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The Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme introduced in 2020 provides nutritious lunches to around 220,000 students in low-advantage schools. While the food security impacts of this programme have been well documented, its potential to enhance outcomes in other areas of public policy is underappreciated. We conducted a policy analysis to map the programme's intersection with current public policy agendas in education, sustainability and health in Aotearoa New Zealand. We conclude that Ka Ora, Ka Ako can be a powerful platform to effect broad societal outcomes through alignment with school curricula, concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions, and commitment to delivering highly nutritious foods to all students in qualifying schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores ways in which land use policy outcomes vary across contexts focusing, as an example, on urban growth boundaries. Specifically, it analyzes how various contextual factors interact with the policy and generate diverging development outcomes by employing a kernel-based regularized least squares method. Results show that the policy effectiveness is largely dependent on the region’s population size, initial density levels, and organizational conditions. The presence of urban growth boundaries also appears to shape the way other determinants influence development patterns, suggesting that the policy can both directly and indirectly promote a more compact/contiguous pattern of development.

This study revisits the links between gender quotas and gender egalitarian outcomes by focusing on the role of gender representative legislatures. Specifically, it investigates whether gender quotas have a substantive and symbolic effect on societal outcomes, and whether the link is moderated by women's descriptive representation changing over time. This study sheds empirical light on both outputs (or process) and outcomes (or impact) of a quota policy and offers insight into pathways by which increased women's representation within legislatures reinforces or weakens the effect of the quota policies. The panel data analysis drawn from 169 countries over the recent three decades (1990-2017) reveals a significant interactive effect of quotas and women's representation in legislatures, suggesting that quotas' societal impact increases as women's representation increases, but with diminishing returns to a certain point. The findings corroborate the 30% level to which gender quotas as a policy tool significantly impact women's political empowerment and raise questions on the validity of the critical mass argument in the political setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the formulation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, many promoted policy coherence as a key tool to ensure achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a way that "leaves no one behind." Their argument assumed that coherent policymaking contributes to more effective policies and supports over‐arching efforts to reduce inequality. As the 2030 Agenda reaches the halfway point, however, countries are falling short on many SDGs, particularly SDG 10 (reduce inequality). This study revisits the basic assumptions about policy coherence underpinning the SDGs. We systematically screened the peer‐reviewed literature to identify 40 studies that provide evidence about whether coherent policymaking contributes to more effective outcomes and helps to reduce inequality. We find that coherent policymaking did not help reduce inequality in a majority of cases and made it worse in several. Our findings challenge the narrative that coherence is a necessary pre‐condition for progress on the SDGs for all people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public opinion has a dynamic relationship with policy and real‐world outcomes in liberal settings where reliable information is abundant. In these settings, the public continuously updates its opinions with reliable policy‐relevant information, and the changes in public opinion go on to affect policy and outcomes. It is unknown whether this dynamic exists in illiberal settings where the public's access to reliable information is heavily restricted. Objectives: This article advances a theory of public opinion's dynamic relationship with policy and outcomes that applies to illiberal settings. Methods: Our study examines a vital public good in one of the world's most restrictive information environments and estimates a dynamic model of relationships among three variables—public opinion, policy, and outcomes—with a focus on public opinion and outcomes as the key dependent variables. The analysis looks at air pollution remediation in 274 Chinese localities. Results: We find that public opinion reacts to objective air pollution outcomes and not to misleading information that downplays air pollution severity, which suggests the public can accurately evaluate the reliability of available information. We also find that local public opinion's impact on local air pollution is substantively meaningful on timescales as short as 1 to 2 years, indicating that the additional policy effort prompted by public opinion change is sufficient to yield tangible real‐world outcomes even in the short term. Conclusion: Public opinion has a dynamic relationship with policy and real‐world outcomes even in highly illiberal settings. We argue that these findings are likely to generalize across issue domains with outcomes that can be directly observed by the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobilization of narratives is essential in integrating people and constructing identities that help in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and conflictuality. This paper explores how comparisons are used as a discursive tool to shape narratives and bring about changes in policy and society, using the High Speed Two megaproject in the UK as a case study. We examine the comparisons that promoters and protesters employ in an organizational setting. In particular, we explore how the narratives that result from these comparisons--on questions including the need for the megaproject, the benefits of the megaproject, alternatives to the megaproject, and issues of noise, sustainability, compensation, and branding--help their efforts to organize. The research highlights how comparisons serve as an important cue in discourse and how different forms of comparison can help to create narratives and shape policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background: