Ideals in Education conferences but also as he became embroiled with Homer Lane and the Little Commonwealth. Lytton also write a number of books that developed a new theory of education. Drawing upon the archives held at Knebworth House, the paper seeks to explore Lytton's life and thought both by exploring his involvement with various causes but also by a close textual reading of his unique educational philosophy, which appeared as a combination of Christ and Freud. By so doing it seeks to reintegrate Lytton as a significant figure in the progressive educational tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I posit that the intellectual and political history of the left in contemporary India must be understood in relation to the dialectical relationship developed between the ideals behind left -wing political thought and the nativist inclinations of the nationalist anticolonial project in British India. I aim to show that left -wing thought in India, in the years in which the shock-wave of the Soviet Revolution spread through the world, developed at a disadvantage in relationship to the symbolic and ideological project headed by Gandhi, which promoted a nativist approach to nationalism and anticolonial politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprise has been portrayed as challenging neoliberalism, and alternatively, as neoliberalism by stealth. Here we conceptualise social enterprise as a microparadigm nested within wider political and economic frameworks. Our analysis of continuity and change over a period of political and economic crisis in England demonstrates considerable evidence of normative change in the ideas underpinning social enterprise policies. However, further analysis reveals that the (neoliberal) cognitive ideas underpinning the social enterprise paradigm remained intact. This suggests that policy paradigms can accommodate normative differences within a shared cognitive framework, and hence, are more fluid, and have greater longevity, than previously recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on interviews with German and British experts from major political parties, government departments, employer confederations, trade unions and special interest organisations, we investigate the chains of arguments that these experts advance in favour of or against increases in state pension age. In this way, we add to the explanation why very similar reforms could be enforced in the very different pension systems of Germany and the UK. The chains of arguments deployed are surprisingly similar between the two countries: Whereas the proponents of reform stress its necessity in the context of pension spending and see older people as being able to work longer, opponents and sceptics of the increase doubt most older people's ability to work longer and thus the feasibility of the reform. The proponents prioritise ideas of intergenerational justice and meritocratic justice based on individual performance, and underline pension-related interest oppositions between age groups and cohorts. By contrast, opponents and sceptics tend to focus on needs-based justice and social inequalities within age groups. Concomitantly, the actors have different ideas on how a flexible transition to retirement could be organised, with country differences being more pronounced here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As climate change policies and governance initiatives struggle to produce the transformational social changes required, the search for stand out case studies continues. Many have pointed to the period between 2005 and 2008 in the United Kingdom as a promising example of national level innovation. With strong cross-party consensus and a first-of-its-kind legislation the UK established itself as a climate policy leader. However, early warning signs suggest that this institutionalised position is far from secure. Through a novel application of discursive institutionalism this article presents a detailed analysis of the role of ideas in unravelling this ambition under the Conservative-Liberal coalition administration (2010–2015). Discursive interactions among policymakers and other political actors were dominated by ideas about governmental responsibility and economic austerity, establishing an atmosphere of climate policy scepticism and restraint. By situating this conspicuous and influential process of bricolage within its institutional context the importance of how policymakers think and communicate about climate change is made apparent. The power of ideas to influence policy is further demonstrated through their cognitive and normative persuasiveness, by imposing over and excluding alternatives and in their institutional positioning. It can be concluded that despite innovative legislation, institution building and strategic coordination of different types of governance actors the ideational foundations of ambitious climate change politics in the UK have been undermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the historical formation of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the United States and argues that programme emergence depended on the ability of policy entrepreneurs to link the economic concerns of agricultural production with the ideational concern of national security. Using a historical institutionalist framework this paper stresses the critical juncture of the Second World War and the positive feedback loop created between agricultural industries and schools to understand the emergence of the NSLP. In addition, it stresses the role of frames in policy-making and focuses on the use by policy entrepreneurs of a security frame whereby child malnutrition was