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Focusing on ‘Geographies of Knowledge’, this Commentary explores interactions between knowledge about climate change and the evolving multi‐level governance of climate. Three vignettes illustrate the complexity of this relationship. The first shows how expert advice, combined with other factors, persuaded the UK government to adopt an ambitious, long‐term emissions reduction target in the early 2000s. The second considers the ‘2°C target’ (latterly 1.5°C) to limit rises in global mean temperature, variously seen as essential, unachievable or symbolic. The third turns to geoengineering and its governance. All three demonstrate the significance of epistemic, political and discursive factors, as these intertwine and play out across different sites, scales and levels of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, the agenda of agro-industrial greening has resulted in limited progress towards environmentally sustainable agriculture, while the prevailing productivist model remains dominant across agro-industrial systems. This article deploys an interdisciplinary analytical framework focused on two key explanatory variables – market and policy incentives – to explain the emergence or absence of agro-industrial greening initiatives. Additionally, it introduces a crucial intervening variable, power relations along the value chain, to understand the success or failure of such initiatives. Applying this framework empirically, a comparative analysis of greening dynamics within the sugarcane agro-industry across three French overseas departments is conducted. Following the liberalization of the European sugar market, private greening initiatives emerged in some of these territories but not others. I first demonstrate that policy processes did not play a determining role in instigating greening initiatives. Rather, local representations of market opportunities proved decisive. However, the ultimate outcomes of these initiatives were intricately tied to local power dynamics within territorially embedded agro-industrial value chains. Therefore, territorialized political economies not only impose structural constraints on greening initiatives, but also offer localized opportunities for eco-innovation through shifting discourses, representations and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a review of 112 Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) applications to China published during 2006–2022, this article finds that, consistent with ACF assumptions, policy processes in China are complex processes of top‐down decision making, horizontal negotiation, networked influence, and bottom‐up initiation. The review finds policy processes in many subsystems of China inconsistent with one implicit assumption of the framework: the difficulty of reconciling conflicting beliefs between warring coalitions. Compared with the results from a review of the English ACF applications to countries around the globe, policy‐oriented learning and imposition by a hierarchically superior jurisdiction were identified more frequently as pathways to policy change in reviewed applications to China. The Xi Jinping administration encourages between‐coalition learning and negotiation to pursue the ideal of building a well‐off and equitable society. At the same time, his top‐level reforms have changed the long‐time status quo in some subsystems by national policy reforms. Related Articles: Nam, Aerang, and Christopher M. Weible. 2023. "Examining Experts' Discourse in South Korea's Nuclear Power Policy Making: An Advocacy Coalition Framework Approach to Policy Knowledge." Politics & Policy 51(2): 201–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12522. Nwalie, Martin Ike. 2019. "Advocacy Coalition Framework and Policy Changes in a Third‐World Country." Politics & Policy 47(3): 545–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12302. von Malmborg, Fredrik. 2023. "Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Argumentative Discourse Analysis: The Case of the 'Energy Efficiency First' Principle in EU Energy and Climate Policy." Politics & Policy 51(2): 222–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12525. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses working within public sectors. It also examines consequences of cooperation between private and public actors. Findings show that multiple actors meet in different forms and with different functions, in multiple ways and with diverse agendas. What can be discerned is strong Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), where actors and networks are linked together, directly or indirectly, in fluid and flexible relations and partnerships. Private actors on educational markets not only becomes edupreneurs but policyneurs, a new concept introduced. As private actors engage in the policy making and the public sphere, a complex and disorganised landscape with new formations of strong actors emerge, entailing a number of consequences. One implication is the establishment of lobbyism in the Swedish educational landscape, with potentially negative consequences for democracy. One conclusion is that new formations of power dissolve the roles and functions of private and public actors within education, with implications on decision-making, transparency, and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy conflicts are ubiquitous in many countries. Yet