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A clearer picture of the impact of the World Health Organization (WHO) normative work including guidelines, codes and regulations is needed. (1,2) Member States and donors want their contribution to [...]

In 2011, two of us, John Kania and Mark Kramer, published an article in Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled 'Collective Impact.' It quickly became the most downloaded article in the [...]

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has long been used as a tool to address food insecurity among households with low income, especially among families. SNAP reaches more than 80 [...]

INTRODUCTION 1199 I. PREVAILING ACCOUNTS OF THE IMPACT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON INDUSTRY STRUCTURE 1205 II. STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION IN SIX IP-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES 1211 A. Patent-Intensive Industries 1214 1. Biophar [...], Technological and creative industries are critical to economic and social welfare, and the forces that shape such industries are important subjects of legal and policy examination. These industries depend on patents and copyrights, and scholars have long debated whether exclusive rights promote industry consolidation (by shoring up barriers to entry) or fragmentation (by promoting entry of new firms). Much hangs in the balance, for the structure of these IP-intensive industries can determine the amount, variety, and quality of drugs, food, software, movies, music, and books available to society. This Article reconceptualizes the role of patents and copyrights in shaping industry structure by examining empirical profiles of six IP-intensive industries: biopharmaceuticals; agricultural biotechnology, seeds, and agrochemicals; software; film production and distribution; music recording; and book publishing. It reveals that exclusive rights play multiple roles in influencing industry structure, and it distinguishes their effects along two underappreciated dimensions. First, it distinguishes the effects of exclusive rights at different times, arguing that patents and copyrights contribute to the initial entry of new firms, particularly in young fields, but that over time exclusive rights facilitate industry concentration by erecting barriers to entry and serving as assets that incumbents seek to amass in mergers and acquisitions. Second, it distinguishes along the value chain within any given industry, arguing that exclusive rights most prominently promote entry in "upstream" creative functions--from creating biologic compounds to producing movies--while tending to contribute to concentration in downstream functions focused on commercialization, such as marketing and distributing drugs and movies. As a corollary, this Article shows that exclusive rights play multiple roles in shaping industry structure, from directly enabling entry or exclusion to subtly influencing firm behavior in ways that advance fragmentation or concentration. This Article provides legal and policy decisionmakers with a more robust understanding of how patents and copyrights contribute in myriad ways to both fragmentation and concentration, depending on context. Drawing on these insights, it explores potential interventions from antitrust law and reforms to intellectual property law--including conditioning the acquisition of exclusive rights on the size and market position of a rights holder--to ensure robust competition and innovation.

INTRODUCTION Trade policy is at an inflection point. Even in the best of times, trade policy suffers from systemic dysfunction. International trade policy purports to offer broad benefits: economists find [...]

Author(s): Robin Fears 1,*, Khairul Annuar B. Abdullah 2, Claudia Canales-Holzeis 1, Deoraj Caussy 3, Andy Haines 4, Sherilee L. Harper 5, Jeremy N. McNeil 6, Johanna Mogwitz 1, Volker [...]

ARTICLE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. A DOUBLE LACUNA: LOCAL/ADMINISTRATION II. A FEDERAL BASELINE FOR A VERTICAL COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE A. The Structural Predicates of Administrative Law's Federal Focus B. (Federal) Themes in [...], To read the voluminous literature on administrative law is to inhabit a world focused almost exclusively on federal agencies. This myopic view, however, ignores the wide array of administrative bodies that make and implement policy at the local-government level. The administrative law that emerges from the vast subterranean regulatory state operating within cities, suburbs, towns, and counties has gone largely unexamined. Not only are scholars ignoring a key area of governance, but courts have similarly failed to develop an administrative jurisprudence that recognizes what is distinctive about local agencies. The underlying justifications for core administrative law doctrines at the federal level, such as deference to agency expertise and respect for separation of powers, must be adapted for local contexts in which mayors can sit on city councils, agencies may operate with few clear procedural constraints, and ordinary citizens can play a direct role in determining policy. To remedy these gaps in the literature and the doctrine, this Article makes three contributions. First, it offers a detailed descriptive account of local administration, outlining domains of local agency action, the governmental structures that define those agencies, and practical details of local agency operation. The Article then draws from this empirical grounding to identify particularly salient factors that can more transparently inform judicial review of a variety of local agency actions, from statutory interpretation to substantive policymaking to enforcement and licensing. These factors include the particular and varied nature of local-government structures, the tension between informality and procedural legitimacy within local administration, the mottled interplay of public and private spheres in local governance, and local agency expertise that reflects local knowledge. This localist perspective, finally, has direct relevance to core scholarly debates in both localgovernment law and administrative law. An understanding of local administration adds a layer of internal complexity to questions of local-government authority and identity, reorienting discussions about democratic accountability and experimentalism. It likewise holds the promise of deepening administrative jurisprudence with a perspective that reaches across the entire range of our vertical federalism. In short, the world of local agencies opens a window for the study of an important, yet underappreciated, set of institutions. Calling attention to these agencies will ultimately foster a new discourse about administrative law for local-government scholars and a broader understanding of governance for scholars of administrative law.