Effective regulatory governance, which entails the actors, processes and contexts within which policies are developed, designed and implemented, is crucial for food policies to improve food environments, consumer behaviour and diet‐related health. Objective: To critically assess Australian food policies for the presence of necessary and sufficient regulatory governance conditions that have been shown to effect positive nutrition outcomes from food policies. Methods: We assessed the Australian National Association of Advertisers (AANA) Food and Beverage Advertising Code, Health Star Rating Front of Pack labelling system and Sodium reformulation under the Healthy Food Partnership (HFP). The policies were analysed for the presence/absence of five regulatory governance conditions – the extent of industry involvement, regulatory design, instrument design, monitoring and enforcement. Results: All three policies lack one or more regulatory governance conditions crucial for policy success. Each policy has high industry involvement, an absence of government‐led policy‐making underpinned by legislation and lacks comprehensive enforcement. Except for the Health Star Rating system, the policies did not have comprehensive monitoring – a necessary condition for policy success. Public health Implications: The efficacy of these three policies can be enhanced by minimising industry involvement, improving government oversight and improving monitoring systems.

This article explores ways in which land use policy outcomes vary across contexts focusing, as an example, on urban growth boundaries. Specifically, it analyzes how various contextual factors interact with the policy and generate diverging development outcomes by employing a kernel-based regularized least squares method. Results show that the policy effectiveness is largely dependent on the region’s population size, initial density levels, and organizational conditions. The presence of urban growth boundaries also appears to shape the way other determinants influence development patterns, suggesting that the policy can both directly and indirectly promote a more compact/contiguous pattern of development.

What are the origins of gubernatorial popularity? Past studies debate whether governors are substantively evaluated based on their performance in office, with some arguing that the origins of approval may be idiosyncratic to particular governors. These studies typically consider gubernatorial approval in a handful of states or patterns of approval in the aggregate. We improve on this research by drawing on a richer data source: the Cooperative Congressional Election Study. We consider both individual-level and state-level explanations of gubernatorial popularity with a sample of over 300,000 respondents across the 50 states from 2006 to 2018. We explore how party, policy outcomes, and government performance shape levels of gubernatorial approval. We show that people evaluate governors based on the ideological direction of policy outcomes in the states. When state policy outcomes align with their ideological preferences, people report higher levels of approval for the job performance of their governor. We also confirm the importance of party and state economic performance for gubernatorial approval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conformance between plans and expected plan outcomes is at the heart of urban planning processes. Integrating an empirical evaluation and stakeholders' experience of the realisation of intended intensification goals, this article presents the contradictions between the plan instruments and the anticipated plan outcomes to enable higher intensification than the superseded plans. The findings suggest that statutory land use planning should be accompanied by a thorough outcome-based evaluation and a review of conflicting planning tasks and purposes. The article concludes with recommendations for planning monitoring and strengthening the statutory plan to achieve its expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a theoretically informed quantitative evaluation of the large-scale policy of security pacts (SPs) in Italy (2007–2012). In particular, we show how Matland's theoretical model of policy implementation (1995) may help clarify the contextual heterogeneity present in the outcomes of security policies. We build and use a macro-panel dataset in which we exploit variations in the temporal and geographic adoption of SPs to develop a dynamic analysis of the contextual factors that influence the probability of adopting a large-scale security policy at the sub-national government level. We apply a rigorous counterfactual design to assess the effectiveness of SPs in reducing theft and robbery rates. We find that the probability of adopting SPs is positively affected by coalitional strength but not political orientation. In contrast, the effectiveness of SPs in reducing crime relates more to the political orientation of the ruling parties than to coalitional strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Danish seine (Cantrang) is a controversial fishing gear caused by it considered as destructive fishing and has a low level of selectivity. A policy regulation on the prohibition of using Cantrang as fishing gear in Indonesia has been issued through the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Number 2 of 2015 with the aim of preserving demersal fish resources especially in the Fisheries Management Area of the Republic of Indonesia (WPP-RI) 712. However, this policy has created opposition from Cantrang fishermen due to the economic impact, causing fishermen lost their only source of livelihood. This study aims to analyze the policy implementation factors that influence the implementation of the Cantrang prohibition policy. This study used a descriptive method with a qualitative approach with policy outputs and policy outcomes as indicators. Based on the results, outputs indicators and outcomes indicators in the implementation of the Cantrang prohibition policy was not achieved, especially the long-term outcome that became the policy objectives, which are to maintain the sustainability of demersal fish resources, to preserve coral reefs ecosystem and to manage illegal fishing activities for using non-environmentally friendly fishing gear are failed to be implemented. Factors that influence the failure of the Cantrang prohibition policy implementation are government’s inconsistencies, disposition of fishermen as the policy target, and lack of financial support towards fishing gear replacement.