research on policy conflict is typically based on cases in western, democratic countries. As a result, little is known about the characteristics of policy conflicts in non‐western countries, such as China, or how these characteristics compare to western contexts. The Policy Conflict Framework (PCF) was recently developed to help scholars identify, diagnose, and compare policy conflict characteristics. This research uses the PCF to guide a comparative analysis of the nature of policy conflicts in China and the United States. With interview data on policy actors from Chongqing, China and Colorado, USA, we present the findings by comparing the differences and similarities of policy conflicts in the two countries around shale oil and gas development. We conclude with the strengths and limitations of this comparative study of policy conflicts in China and other national contexts, along with recommendations for conducting PCF research in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In disputes over public policy, public debates often hinge on the argument involving policy knowledge. One approach for studying policy knowledge is the Advocacy Coalition Framework, which theorizes that advocacy coalitions form around coherent beliefs partly about policy knowledge and invest in policy knowledge by working with expert allies. This article examines the role of academics, a type of expert, in discourse about South Korea's adversarial nuclear energy policy debates. Using Discourse Network Analyzer, we collect and analyze text from 502 South Korean newspaper articles from 2016 through 2019. We find that academics align with distinctive discourse involving policy knowledge in coalitions. However, we also show that there exist weak or inconsistent associations between some academics' centrality and the intensity of policy conflict. The findings contribute to understanding policy knowledge, the distinctive discourse of experts, and a systematic study of controversial policy making in a non‐Western country. Related Articles: Heo, Inhye. 2022. "Energy Democratization Policy without Democratization of Policy Governance in South Korea: A Participatory Democracy Perspective." Politics & Policy 50(4): 834–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12480. Lantis, Jeffrey S. 2019. "'Winning' and 'Losing' the Iran Nuclear Deal: How Advocacy Coalitions and Competition Shape U.S. Foreign Policy." Politics & Policy 47(3): 464–505. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12299. Nowlin, Matthew C., Maren Trochmann, and Thomas M. Rabovsky. 2022. "Advocacy Coalitions and Political Control." Politics & Policy 50(2): 201–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12458. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on arguments in policy formulation, the institutional grammar, and comparative public policy by comparing and analyzing the initial and passed versions of 105 bills in six U.S. state legislatures from 2007 through 2017. Our substantive context is oil and gas development. The findings show that shifts from proposed to final versions of legislation tend to expand more than retract in the institutional grammar components, averaged across states. However, this pattern of expansion does not hold when examining all the individual states. Furthermore, no consistent patterns emerge about the changes in the institutional grammar components across states; that is, we see variation across states in what increases or decreases from the proposed to final versions of the legislation. The findings underscore the complexity of policy formulation and the need for theoretical development, the sacrifices in validity when analyzing large samples of public policy using the institutional grammar, and the sizeable variation across states in the content of public policy for the same substantive area. We conclude with a call for a concerted effort using diverse research to begin to generalize and localize knowledge about policy diversity and formulation.

Governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide are promoting the transition to improved cookstoves (ics), which aim to reduce household air pollution and decrease the use of biomass. This article follows a case-study approach to characterize and assess the design practices applied in a Colombian government-led program to foster the transition to ics in rural households between 2010-2018 in the department of Nariño. Data was collected from direct observation, 23 semi-structured interviews (with program beneficiaries, civil servants, and external stakeholders) and documentary evidence. We assessed the degree to which the program’s formulation, implementation, and evaluation considered the beneficiaries’ specific needs, values, contexts and human experience. We found that the government program design followed a top-down approach focused on a single design principle, efficiency. Moreover, the government’s design methods did not appear to sufficiently involve its potential beneficiaries or consider their actual human experiences and realities. We argue that if the government had applied a more human-centered design approach, it could have enhanced the integration of the socio-cultural backgrounds of the program’s beneficiaries. Overall, the results of this study underscore the importance of integrating human-centered design approaches to identify new paths to improve governments’ responsiveness and effectiveness.

Governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide are promoting the transition to improved cookstoves(ics), which aim to reduce household air pollution and decrease the use of biomass. This article follows a case-study approach to characterize and assess the design practices applied in a Colombian government-led program to foster the transition to ics in rural households between 2010-2018 in the department of Nariño. Data was collected from direct observation, 23 semi-structured interviews(with program beneficiaries, civil servants, and external stakeholders) and documentary evidence. We assessed the degree to which the program's formulation, implementation, and evaluation considered the beneficiaries'specific needs, values, contexts and human experience. We found that the government program design followed a top-down approach focused on a single design principle, efficiency. Moreover, the government's design methods did not appear to sufficiently involve its potential beneficiaries or consider their actual human experiences and realities. We argue that if the government had applied a more human-centered design approach, it could have enhanced the integration of the socio-cultural backgrounds of the program's beneficiaries. Overall, the results of this study underscore the impor-tance of integrating human-centered design approaches to identify new paths to improve governments' responsiveness and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The public health burden of undernutrition remains heavy and widespread, especially in low-income countries like Nepal. While predictors of undernutrition are well documented, few studies have examined the effects of political will and quality of policy or program implementation on child growth. Methods Data were collected from two nationwide studies in Nepal to determine the relationship between a metric of nutrition ‘governance’ (the Nutrition Governance Index), derived from interviews with 520 government and non-government officials responsible for policy implementation and anthropometry measured for 6815 children in 5556 households. We employed Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) and multilevel regression models. Results A higher NGI (more effective nutrition governance) is positively associated with height-for-age as well as weight-for-height in children over 2 years of age compared to younger children (HAZ; β = 0.02, p 24 months old). Mothers’ education, child’s age, BMI and no fever in the past 30 days were also protective of stunting and wasting. Seven percent and 17% of the overall variance in HAZ and WHZ, respectively, are accounted for by variations across the 21 district locations in which sampled households were located. Mean HAZ differs considerably across districts (intercept = 0.116, p

The concept of the bioeconomy has risen to great popularity with governments around the world as a new paradigm for a sustainable economy. However, it is still highly contentious what the bioeconomy actually is or should be, which results in a certain vagueness of bioeconomy policy strategies. European bioeconomy policy is a prime example of this. Despite two dedicated bioeconomy strategies, it appears to be highly fragmented and heterogeneous when it comes to concrete political processes and measures. Against this backdrop, we aim to find patterns of European bioeconomy policy by applying the political process-inherent dynamics approach (PIDA) to the three sub-areas of bioplastics, biofuels and bioenergy. Aggregating the respective results, the overarching pattern of European bioeconomy policy is rather shaped by the interplay of specific problem structures, institutional frameworks and actor constellations in its policy sub-areas than by the ambiguous umbrella concept of the bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The public health burden of undernutrition remains heavy and widespread, especially in low-income countries like Nepal. While predictors of undernutrition are well documented, few studies have examined the effects of political will and quality of policy or program implementation on child growth.Methods: Data were collected from two nationwide studies in Nepal to determine the relationship between a metric of nutrition 'governance' (the Nutrition Governance Index), derived from interviews with 520 government and non-government officials responsible for policy implementation and anthropometry measured for 6815 children in 5556 households. We employed Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) and multilevel regression models.Results: A higher NGI (more effective nutrition governance) is positively associated with height-for-age as well as weight-for-height in children over 2 years of age compared to younger children (HAZ; β = 0.02, p < 0.004, WHZ; β = 0.01, p < 0.37). Results from the hierarchical model show that a one-point increase in the NGI is significantly associated with a 12% increase in HAZ and a 4% increase in WHZ in older children (> 24 months old). Mothers' education, child's age, BMI and no fever in the past 30 days were also protective of stunting and wasting. Seven percent and 17% of the overall variance in HAZ and WHZ, respectively, are accounted for by variations across the 21 district locations in which sampled households were located. Mean HAZ differs considerably across districts (intercept = 0.116, p < 0.001).Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of effective management of policy-based programming and resource use to bring about nutrition gains on the ground. The NGI explained a non-negligible amount of variation in HAZ and WHZ, which underscores the fundamental role that good governance plays in promoting child nutrition and growth, and the value of seeking to measure it to assist governments in moving policies from paper to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development at the municipal level often necessitates that local governments make trade-offs between firm- and locality-based strategies. In recent decades, economic development researchers have described these efforts over time as exhibiting certain patterns and metaphors: as a series of waves, as embodying a type of lock-in effect, and as a policy layering process; however, the mechanisms behind these patterns remain unclear. This article draws upon 30 years of economic development policy decision making across the United States to understand what leads local governments to prioritize growth- or equity-oriented policies. We find that equity-enhancing economic development policies are more likely when local governments face less competitive pressure, have greater resource capacities, and experience greater intergovernmental involvement in the economic development planning process. Leveraging these