The relationships between think tanks and their funders are central to theory and public discourse about the politics of policy knowledge, yet very little research systematically examines these relationships across cases. This article evaluates elite, pluralist, and field theories by analyzing original data on funding and politics for 30 think tanks from 2000 to 2011 with comparative and relational methods. I find that foreign donations help support some conservative think tanks, but that it is a small amount of money relative to other funding sources. Domestically, think tank funding is structured by an opposition between donor-funded conservatives and state-funded centrists. Since 2005, the cluster of conservative think tanks funded by private donors has become tighter, while the cluster of think tanks supported by the state has become looser and more reliant on self-generated revenue and interest and investments. These findings cast doubt on predictions derived from elite and pluralist theories, and offer some support for field theory. Les relations entre les centres de recherche ou groupes de reflexion et leurs bailleurs de fonds sont importantes dans les theories et les discours publics abordant la question de l'orientation politique de la recherche sur les politiques publiques. Pourtant, tres peu d'etudes examinent systematiquement ces relations a travers un ensemble de cas. Cet article, avec des methodes comparatives et relationnelles, teste les theories elitiste, pluraliste et de terrain, en analysant des donnees portant sur le financement et l'orientation politique de 30 groupes de reflexion de 2000 a 2011. Les resultats demontrent que les dons provenant de l'etranger contribuent a soutenir certains groupes de reflexions conservateurs, mais ce financement demeure tout de meme marginal dans l'ensemble. Au niveau national, les groupes de reflexion sont finances de maniere contrastee: les groupes conservateurs sont finances principalement par des donateurs prives, alors que les groupes de reflexion centristes sont finances principalement par l'etat. Depuis 2005, les liens entre l'ensemble des groupes de reflexion conservateurs, finances par des donateurs prives, sont devenus plus serres. En revanche, les liens entre l'ensemble des groupes de reflexion centristes se sont relaches et leur financement depend de plus en plus de leurs propres revenus et des interets de leurs investissements. Ces resultats laissent planer un certain doute sur les predictions qui decoulent des theories elitiste et pluraliste et confirment en partie les suppositions de la theorie de terrain., HOW FUNDING INFLUENCES knowledge production in think tanks has been at the center of scholarly debate and public discourse since think tanks first emerged on the American political and intellectual [...]

This paper presents the Futurium platform used by Digital Futures, a foresight project launched by the European Commission's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). Futurium was initially developed with the primary purpose of hosting and curating visions and policy ideas generated by Digital Futures (Digital Futures was launched in July 2011 by DG CONNECT's Director General Robert Madelin following a prior DG CONNECT exercise called Digital Science.). However, it has turned into a platform on which to experiment with new policymaking models based on scientific evidence and stakeholder participation, referred to in this paper as 'Policy Making 3.0'. The platform hosts an online foresight toolkit to facilitate the joint creation of ideas to help design future policies. It leverages the potential of social networks, open data, semantic and knowledge mining technologies as well as participatory brainstorming techniques to engage stakeholders and harness their views and creativity to better inform policies that matter to them. The Futurium distinguishes between different variables, reflecting the emotional vs. rational mindsets of the participants, and offers the possibility to frame the engagement and co-creation process into multiple phases of a workflow. Futurium was developed to support Digital Futures, but its open architecture makes it easily adaptable to any policymaking/decision-making context where thinking ahead, participation, scientific evidence and agility are needed. Futurium is an early prototype implementation of the Policy Making 3.0 model, which is a long-term vision requiring further investigation and experimentation. The Futurium production website can be seen here: ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium. Keywords Policy making 3.0 * Foresight. Futures * Participatory policymaking * Crowdsourcing * Collective emotional intelligence * Collective rational intelligence . Evidence-based policy making * Data mining * Socialmedia * Complex systems * Digital futures * Futurium, 1 Rationale Nowadays, public policies need to be continuously reviewed and adapted to deal with unforeseen issues or to react to emergency situations such as coping with the consequences of [...]

The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) provides a means to explore complex policy issues and the dynamics of belief systems shared by multiple actors in the policy-making process. Using a single case study, this article expands the application of the ACF to the complex policy subsystem of the U.S. automobile industry during the 2009 auto bailout and subsequent bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler. We examine the development and actions of policy coalitions and further expand the ACF by exploring the role of policy brokers during the automobile crisis. We also examine whether policy brokers are politically neutral actors as previous research debates and what actions they take if compromise cannot be reached between competing coalitions. Keywords: Regulation Policy, Automobile Industry, United States, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Policy Brokers, Policy Subsystems, General Motors, Chrysler, Bankruptcy, Policy Coalitions. El advocacy coalition framework (ACF) ofrece un medio para explorar asuntos de politica complejos asi como la dindmica de sistemas de creencias compartidas por multiples actores en el proceso de hechura de politicas. A partir de un estudio de caso este articulo desarrolla la aplicacion de la ACF al subsistema de politicas de la industria automovilista de los EE.UU. durante el rescate de 2009 y la posterior quiebra de la General Motors y Chrysler. El articulo examina el desarollo y acciones de coaliciones de politica y extiende el ACF al explorar el papel de los intermediarios de politica durante la crisis de la industria del automovil. El articulo tambien examina si acaso los intermediarios de politica son actores politicamente neutrales como lo sugieren debates previos sobre investigacion considerando tambien que acciones podrian llegar a tomar las coaliciones que compiten entre si no llegan a conceder lo que espera cada una de sus contrapartes., In the summer of 2009, General Motors and Chrysler announced their plans to file for bankruptcy and agreed to a settlement with the federal courts. As part of their settlement [...]

Stakeholder negotiation processes are increasingly used in environmental management, but are often difficult due to values differences among stakeholders. These values can be reflected in the language used by stakeholders, [...]