cast as a national security issue. The policy window of war gave policy entrepreneurs the chance to use the politically and culturally resonant frame of security, in the contexts of agricultural subsidies, to push for the creation of this programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Public health is overtly policy-orientated and there is widespread support for the notion that health policies should be strongly informed by evidence. Despite this, studies consistently find that public health policies are not evidence-based. This is often explained by reference to popular theories about research-policy relations which highlight, amongst other things, the communicative gaps between academics and policymakers, the centrality of values (or politics) to decision-making and the efforts by external interests to influence policy outcomes. Employing the 'tobacco wars' as a case study, with a particular focus on the UK, this article explores how tobacco control advocates and tobacco industry interests have attempted to influence policy and how, in so doing, each has sought to enrol evidence. Whilst accepting that evidence has played an important role in tobacco policy development, the article challenges claims that the implementation of tobacco control policies can be attributed to evidence. Turning to value-orientated and network-based approaches to conceptualizing policy development, the article demonstrates both the importance of values and the complex nature of coalitions. However, it argues that this approach needs to be supplemented by an ideational understanding of policy change, which pays attention to the ways in which arguments and evidence are constructed and framed. The article also suggests there are signs that the two 'coalitions' involved in the 'tobacco wars' may be unravelling. Overall, the 'tobacco wars' serve to highlight the complex relationship between evidence and policy, offering some insights for those interested in studying or improving the use of evidence in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In industrialized countries women have increasingly become a target group for active labour market policies, or ‘activation’. However, to date, the burgeoning literature on activation has tended to overlook its link with the highly gendered nature of welfare. This article presents the first comparative analysis of activation approaches for partnered women in the UK, Australia and Denmark. Three core arguments are put forward that emphasize how the ideas (causal claims, beliefs and assumptions) articulated by key policy actors were crucial to both the construction and delivery of activation policies. First, women’s differentiated access to benefits directly conflicted with the focus on the individual within activation policies. Second, activation was premised upon paid labour, embodying ideational assumptions about the meaning of (paid) work, in turn devaluing caring labour. Third, the ‘problematization’ of women outside the labour market resulted in their gendered ‘processing’ through the social security and activation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the relationship between crisis, ideas, and economic policy-making in Britain during the 1970s stagflation, looking specifically at the turbulent years 1974–76. It argues that existing ideas-based approaches either fail to define ‘idea’ with any precision, or explain both the causes and resolution of the crisis in terms of competition between ideas, and therefore appear tautological. Instead, the article develops an Open Marxist framework suggesting that crises should be understood as an inherent systemic feature of capitalist social relations, which requires constant management so that governments can simultaneously achieve international financial market credibility and domestic political legitimacy. It uses this framework to produce an interpretation of economic policy change in Britain during the 1970s that argues policy-making was problematised in terms of the competing demands of international financial market credibility and domestic political legitimacy, and not in terms of a debate about economic ideas conducted in a context of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Taking health inequalities in the United Kingdom as a case study, this article adopts a 'discursive institutionalist' approach to explore how the organisation of policy-making bodies shapes the relationship between research and policy. It demonstrates how policy 'silos' and hierarchies work as filters to research-based ideas, encouraging those ideas that support existing institutionalised ideas (or 'policy paradigms'), while blocking or significantly transforming more challenging ideas. This limits the extent to which research can inform policy. Yet, a lack of institutional memory within policy making enables recycled ideas to appear innovative, creating an impression of meaningful, ongoing dialogue between research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the ideas of Greek prospective primary teachers about the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, particularly about its causes, consequences and cures. For this purpose, a survey was conducted: 265 prospective teachers completed a closed-form questionnaire. The results showed serious misconceptions in all areas (causes, consequences and cures). The most prominent misconception found by this survey is the conflation between the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer depletion, which is widely reported in the literature. There is also the notion that 'good things' (like clean beaches) can help ameliorate the greenhouse effect, whereas 'bad things' (like