factors can aid governments as they struggle to navigate a more sustainable path toward growth and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Through Zero Hunger Strategic Reviews, national governments articulate how they can achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal targets of zero hunger and zero malnutrition by 2030. To suggest how such strategic reviews might accelerate progress towards those goals, an in-depth critical assessment was undertaken of Zero Hunger Strategic Reviews carried out between 2015 and 2019 in 13 countries in Asia and the Pacific. The appraisal focused on the conceptual frameworks used to guide the content of the processes and, secondly, on how well those involved understood the factors that drive or block policy change in their respective countries.Methods and Study Design: The qualitative study involved a desk review of: (1) all reports produced for the 13 strategic reviews; (2) guidance notes for their implementation; and (3) conceptual frameworks pertinent to them.Results: More explicit use of globally accepted conceptual frameworks would strengthen the national strategic reviews. More importantly, none considered closely the challenges that would arise as efforts are made to obtain approval for policy reforms and increased allocations of public resources to address hunger and malnutrition more effectively.Conclusions: Any recommendations from such strategic reviews will need to be assessed against competing development priorities and then planned, coordinated, and implemented effectively. While accurate technical understanding is necessary to take strategic action, the best plans to eliminate hunger and malnutrition will flounder if efforts are not also made to advocate for policy change, to build political leadership, and to hold accountable those responsible for the actions required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of policy conflicts remains largely underdeveloped, both theoretically and empirically. We explore policy conflict and explain its cognitive and behavioral characteristics using data from a survey administered to policy actors involved in oil and gas politics in Colorado, USA. The analysis begins with a description of the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of policy actors and then combines them into a single index to depict varying intensities of conflict. Cognitive characteristics are comprised of three dimensions: disagreement on public policy, perceived threats from opponents, and an unwillingness to compromise. Behavioral characteristics include engagement by policy actors in a range of activities, from mobilizing opponents to providing information to the media. Ordered Logit models are used to associate the attributes of policy actors with cognitive and behavioral characteristics and an index of conflict intensity that combines these two characteristics. The conclusion offers questions and recommendations for future research.

This article explores how a growing apparatus of edupreneurial actors offers solutions for the current 'school crisis' and how these commercial actors become taken for granted in the public school system. The Swedish case is interesting, as it involves a once-strong welfare state that is now associated with both the neoliberal discourse of competition and the outsourcing of policy work. Two examples – research-based education and the digitalization of education – serve to illustrate how a crisis narrative is translated into edupreneurial business ideas and how companies become established in the edupreneurial market through 'public/private statework'. Bacchi's notion of problematization is used to analyse processes through which the crisis has become a hegemonic truth and thus an obvious object for (business) intervention. In addition, this study shows how the commodification of school limits what becomes the 'research base' for schooling. The results point to the importance of how the problem is constructed and what is represented (or not) in this problematization process, for example, how critical research is left out. Another important conclusion is that the crisis narrative and policy reforms nurture the existence of these private companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacts of housing on health are well-recognised. Despite this, housing standards have been neglected and there are gaps in healthy housing policies, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Given the recent publication of the WHO Housing and health guidelines, and the need to implement these into policy at all scales, we carried out a focused search and thematic synthesis of available literature on the barriers and enablers to recent housing and health policy. We aimed to generate lessons of what works to support healthy housing policy development and implementation elsewhere. Twenty-three studies representing four countries were eligible for inclusion and covered housing-related risks of air quality, lead, accessible design, and housing conditions. Findings demonstrated that policy development and implementation were facilitated through awareness of housing and health, evidence of existing housing conditions and health impacts, collaborations across sectors and between residents and decision-makers and effective enforcement systems that employed incentives, tools such as certificates for compliance, and housing inspections. Concerns about economic viability and tensions between housing rights and responsibilities limited healthy housing policy for the 'common good'. Despite limitations in the diversity of available evidence, this thematic synthesis provides a starting point for healthy and equitable housing for all., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

The purpose of this essay is to analyze two theories. One is a relatively new approach called Instrument Constituencies. The other is an established approach called the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). This essay begins by comparing the two theories by an explicit set of criteria. It then lays out opportunities for refinement and advancement of Instrument Constituencies towards its better placement, usefulness, and longevity as a policy process theory. Research prospects at the intersection of Instrument Constituencies and the ACF are then presented with a set of research questions and hypotheses. This essay concludes with a summary of insights about the field of policy processes gained from this theoretical exploration. While there are opportunities for improvements and important caveats for consideration, this essay makes an optimistic argument for the potential of Instrument Constituencies to offer generalizable and context-specific knowledge in helping to advance policy process research.