Government support and commitment are of particular importance for renewable energy technology innovation activities, which are highly contingent on policy and market uncertainty. The research focus of this article is to examine the relationship between policy stability in public resource allocation and policy outcomes in renewable energy technologies. With time-series cross-sectional analyses, we test effects of both the stability and magnitude of federal R&D expenditures on patent applications in five renewable energy sectors (i.e., solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and bioenergy) from 1974 to 2009. The findings show that technology innovation is affected by both the magnitude and stability of government financial commitment. Nevertheless, when industries perceive government support over longer time frames, the magnitude effect loses explanatory power to the stability effect. In addition to federal R&D expenditures, policies pertaining to technology commercialization and marketization are a critical determinant of innovation activities. This study demonstrates that incremental, predictable, and credible expenditures facilitate renewable energy technology development. Conversely, a boom-bust cycle of resource support fails to translate policy goals into intended results. KEY WORDS: policy stability, policy outcome, R&D spending, renewable energy technology innovation, patent, Introduction Over the past several years, a widespread concern with the environmental, health, and other consequences of fossil fuels has stimulated policy interest in the area of renewable energy sources [...]

How does major policy change come about? This article identifies and rectifies weaknesses in the conceptualization of innovative policy change in the Advocacy Coalition Framework. In a case study of policy belief change preceding an innovative reform in the German subsystem of old-age security, important new aspects of major policy change are carved out. In particular, the analysis traces a transition from one single hegemonic advocacy coalition to another stable coalition, with a transition phase between the two equilibria. The transition phase is characterized (i) by a bipolarization of policy beliefs in the subsystem and (ii) by state actors with shifting coalition memberships due to policy learning across coalitions or due to executive turnover. Apparently, there are subsystems with specific characteristics (presumably redistributive rather than regulative subsystems) in which one hegemonic coalition is the default, or the 'normal state.' In these subsystems, polarization and shifting coalition memberships seem to interact to produce coalition turnover and major policy change. The case study is based on discourse network analysis, a combination of qualitative content analysis and social network analysis, which provides an intertemporal measurement of advocacy coalition realignment at the level of policy beliefs in a subsystem. KEY WORDS: Advocacy Coalition Framework, discourse network analysis, policy change, polarization, pension politics, old-age security, demographic change, Germany, policy networks, policy debates, political discourse, Introduction How does major policy change come about? Existing evidence in line with the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) suggests that policy subsystems are structured around competing advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1998). [...]

The combination of multiple theories in policy studies has a great potential value--new combinations of theories or concepts may produce new perspectives and new research agendas. However, it also raises important ontological, epistemological, methodological, and practical issues that need to be addressed to ensure disciplinary advance. This article identifies three main approaches: synthesis, in which we produce one theory based on the insights of multiple theories; complementary, in which we use different theories to produce a range of insights or explanations; and contradictory, in which we compare the insights of theories before choosing one over the other. It examines the issues that arise when we adopt each approach. First, it considers our ability to 'synthesize' theories when they arise from different intellectual traditions and attach different meanings to key terms. Second, it considers the practical limits to using multiple theories and pursuing different research agendas when academic resources are limited. Third, it considers the idea of a 'shoot-out' in which one theory is chosen over another because it appears to produce the best results or most scientific approach. It examines the problems we face when producing scientific criteria and highlights the extent to which our choice of theory is influenced by our empirical narrative. The article argues that the insistence on a rigid universal scientific standard may harm rather than help scientific collaboration and progress. KEY WORDS: punctuated equilibrium theory, Advocacy Coalition Framework, rational choice, evolutionary theory, complexity theory, Introduction The combination of multiple theories in policy studies is like a valence issue in politics: Few would disagree with the idea, largely because the sentiment is rather vague. Who [...]

The existing literature on regime complexity has generally focused on its impact on the behavior of states; in contrast, this article explores its implications for international organizations. Many organizations within [...]

Recurrent food price crises, coupled with the steady deterioration of world food security over the past two decades, have prompted efforts to reform the global governance of food security. This [...]

Understanding the impact of regime complexes on global governance calls for creative policy thinking. This introduction provides a new and more precise definition of the concept of regime complex. It [...]

Previous research has failed to adequately address why we should expect the diffusion of policy innovations in the realm of gun policy. As a social regulatory policy, gun policy may be highly influenced by policy adoptions in neighboring regions, in part due to the high likelihood of spillover effects. This article discusses under what conditions we should expect policy diffusion to occur from neighboring jurisdictions. We use event-history analyses to evaluate impact of neighboring states diffusion pressure on the adoption of 'shall issue' concealed weapons laws between 1974 and 2007. Neighboring diffusion pressure has a significant effect on policy adoption even when controlling for National Rifle Association membership and a previous adoption of a similar policy ('may issue' permit). We provide a rationale why scholars should find neighboring diffusion effects in some policy areas but not others. Keywords: Policy Adoption and Diffusion, Gun Policy, Firearms Control, United States, 'Shall Issue' Concealed Weapons Permits, Event-History Analysis, Social Regulatory Policy, Trans-Jurisdictional Policy Problems. Investigaciones anteriores no han tenido exito en evaluar el por que se deberia esperar la difusion de politicas innovadoras en el ambito de la regulacion de armas. Vista como una politica regulatoria social, la regulacion de armas puede ser altamente influenciada por las regulaciones adoptadas en las regiones adyacentes, en parte debido a la alta probabilidad de efectos de propagacion. Este estudio analiza bajo que condiciones deberiamos esperar la difusion de politicas en jurisdicciones adyacentes. Usamos un Analisis de Eventos Historicos para evaluar el impacto de la presion en la difusion de estados adyacentes en la adopcion de politicas 'Shall Issue' para armas encubiertas entre 1974 y 2007. La presion en la difusion de estados contiguos tiene un efecto significativo en la adopcion de regulaciones aun cuando se controla por membresia en la NRA y previas adopciones de politicas similares (permisos 'May Issue'). Brindamos una explicacion del por que se deberian de encontrar efectos de difusion adyacentes en algunas politicas pero no en otras., Unfortunately, gun violence occurs far too frequently in America. Occasionally, events like the 'Batman' shooting in Aurora Colorado on July 20, 2012 (Brown 2012) or the attack at Virginia Tech [...]