insecticides) can enhance it. One of the secondary results of the survey is that prospective teachers' main source of information about the greenhouse effect is school. This calls for educational interventions to fight misconceptions at the source. Some suggestions are presented in this paper. The results of this study are compared with the results of two similar studies conducted in the UK and in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To 'take ideas seriously' is to recognise the symbiotic relationship between power and the role of ideas, rather than explain policy primarily in terms of influence and material interest. Yet, this statement alone does not take us very far. The definition and 'independent effect' of ideas is open to question, while explanations based on power may compete with, as well as supplement, explanations based on ideas. This article addresses these issues in two ways. First, it explores the role of ideas in the public policy literature. Second, it examines the potency of ideas through an analysis of the UK government's 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Although widely seen as a battle of ideas competing to be translated into policy action, the Bill's progression cannot be sufficiently explained with reference to ideas or political power alone. Rather, both ideas and power relations need to be taken into account when considering the causes of policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Gordon Brown as prime minister is a puzzle of ideas and policy. This observation is most notably supported by his failure to espouse an ideological narrative for his government. Brown the intellectually literate Labour leader has not constructed his idea of the 'good society'. This in turn has had a negative impact upon the effectiveness of his leadership and the unity of his government. The article highlights the implications of this problem; discusses the nature of Brown's politics through analysing the works of Lee and Hickson; and asserts the virtues of crafting a coherent ideological narrative for government. The article concludes by surveying the prospects of a Brown-led Labour Party in the forthcoming political era - an era which is likely to be one dominated by the Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Both the UK''s Labour Government and Scotland''s devolved Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition Executive have committed themselves to reducing health inequalities. Furthermore, both institutions have emphasised the importance of using evidence to inform policy responses. In light of such political commitments, a significant amount of work has been undertaken in the field of health inequalities in order to: (i) review the available research evidence; (ii) assess the extent to which policies have been based on this research evidence; and (iii) evaluate the success (or failure) of policies to tackle health inequalities. Yet so far only limited attention has been given to exploring how key actors involved in research-policy dialogues understand the processes involved. In an attempt to address this gap, this article draws on data from semi-structured interviews with 58 key actors in the field of health inequalities research and policymaking in the UK to argue that it is ideas, rather than research evidence, which have travelled from research into policy. The descriptions of the varying journeys of these ideas fit three types—successful, partial and fractured—each of which is outlined with reference to one example. The paper then employs existing theories about research-policy relations and the movement of ideas in an attempt to illuminate and better understand the contrasting journeys. In the concluding discussion, it is argued that the third approach, which focuses on the entrepreneurial processes involved in the marketing of ideas, is most helpful in understanding the research findings, but that this needs to be discussed in relation to the political context within which negotiations take place. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The political economy of Britain over the past three decades provides an interesting example of the consolidation, normalization and institutionalization of a new economic paradigm - neoliberalism. As such, it serves as a potentially instructive focus for debate both about the conditions under which economic paradigms are replaced and consolidated and the evolution of such paradigms through the process of institutionalization. In this paper I suggest that the institutionalization of this new economic paradigm has been associated with the shift from a normative to a normalized and necessitarian neoliberalism. I examine the role played by rationalist assumptions in this extended process of normalization-institutionalization. After presenting a stylized account of the evolution of British neoliberalism, I show how New Labour's monetary policy regime is the heir to the legacy of monetarism and its agenda of labour-market reform is the heir to Thatcherism's supply-side economics. I suggest that the time-inconsistency thesis and the business school globalization thesis have played an equivalent role, for New Labour, to that played for the new right by monetarism and supply-side economics in legitimating neoliberalism. In this way neoliberalism has been normalized. In the final sections of the paper I reflect on the implications of the normalized and necessitarian character of neoliberalism in Britain for its contestability and for democratic economic governance more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Politics is the property of Policy Press 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.)