While systems thinking has been generally acknowledged as important to the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR), it remains underutilized. In particular, systems thinking has been perceived as predominantly conceptual, with fewer applications of systems thinking documented. This commentary makes three key points, namely that (1) advances in applied systems thinking in HPSR have been hindered by an imprecision in terminology, conflating '[health] systems approaches' with complex adaptive systems theory; (2) limited examples of applied systems thinking have been highlighted and recognized in research, but have not been fully and equally appreciated in policymaking and practice and (3) explicit use of theory, long-term research-policy collaborations and better documentation of evidence can increase the use and usefulness of applied systems thinking in HPSR. By addressing these matters, the potentials of systems thinking in HPSR can be truly unlocked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine nurses' challenges, extent of involvement, and the impact of involvement in politics and policy making. Organizing Construct: Nurses in politics and health policy making. Methods: Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), OVID, and Open Grey using phrases comprising the following key words: "nurses", "policy making", "politics", "health policy", "nurses involvement in policy making/politics/health policy", "nurses challenges in policy making/politics/policy", and "impact of nursing policy making/politics/health policy"; 22 articles published from January 2000 to May 2019 were included. Findings: The major challenges included intra‐ and interprofessional power dynamics, marginalization of nurses in policy making, and nursing profession–specific challenges. The extent of involvement was inadequate, and nurses mainly worked as policy implementers rather than as policy developers. Those nurses who participated in policy development focused on health promotion to build healthy communities and to empower nurses and the nursing profession. Conclusions: Nurses' involvement in policy making has not improved over time. Nursing institutions and regulatory bodies should prepare and encourage nurses to work as policymakers rather than implementers and advocate for the rightful place of nurses at policy‐making forums. Clinical Relevance: Preparation for health system policy making starts in the clinical settings. Educational institutions and nurse leaders should adequately prepare nurses for policy making, and nurses should participate in policy making at the organization, system, and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability concerns have been placing public policy in the power sector under pressure to realize a radical change. However, energy policy is often subject to strong path dependency and inertia that make such change difficult. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the conditions under which radical policy changes happen in the power sector, based on the Multiple Streams Approach. Through a case study of the Feed‐in Tariff program for increasing renewable energy deployment in Japan, it is elucidated that the elevation of the generous program, which is fundamentally incompatible to previous policy processes, was a result of the intersection of problem, policy, and politics streams. The findings provide strong evidence to support our claim that political parties embrace a policy proposal that is not necessarily "softened" within the policy network when an existing policy community itself is perceived as a problem. Related Articles: Brant, Hanna K., Nathan Myers, and Katherine L. Runge. 2017. "Promotion, Protection, and Entrepreneurship: Stakeholder Participation and Policy Change in the 21st Century Cures Initiative." Politics & Policy 45 (3): 372‐404. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12201 Morris, Mary Hallock. 2007. "The Political Strategies of Winning and Losing Coalitions: Agricultural and Environmental Groups in the Debate over Hypoxia." Politics & Policy 35 (4): 836‐871. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00086.x Rawat, Pragati, and John Charles Morris. 2016. "Kingdon's 'Streams' Model at Thirty: Still Relevant in the 21st Century?" Politics & Policy 44 (4): 608‐638. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12168 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is in the grip of a crisis that stands unprecedented in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is urgent, global in scale, and massive in impacts. Following Harold D. Lasswell's goal for the policy sciences to offer insights into unfolding phenomena, this commentary draws on the lessons of the policy sciences literature to understand the dynamics related to COVID-19. We explore the ways in which scientific and technical expertise, emotions, and narratives influence policy decisions and shape relationships among citizens, organizations, and governments. We discuss varied processes of adaptation and change, including learning, surges in policy responses, alterations in networks (locally and globally), implementing policies across transboundary issues, and assessing policy success and failure. We conclude by identifying understudied aspects of the policy sciences that deserve attention in the pandemic's aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper applies a novel analytical co-evolutionary framework for the first time empirically. • The analysis focuses on the zero carbon homes policy mix in the UK. • The paper produces novel insights about the effects of policy mix credibility on socio-technical change. • The paper proposes conceptual refinements to the co-evolutionary framework about the interaction of exogenous conditions. Understanding how policy