Renewable energy policy has far-reaching implications for national and international economic, environmental, and political sustainability, but thus far within the United States it has been almost entirely the province of state governments. This article examines the factors motivating state-level policymakers to adopt different forms of a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), highlighting the distinction between degrees of policy stringency, ranging from entirely voluntary participation to rigorous and strictly enforced targets. In the process we introduce a new metric for assessing stringency, more precise and reliable than the various proxies used previously, and analyze its relationship to drivers of policy adoption. We find that policies of different stringencies are motivated by systematically different underlying factors. State-level citizen political ideology is a significant predictor of RPS policy adoption, particularly for 'voluntary' and 'weak' policy designs. 'Strong' policy designs, on the other hand, are best predicted by ideology at the government level, i.e., the degree of institutional liberalism. These findings may inform current implementation and program evaluation efforts, and potentially point the way toward more effective policy choices if and when an RPS moves forward on the national policy agenda, while the stringency metric central to this analysis can be of use to other policy scholars concerned with topics both within and beyond the realm of energy policy. KEY WORDS: renewable portfolio standard, electricity market, energy policy, policy adoption, citizen ideology, renewable energy, Introduction 'It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social [...]

Since 2001, state governments have adopted 287(g) cooperative immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government that authorize their law enforcement personnel to assist in detaining violators of civil federal immigration law. Employing a theoretical framework drawn from theories of policy adoption, intergovernmental relations, and immigration research, we test which state-level political, sociodemographic, geographic, and economic determinants influence states to enter into such a cooperative agreement. In addition to finding that the partisanship of a state's governor, a state's effort on public welfare, and an increase in a state's percentage of Hispanics are related to the adoption of a cooperative immigration enforcement policy, we found evidence of 'steam valve federalism' working not at the state level as Spiro (1997) first theorized but at the local level. When a state's localities adopt immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government, the state itself is far less likely to adopt their own. Understanding the reasons states would adopt this type of policy sheds light on current trends in state immigration policy and their effect on future state/federal intergovernmental relations. KEY WORDS: immigration, policy adoption, American states, intergovernmental relations, federalism, In July 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Arizona for overstepping its role in the regulation of federal immigration laws with the passage of Arizona Senate [...]

Faced with long intervals between federal minimum wage increases in recent years, state legislatures are increasingly likely to take action. Motivated by the relative dearth of empirical work on minimum wages in the American states, this article considered various explanations to determine which factors are associated with legislative efforts to pass wage increases. Taking seriously the view that disagreements over the effects of minimum wage increases enhances the influence of political factors, we drew on the policy adoption and diffusion literature to examine how internal determinants (political and economic variables) and regional diffusion pressures relate to both the introduction and adoption of minimum wage legislation in the American states in the years between the last two federal minimum wage increases (1997-2006). Employing negative binomial regression to analyze annual bill introductions, we found that a number of political variables are related to the consideration of minimum wage increases. However, using event history analysis to examine annual adoptions of minimum wage increases, we found few of the same variables matter. We concluded with a discussion of the empirical results within the context of the broader policy literature and cautioned future scholars to consider seriously whether political factors exert distinct influences at different stages of the policy process. KEY WORDS: minimum wage, policy diffusion, policy adoption, and citizen ideology, The salience of minimum wage laws varies over time, yet partisans on both sides remain equally entrenched in their positions. Calls to reduce the wage as a way to prevent [...]

This article introduces a Tao Complexity Tool for local and global public policy-making and analysis across a multiplicity of human affairs. This tool provides policy-makers with an understanding of the basic undergirding meta-dynamics in complex situations. Rather than dissecting a situation into discrete material components and examining each component separately, this tool helps policy-makers induce a paradigm envisioning the whole as an energy-being. The energy-being, an abstraction, is a system of activating forces in constant interwoven motion emerging from the past into the present, as a manifestation of observable patterns. Understanding the energy in an at-the-moment being contributes to knowing and informs policy-making of becoming. This article, briefly describing the tool, provides its philosophical foundation, language basics for communicating thoughts, and examples illustrating its use in policy-making practice., Introduction This paper presents a Tao Complexity Tool (Fu & Bergeon, 2012) for public policy-making. Briefly, this article describes the theoretical foundation and operating mechanics of the tool; suggests a [...]