Legislatures worldwide are dominated by wealthy elites, who are often out of touch with the needs and problems of citizens. Research shows that the underrepresentation of the working class matters in terms of policy processes and outcomes. Yet the research on class has largely focused on blue‐collar representatives, who are primarily men. Working‐class women are more likely to hold pink‐collar jobs, or low‐status occupations dominated by women. We argue that pink‐collar legislators are uniquely positioned to legislate over education and social service policy. To test our argument, we combine a new coding of working‐class backgrounds that accounts for pink‐collar representation with state spending data on education and social services from US states over time. Modeling compositional budget data, we find that class and gender intersect to shape policy outcomes via state budget allocations, with women's pink‐collar representation associated with increased spending on both education and social services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, "Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe" guest-edited by Nemanja Džuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes. This article looks at the impact of one of the recent waves of mobilization in the Republic of Macedonia, the "Citizens for Macedonia" platform, over policy outcomes that originally derived from the movement actors. Furthermore, the text highlights the crucial role of the international community in shaping and implementing the policy outcomes, playing the role of international statebuilders in the process of reintroducing democracy in the captured Macedonian state. The theoretical framework and the literature review present an attempt to bridge contemporary works on social movement studies with those on democratization and international state building. A lot of emphasis is also put on the peculiar political opportunity structure, and the difficult and movement-unfriendly conditions in which the citizens' platform operated. On the other hand, the article tries to show the gains and losses of a coalition between an established political party, and a loose horizontal network of citizens and citizens' organizations that advocate for rule of law and protection of human rights. The central conclusions that can be extrapolated from this work are the strong and committed claims by the movement, articulated through various repertoires of action, but also the active role of the international community, which presented a conditio sine qua non, bringing down the regime led by former PM Nikola Gruevski and freeing the state institutions previously occupied by the political parties in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the engagement of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the collaborative governance of education policies in Cabo Verde. In contrast with the mainstream view of CSOs as opposition groups separate from the state, the paper frames them as integrative parts of the collaborative governance process. CSOs' collaboration with the government in education policy-making generates a (societal linking) social capital in the form of understanding, shared norms, and mutual trust among the various stakeholders within the education system. Such capital is an important resource to guarantee the proficiency and efficiency of education policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, the Erasmus programme has served as an impetus for internationalisation in higher education on the institutional and national levels. The aim of the article is to present the results of qualitative comparative analysis of three cases in order to explore three different universities' strategies for internationalisation (Vienna, Granada, Lausanne) in three diferent national contexts (Austria, Spain, Switzerland), and their various approaches to the Erasmus programme, and mobility in particular. Although sharing common goals, instritments and activities created at the EU level, different approaches to internationalisation, the Erasmits programme and the mobility concept are evidenced, which have consequently brought various effects and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments are facing increasingly complex policy challenges, ranging from climate change, demographic pressures, rising inequalities and discontent, to the global health crisis that countries are presently confronting. Successful responses require more integrated approaches to policy making at all levels of government, so that economic, social and environmental actions reinforce each other rather than compete. They also require effective coordination across levels of government to manage shared responsibilities, mutual dependence and common challenges. This commentary highlights the progress in the multi-level governance concept since its first use, and focuses on some current dynamics driving multi-level governance, in particular the trend towards differentiated subnational governance. It then highlights that the way multi-level governance systems are designed has a direct impact on policy outcomes, hence the imperative to strengthen multi-level governance systems. The commentary offers insight into how the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is tacking this imperative to best support countries in their development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is an ever-growing problem that requires a network of policy solutions. There exists variation in state-level responses to climate change, firmly placing it within the context of state-level representation. There are various