This paper explores the contribution that complexity science might play in the development of U.S. foreign policy in regard to the Middle East. Three cases grounded in history, language, culture, and other social phenomena illustrate the extent to which United States policy actors are challenged to grasp the nature of foreign nations as complex systems. The different issues in each case--a linguistic case in Egypt, a religious/political case in Lebanon, and religious/political/economic case in Saudi Arabia--display relationships characteristic of complex systems that substantially affected each situation. Five propositions are then offered as potential means to counteract this tendency to organize policy responses on a simplified cognitive frame, thereby giving complexity science a larger role in the development of U.S. foreign policy., Introduction The United States, like other western nations, has not been hugely successful in enacting a consistent and coherent foreign policy in the Middle East. The tensions and conflicts between [...]

Economic policy analysts typically specify a model that describes an optimal outcome--for example, an efficient allocation of resources, an optimal distribution of income, an optimal growth path, or an optimal [...]

Consultation of scientific evidence by policy actors has been the foci of attention of knowledge utilization scholars for decades. The present study questioned the extent to which randomized controlled trials (RCTs)--generally seen as the gold standard of scientific research--are known and consulted by policy analysts in ministerial settings. Using cross-sectional data collected in 17 ministries in Quebec (Canada), our study showed that fairly high levels of policy analysts report never having heard of RCTs, thus possibly hindering effective communication of scientific results to relevant policy makers. Statistical analyses reveal the importance of cognitive factors in explaining both phenomena. KEY WORDS: randomized controlled trials, policy analysis, knowledge utilization, evidence-informed policy making, nonlinear regression, Introduction In recent years, research on knowledge utilization in policy making has put under scrutiny the knowledge base of actors involved in public administration to various ends. To some extent, [...]

Design involves an account of expertise which foregrounds implicit, heuristic skills. Most models of policy making have a stronger interest in structural and exogenous pressures on decision making. Research suggests that high-level experts develop unique capacities to process data, read a situation, and see imaginative solutions. By linking some of the key attributes of a design model of decision making to an account of expertise, it is possible to formulate a stronger model of public policy design expertise. While other approaches often concern themselves with constraints and structural imperatives, a design approach has a focus upon the capacities of individual actors such as policy experts. Such an approach rests upon central propositions in regard to goal emergence, pattern recognition, anticipation, emotions engagement, fabulation, playfulness, and risk protection. These provide a starting point for further research and for the professional development of policy specialists. Keywords: Design Theory, Expertise, Heuristics, Policy Making, Public Policy, Public Administration Theory, Theories of Public Policy. El diseno involucra un aspecto de la especializacion que destaca habilidades heuristicas implicitas. La mayoria de los modelos para la elaboracion de politicas tienen un fuerte interes en presiones estructurales y exogenas en la toma de decisiones. Un numero de investigaciones sugieren que los expertos de alto nivel desarrollan capacidades unicas para procesar informacion, interpretar una situacion, e idear soluciones imaginativas. Enlazando algunos de los atributos de un modelo de diseno para la toma de decisiones con un enfoque en la especializacion es posible formular un modelo mas fuerte de diseno de politicas publicas. Mientras otras perspectivas se enfocan en restricciones e imperativos estructurales, una perspectiva basada en el diseno se concentra en las capacidades individuales actores tales como expertos en legislacion. Esta perspectiva se basa en proposiciones centrales que conciernen la emergencia de objetivos, el reconocimiento de patrones, la anticipacion, compromiso de emociones, y la proteccion al riesgo. Estas proposiciones proveen de un punto de partida para futuras investigaciones y para el desarrollo profesional del los expertos en legislacion., Design is a now popular term for creative problem solving, and its embrace includes everything from furniture to public institutions (Goodin 1996; Ostrom 1990). It speaks to an expectation that [...]

This study explores how a scientist's location in science-based policy networks can affect her policy-oriented behaviors. In particular, we hypothesize that those scientists who fill structural holes in their networks will be more likely than others to engage in policy-oriented behaviors. The network data are defined by scientists' coauthorship on policy documents regarding climate change in the Great Lakes. We employ a two-mode network analysis to identify clusters of scientists who coauthored similar documents, and relative to those clusters, we identify those who fill structural holes by bridging between clusters. We find that those scientists who bridged between clusters were more likely to engage in policy-oriented behaviors of policy advocacy and advising than were others in the network. This is an example of a link between network location and policy-oriented behavior indicative of the broader phenomenon of how individuals exert agency, given structural constraints. KEY WORDS: policy behavior, networks, scientists, climate change, Introduction The potential threat posed by climate change on socioecological systems has raised the stakes for the role of climate change science in informing policymaking (e.g., IPCC, 2001, 2007; National [...]

Baseline models have been used in the analysis of social networks as a way to understand how empirical networks differ from 'random' ones. For the purposes of social network analysis, a 'random' network is one chosen--at random--from a population of possible graphs derived from a given generating function. Although these principled hypothesis tests have a long history, many of their properties and extensions to multiple data structures-here, specifically two-mode data--have been overlooked. This article focused on applications of different baseline models to two data sets: donations and voting of the 111th U.S. Congress, and organizations involved in forums on watershed policy in San Francisco, USA. Tests using each data set, but with different baseline reference distributions, will illustrate the range of possible questions baseline models can address and the differences between them. The ability to apply different models and generate a constellation of results provides a deeper understanding of the structure of the system. KEY WORDS: social networks, two-mode data, hypothesis tests, quadratic assignment procedure, conditional uniform graph tests, exponential random graph models, Introduction Social Network Analysis The study of social networks is at least a century old (see Freeman [2004] for a detailed history) and has had an impact in fields ranging [...]

This article presents a conceptual framework for clarifying the network hypotheses embedded in policy theories and how they relate to macrolevel political institutions and microlevel political behavior. We then describe the role of statistical models of networks for testing these hypotheses, including the problem of operationalizing theoretical concepts with the parameters of statistical models. Examples from existing theories of the policy process and empirical research are provided and potential extensions are discussed., This special issue of PSJ provides an overview and examples of how statistical models of policy networks can clarify and test hypotheses from theories of the policy process. Statistical models [...]

To analyze social network data using standard statistical approaches is to risk incorrect inference. The dependencies among observations implied in a network conceptualization undermine standard assumptions of the usual general linear models. One of the most quickly expanding areas of social and policy network methodology is the development of statistical modeling approaches that can accommodate such dependent data. In this article, we review three network statistical methods commonly used in the current literature: quadratic assignment procedures, exponential random graph models (ERGMs), and stochastic actor-oriented models. We focus most attention on ERGMs by providing an illustrative example of a model for a strategic information network within a local government. We draw inferences about the structural role played by individuals recognized as key innovators and conclude that such an approach has much to offer in analyzing the policy process. KEY WORDS: social network models, statistical models, quadratic assignment procedure, exponential random graph models, stochastic actor-oriented models, innovation, Social network methodology has a long research tradition, going back at least as far as the 1930s (e.g., Moreno & Jennings, 1938). In the last 20 years, however, there has [...]

The exponential random graph model (ERGM) is an increasingly popular method for the statistical analysis of networks that can be used to flexibly analyze the processes by which policy actors organize into a network. Often times, interpretation of ERGM results is conducted at the network level, such that effects are related to overall frequencies of network structures (e.g., the number of closed triangles in a network). This limits the utility of the ERGM because there is often interest, particularly in political and policy sciences, in network dynamics at the actor or relationship levels. Micro-level interpretation of the ERGM has been employed in varied applications in sociology and statistics. We present a comprehensive framework for interpretation of the ERGM at all levels of analysis, which casts network formation as block-wise updating of a network. These blocks can represent, for example, each potential link, each dyad, the out-or in-going ties of each actor, or the entire network. We contrast this interpretive framework with the stochastic actor-based model (SABM) of network dynamics. We present the theoretical differences between the ERGM and the SABM and introduce an approach to comparing the models when theory is not sufficiently strong to make the selection a priori. The alternative models we discuss and the interpretation methods we propose are illustrated on previously published data on estuary policy and governance networks., Introduction When the interests and ambitions of autonomous organizations overlap in problems of public policy, these groups self-organize into a decentralized and dynamic policy network. This is a complex, interdependent [...]

This research analyzes the role of experts in the European Union's policy-making process. Focusing on the field of research policy, this study seeks to probe how expert participation in the Open Method of Coordination informs policy decisions. The paper reports on an analysis of the expert group in the European Internationalization Strategy in Science and Technology. Our analysis reveals the dynamics of expert participation at the micro level, as it identifies who these experts are, how they are appointed, and in what ways expert knowledge gets used in policy making. KEY WORDS: governance, regional governance, high-tech, policy learning, expertise, research policy, science and technology policy, Open Method of Coordination, EU, Introduction Expertise has taken a central role in the conceptualization and implementation of a broad range of public policies. An extensive multidisciplinary literature has documented, analyzed, and critiqued this trend [...]

This article reviews recent efforts by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) to measure and evaluate the success of its policies. It argues that these efforts have been inhibited by changes in the ministry's political context and the inherent complexity of the issues that innovation policies seek to address. The innovation strategy pursued by the ministry incorporates an element of mediated causality in its program logic, which complicates efforts to determine policy outcomes. When compounded by a changing normative context for judging success, this inherent complexity makes it very difficult to accurately determine and learn from the MRI's policy outcomes. The article concludes by suggesting a preliminary process of inquiry that might address some of these difficulties. Cet article examine les initiatives prises recemment par le ministere de la Recherche et de l'Innovation de l'Ontario (MRI) pour mesurer et evaluer le succes de ses politiques. Il soutient que ces efforts ont ete entraves a la fois par les changements dans le contexte politique du ministere et par la complexite inherente des questions que les politiques d'innovation tentent de resoudre. La strategie d'innovation suivie par le ministere comporte dans la logique de son programme un element de causalite assistee qui complique les efforts deployes pour determiner les resultats en matiere de politique. Quand un contexte normatif changeant pour evaluer la reussite vient s'ajouter a cette complexite inherente, il devient extremement difficile de determiner avec exactitude les effets de la politique du MRI et donc d'en tirer par la suite des enseignements. L'article se termine en suggerant un processus d'enquete preliminaire qui pourrait regler certaines de ces difficultes., Introduction Policy evaluation is fundamentally both a normative and technical exercise, in that it involves making judgements about whether what is happening is what should be happening; doing policy evaluation [...]

FOR ALL THE DIPPING POLITICAL SCIENCE DOES INTO SUCH DISCIPLINES AS economics, physics, and sociology for our theory and metaphors, it is (as Carl Sagan no doubt would have agreed) [...]