explanations for policy outcomes at the state level, including public opinion, institutional control, interest group activity, among others. With respect to climate change, another potential explanation provided by scholars for the variation in policy responses is the degree of risk posed by climate change to a particular state. However, climate change serves as a somewhat unique policy position as it is highly visible and has been a polarizing issue in American political discourse. This paper analyzes how risk, political control, and opinion affect policy responses to climate change. Employing multiple measures for state-level action on climate change as well as state-level opinion on the existence and perceived threat of climate change, this analysis theorizes that given the polarized nature of the climate change debate in the United States, public opinion on the realities of climate change and partisan control of state government influences policy outcomes more so than any level of quantified threat from climate change. The causal reasoning for this dual effect is the impact of citizen demands and overarching party ideologies. Even when controlling for wealth, energy industry activity, and political lobbying within states, findings indicate a strong relationship between citizen opinion and partisan control on state-level action on climate change, posing a challenge for combatting long-term impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the chronological analytical review regarding municipal solid waste management (MSWM) and governance optimisation progress in Hong Kong since 2002, it is noted that the policy outcomes have seriously deviated from the original policy goals under the hitherto lack of effective development in bureaucratic and economic policy cultures in municipal solid waste (MSW) strategies formulation and related programmes implementation. The policy analysis specially stated that although the MSW recycling ratio (30%) is not particularly poor, the recovered percentage of plastics, glass and food waste in Hong Kong are extremely low. Based on the unfavourable outcomes and consequences for MSWM and governance in Hong Kong, a conclusion of negative correlation between the per capita MSW disposal rate and bureaucratic policy culture development, as well as positive correlation between recycling rate of low value items and economic policy culture development, can be made. With considering the key factors of benchmark indicators, socio-economic factors, driving force, and communication of MSW policy, conducive options and prospects are also developed for the attempt to provide insights to restructure MSWM and governance in Hong Kong in the next decade. First, the government can build up strategic innovation from a global benchmark case – MSWM and governance improvement from the South Korea case. Second, to create opportunities and conditions to develop high value biofuel from waste through flexible local environmental policies formulation and implementation. Third, shifting a front-line MSWM for governance structure reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates the explanatory power of an expanded policy stream, as part of Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework. Product substitutes, corporate social responsibility, the global economy, and the market maverick rationalize the incentives under which regulators, consumers, businesses, and environmental NGOs interact to explain the formation of two landmark voluntary programs on mercury and arsenic use, respectively. Arsenic and mercury are ranked first and third, respectively, on the US Environmental Protection Agency's priority list of hazardous substances. In both cases, the existence of a product substitute that performed on par with the original product but generated less negative environmental impact motivated the private sector to go beyond compliance in their environmental management. Notwithstanding, the push and pull of variables in the problem, politics, and policy streams, and the interplay of diverse actors led to the emergence of diverse forms of voluntary programs. In the mercury case, an industry association steered the technocratic process of the chlor-alkali industry's voluntary stewardship program, which led to marginal reductions in toxic chemical use, as part of the global phase-out of mercury already under way. By contrast, in the arsenic case, an environmental activist campaign successfully compelled the pressure-treated wood industry to concede to a voluntary cancelation of chromated copper arsenate, an arsenic compound, in residential uses. Subsequently, arsenic use fell to levels not seen since the 1920s. In both cases, strong coalition building—the former by businesses and the latter by environmental NGOs—combined with a fragmented or nonexistent opposing side shaped the final form of each voluntary program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We maintain that political institutions' policy objectives are best met under conditions when they are unified, and also when their administrative leadership is effective. We apply this argument to the understanding of how unified Democratic and Republican governments in the American states have influenced the incomes of affluent citizens. We find that affluent income gains occur under unified Republican state governments when compensation to executive agency heads is sufficiently high. These income gains are notable relative to both divided and unified partisan control of state governments. The evidence highlights the asymmetric role that bureaucratic leadership plays in attaining policy outcomes