Despite all the attention paid to the topic of policy analysis, the actual work of policy analysts in government is little investigated and little known (Colebatch 2005, 2006a, 2006b; Colebatch and Radin 2006). This is true not only at the national level, which has been the subject of most existing studies, but especially at the sub-national level, where substantial powers rest. In order to address this gap, this article presents evidence from the first, large-scale set of surveys of Canadian federal, provincial and territorial policy analysts, examining the similarities and differences in their policy work. While many similarities exist in areas related to overall governance trends, such as consultation and participation work overtaking more technical policy evaluations, there are significant differences in the nature of policy work and attitudes, which are linked to the lesser autonomy from political masters experienced by sub-national analysts. The results suggest that sub-national policy work must be studied carefully in its own right. Sommaire : Malgre toute l'attention accordee a l'analyse des politiques, le travail des analystes de politiques au gouvernement n'a ete que tres peu etudie et est peu connu (Colebatch 2005, 2006a, 2006b; Colebatch et Radin 2006). Cela est vrai non seulement a l'echelle nationale, ce qui a fait l'objet de la plupart des etudes existantes, mais plus particulierement a l'echelle infranationale, ou les gouvernements detiennent d'enormes pouvoirs. Pour remedier a cette lacune, cet article presente des temoignages de la premiere serie de sondages a grande echelle menee aupres des analystes de politiques federaux, provinciaux et territoriaux du Canada, qui examine les similarites et les differences dans le travail d'eleaboration des politiques. Alors que de nombreuses similarites existent dans les domaines lies aux tendances de gouvernance en general, comme le travail de consultation et de participation depassant des evaluations de politiques plus techniques, il existe egalement d'importantes differences dans la nature du travail d'elaboration de politiques et dans les attitudes, qui sont liees au fait que les analystes infranationaux jouissent de moins d'autonomie que les maitres politiques. Les resultats laissent entendre que les etudes de politiques a l'echelle infranationale doivent etre examinees attentivement en tant que tel., Introduction: Gaps in knowledge of policy work in multi-level states Despite having been a matter of academic attention for over half a century, the working world of policy analysts is [...]

Between 1970 and 2007, presidents of both parties consistently and actively supported financial deregulation. Given the low visibility and relatively technical nature of the issues, presidents saw deregulation as the best way to respond to technical innovation in the industry and disruptions caused by inflation. This history suggests several lessons for students of the role of presidents in policy making. Presidents can be active in promoting policy reform even though standard methods for defining the presidential agenda do not reveal this fact. We see presidential engagement reflected in White House statements both before and after legislation is passed, and in White House use of study reports and messages to shape an elite consensus., In July 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law a sweeping program of financial regulatory reform popularly known as the Dodd-Frank Act. This act was a response to the financial [...]

Scattered works by political scientists since the 1970s have reported that Democratic presidents have compiled stronger economic records than their Republican counterparts: economic growth has been higher, unemployment lower, and inequality has fallen during Democratic administrations while the opposite outcomes have occurred under Republican presidents. Recently, however, Campbell has vigorously challenged these findings. This article reexamines the data for 1949-2009 using new methods and measures, and confirms the earlier findings for unemployment and real gross domestic product (GDP)., A small body of research since the 1970s has reported that Democratic presidents have compiled better economic records than their Republican counterparts in the post-World War II era (Alesina and [...]

As the calamitous economic events of the last several years have shown, the role of the president in governing the economy has become more complex, more difficult, and more critical--not [...]

This article investigates how presidential policy attention is allocated across policy tools and whether there is a channeling of tool use by policy area. I also examine whether there is evidence of disproportionate information processing within presidential policy attention allocation and whether it is common across presidential policy tools. Presidential messages, hearings on administrations' legislative proposals, amicus briefs, and executive orders are employed to capture presidential policy tools. The allocation of attention via these four instruments is examined from 1957-2007 in the policy areas of defense and foreign affairs, macroeconomics, banking and commerce, civil rights, law and crime, and labor and immigration. I find that there is a canalization of presidential policy attention by instrument, and that the opportunity structure of policy tools shapes attention allocation. Additionally, I find evidence for punctuated equilibrium theory in the allocation of presidential policy attention via these four tools. When presidents do shift their attention to an issue area, they often attack the issue with some coordination of their policy instruments. KEY WORDS: punctuated equilibrium theory, information processing, presidency, policy instruments, Introduction In a subfield so often focused on presidential success, the fundamental questions of how presidents allocate their attention, with multiple policy targets to choose from, and what policy instruments [...]

This article builds on punctuated equilibrium theory to evaluate the diffusion of public policy innovations in the United States. The article argues that punctuated equilibrium theory provides a unifying framework for understating three mechanisms leading to the diffusion of innovations: gradual policy diffusion driven by incremental policy emulation, rapid state-to-state diffusion driven by policy imitation and mimicking, and nearly immediate policy diffusion driven by state-level responses to a common exogenous shock. Drawing upon the Bass mixed influence diffusion model, this research generates measures of the coefficients of external and internal influences for diffusion for 81 public policy innovations that have spread across the United States. The article then evaluates how the policy image and direct participation of the federal government contribute to distinct patterns of diffusion over time., Introduction In recent years, studies of public policy diffusion have documented considerable variation in the speed and scope of public policy adoption across states (Boushey, 2010; Makse & Volden, 2011; [...]

Media attention is fundamental to the policy process and policy change in punctuated equilibrium theory. In this literature, media attention is usually conceptualized as fomenting or contributing to shifts in attention, positive feedback, and large-scale policy change. This article extends how we understand the role of the media and punctuated equilibrium by arguing that media coverage can also contribute to negative feedback and stability in the political system. Media attention should also slow down the speed of policymaking and the momentum for policy change as new policy participants and problem definitions enter the debate. Using event history analysis, this article tests the effects of media coverage on the length of time it takes legislation, once introduced, to become law for public laws from the 109th U.S. Congress (2005-06). Findings provide support for media attention 'putting the brakes' on policymaking. Controlling for other factors, the speed of bill passage slows down as media attention increases. This effect decays over time for high levels of media coverage. KEY WORDS: punctuated equilibrium, media, policy process, Introduction Passage of the legislation [Public Law 109-13, Emergenc Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005], which is all but certain in the [...]