consistent with political institutions' policy preferences, while underscoring the limits of electoral institutions to shape policy outcomes of their own accord. Efforts to lower the capacity of the administrative leadership constrain unified political institutions from converting their policy objectives into policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution I propose to broaden the concept of 'policy' used in responsiveness research. When citizens also have preferences over 'what governments deliver', it is important to analyze the link between these preferences and policy outcomes. The EU policy implementation literature may help in further exploring this link. Empirical findings from this literature show that citizen preferences sometimes have an impact on the policy-as-implemented. Furthermore, the policy-as-implemented differs from the policy-as-adopted, as often used in responsiveness studies, which nuances current findings. The discussion of both literatures highlights the importance of more clearly specifying the kind of policies that are researched as well as the relevant group of citizens. At the same time, the responsiveness literature offers an additional and interesting reason for why differences in EU policy implementation are rather the rule than the exception by emphasizing the importance of 'local' citizen preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the energy crisis of the mid and late 1970s, society has been aware of the need for a built environment that uses less fossil fuel energy. Although the built environment accounts for a large proportion of global fossil fuel use, it may be argued that the energy and buildings agenda is not being addressed at the depth or scale needed to meet global and national CO2 emission-reduction targets. Most actions to reduce energy use in the built environment have mainly used a ‘top-down’ decision-making approach, from government and industry, with little end-user engagement. Greenhouse gas emission-reduction targets will not be met without providing the technological and socio-economic pathways for achieving them. The paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, it discusses the need to reduce fossil fuel use and the apparent failure to transition policy goals and aims into practice. Secondly, top-down and bottom-up approaches are reviewed, advocating a greater emphasis on a ‘whole-system’ bottom-up approach in delivering multiple benefit solutions. Thirdly, the concept of ‘smart’ is considered in relation to bottom up with its implementation at a regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a survey of policy process theories and their usefulness in transitions research. Some research has already used such theories, but often in an ad hoc and relatively cursory way and with little attention to potential alternatives. However, it has been argued that transition scholars need to pay more attention to the politics of policy processes. We argue that a critical stocktaking of policy process theories is a prerequisite for future transition studies that more systematically respond to these challenges. Therefore, we review five prominent policy process theories and their applicability in transition studies. We point to two weaknesses of empirical applications of these approaches that are of particular relevance for transitions research: their focus on single instruments or policy packages, and their neglect of policy outcomes. We conclude by suggesting avenues for research on the linkages between policy processes, policy mixes, and socio-technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development and evolution of human trafficking policies in Latvia and the measurable outcomes of these policies. An analysis of policy development revealed that Latvia has three different types of human trafficking policy: criminalization statutes, national action programs, and victim service provisions. These policies have produced outcomes such as criminal cases against traffickers, rehabilitation services for victims, and the formation of anti-trafficking institutions. The results revealed direct causal links between human trafficking policies and anti-trafficking institutions are evident with the National Coordinator and social services for victims. Indirect causation is also present with specialized police and prosecutor units and anti-trafficking institutional policy development by the anti-trafficking working group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether decision makers who use a system dynamics model more readily create policies whose outcomes match their stated priorities or are on the Pareto Frontier of achieved outcomes, and whether model users are more likely to change their priorities. Comparing model use with other decision tools, we address these questions in a role-play simulation (serious game) experiment in which participants make multi-dimensional policy recommendations to address environmental, economic, and social equity dimensions of sustainability. Participants are randomly assigned to use one of four decision support tools: (1) actively using the model or passively being briefed. The briefings cover: (2) the insights of the model; (3) general, relevant information; or (4) irrelevant information (control). We find that model-users, group (1), discovered key insights about win-win opportunities—over-performing their priorities—and most readily created policies on the Pareto Frontier of achieved outcomes. Groups (2) and (3) best matched their policy outcomes to their priorities, missing the win-win. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]