In this article, we argue that policy punctuations differ from each other in ways that reflect distinct types of political change. We identify three main kinds. The first are procedural changes that have unique unrelated policies within the same issue area. Within the remaining large policy changes, high-salience punctuations are associated with increased attention in the media, whereas low-salience punctuations do not attract such scrutiny. The analysis applies the typology to data from the UK Policy Agendas Project, identifying punctuations from the content of Acts of the UK Parliament between 1911 and 2008. Using evidence from the historical record and the data series, the analysis places each observation within the typology. We claim that the typology has a more general application and could be replicated in other jurisdictions and time periods. We conclude that attention to the historical record and qualitative studies of punctuations can complement and inform the analysis of aggregate data series. KEY WORDS: policy punctuations, policy change, agendas, British politics, laws, Punctuations are now recognized as a defining feature of the policy agenda. Instead of the small steps envisaged in the incrementalist model of decision making (Lindblom, 1959; Wildavsky, 1964, 1975), [...]

The European Council is the highest political body of the European Union and the main venue for setting the agenda on high politics. Using a new dataset of all content-coded European Council Conclusions issued between 1975 and 2010, we analyze the policy agenda of the European Council and test hypotheses on agenda change and diversity over time. We find that the theory of punctuated equilibrium applies to the agenda of the European Council, which exhibits a degree of kurtosis similar to that found in policy agendas of other institutions located at the juncture between input and output of the policy process. Throughout the 36-year period, agenda-setting dynamics involved both small changes and major shifts but also more frequent medium-sized negative changes than found elsewhere. Given capacity limits to the agenda, large expansions of attention to topics involved large cuts in attention. Cuts were more often medium in size in order to maintain some level of attention to the topics affected, even though issue disappearance from the European Council agenda has been frequent too. This relates to the functions of the European Council as venue for high politics, with expectations about issue attendance rising with increasing policy jurisdictions throughout the European integration process. Studying dynamics over time, we measured entropy to show how the agenda became more diverse but also displayed episodic concentration in an oscillating pattern. This can be accounted for by the nature of the European Council as a policy venue: increasing complexity of this institution pushed the members to produce a more diverse agenda, but capacity limits and the need to be responsive to incoming information led to concentration at specific time-points. KEY WORDS: policy agenda, European Union, European Council, punctuated equilibrium, issue diversity, Introduction When the credit crunch hit Europe, it set in motion a rapid wave of attention to financial and economic problems. National governments responded with large-scale bailouts, and this pushed [...]

In this article, we contrast the long-term consequences of incrementalism and punctuated equilibrium. We test what the impact of each of these types of policy change is on long-term budgetary outcomes for the American states. Policy scholars have applied both theoretical approaches to the study of budgetary spending as an extension of policymaking. Given the two contrasting paradigms of policy change, we develop the following line of inquiry: Does punctuated equilibrium create a different budget in the long term than incrementalism? We address this question through an analysis of American state budgets because the U.S. states provide a rich variation in both budgetary outcomes and political institutions. We use budget data from all American states across all government functions for the period between 1984 and 2009. We find that, first, state budgets and budget functions vary in their degree of punctuation and, second, the degree of punctuation in a state's budget function corresponds to smaller long-term growth. Additionally, the kind of spending matters: allocational budget categories are more likely to exhibit punctuations. KEY WORDS: punctuated equilibrium, budgeting, state politics, While state budgets may not be a constant theme in the average American's search for news, most Americans have attended the manner in which states are addressing the fiscal crisis--or [...]

'Public interest' narratives are practical tools for policy makers to justify policy choices and methods of implementation. Few studies have been conducted on the narratives of the public interest in semidemocratic, less-developed countries, however. In Western scholarship, the public interest has been conceptualized in three ways: as the common good, as the aggregation of public preferences, or as a deliberative process. This article examines how narratives of the public interest were used in the development of environmental policy in Tanzania over more than a decade. Looking at three stages of administrative policy making, the findings suggest that narratives differ according to the audience perceived to be most important to policy makers. Keywords: Public Interest, Africa, Tanzania, Environment, Policy Making, Participation, Administration, Environmental Policy. Las narrativas sobre el 'interes publico' son herramientas practicas que los legisladores usan para justificar la eleccion de cierta politica y su metodo de implementacion. Sin embargo, se han realizado pocos estudios acerca de las narrativas de interes publico en paises semidemocraticos y menos desarrollados. En la literatura occidental, el interes publico ha sido conceptualizado de tres formas: como el bien comun, la agregacion de las preferencias publicas, o como un proceso deliberativo. Este articulo examina como las narrativas del interes publico fueron usadas para el desarrollo de la politica ambiental en Tanzania durante mas de una decada. Observando tres etapas del proceso administrativo, los hallazgos sugieren que las narrativas difieren de acuerdo a la audiencia que los legisladores consideran como mas importante., The 'public interest' has often been used to both design and justify policy choices and implementation across the globe. Policy makers claim that policy outcomes will achieve the interests of [...]