and policy-making processes can influence the speed and direction of socio-technical change is an important, yet underexplored research agenda in the field of sustainability transitions. This paper is the first application of a novel analytical framework which conceptualises the co-evolutionary dynamics of policy mixes and socio-technical systems, by complementing the sustainability transitions and policy mix literatures with insights from policy feedback theory. Our paper is an in-depth empirical case study of the zero carbon homes policy mix in the UK which sought to promote radical change in the UK house building system. Our paper makes three contributions. First, it makes an empirical contribution by analysing an example of an ambitious policy strategy in the housing sector where various policy effects and feedback mechanisms led to a loss of political support for the target, eventually leading to its abandonment, and only limited change within the socio-technical system. Second, our paper produces novel insights about the effects of policy mix credibility on socio-technical change, and the underlying feedback mechanisms which influence its formation and loss. Finally, based on our empirical analysis we propose conceptual refinements to the co-evolutionary framework and suggest avenues for future research explaining the dynamics of feedbacks between policy mixes and socio-technical systems. From the empirical analysis a key finding is that policy mixes need to be effectively designed in order to produce positive feedback from the outset, through the creation of resources, provision of clear information and the creation of credibility, and reforming conflicting institutional supports. In the case, ineffective initial design led to uncertainty and inertia, which did not generate sufficient positive feedback to withstand adverse economic and political conditions later on, which ultimately contributed to the abandonment of the policy mix. [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]

Forest social values has been put forward as an umbrella term for a new and less material relationship between people and the forested landscape, a relationship that more recently has become a policy issue. In this case study we explore how forest-related values are conceptualised in the case of Dalasjö, in Vilhelmina, Sweden, where a recent process involving determining protection for social values took place in relation to, and simultaneous with, governmental considerations regarding the application of a social values concept. By means of focus group and key informant interviews, the study demonstrates that forest social values are not only about forest per se, or even the physical and user values per se. Further, the diverse but still general understanding of forest social values on a policy level is demonstrated. This stands in contrast to the specific and place-based understanding of the local community, emanating from both individual and collective experiences. Thus, it is concluded that a policy use of social values terms, which may be difficult to identify from the outside, makes the definition of values in specific land use conflicts more complex rather than offering a possibility to immediately provide clear basis for planning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way to make development pathways more resilient in the face of a changing climate has been through mainstreaming adaptation into government policies, planning and sectoral decision‐making. To date, many of the transferable lessons have taken the form of technical approaches such as risk assessments and toolkits. This article instead draws on evidence from South Asia to emphasise some of the more tacit and informal approaches used to influence adaptation policy. Despite their apparent significance in policy processes, such tactics are often neither planned for nor well reported in resilience‐building projects and programme documents. Using evidence to populate a typology of influencing strategies, this article looks particularly at the role of policy entrepreneurs who navigate the political complexity of both formal and informal governance systems to promote successful adaptation mainstreaming. It concludes with recommendations for adaptation and resilience programming that can more effectively harness the breadth of influencing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015 rights-based NGOs, lawyers, feminists and journalists have endured the most stringent crackdown since 1989. Simultaneously the Xi Li administration has pushed forward a series of laws, policies and regulatory changes to enable service-oriented NGOs to apply for government contracts to provide welfare services. This seemingly Janus-like policy of welfarist incorporation can be traced back to the Hu–Wen period, often described as a lacklustre period, despite significant efforts to tackle issues of poverty and inequality. This article argues for a more balanced appraisal of this period by exploring in depth the complex politics underpinning efforts to pluralize welfare provision by involving service-oriented NGOs. It explores three sets of politics influencing this policy process: inter-institutional politics; state/non-state actor politics; and domestic/external politics. Furthermore, it considers processes of gradual institutional change adopted by key political actors to achieve these ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution has become a huge problem in many parts of Africa. Until a few years ago, the prevalent response of African governments was the introduction of command and control instruments. This trend has changed and some African countries are now turning their attention to the use of economic instruments including taxes. One of the countries that has introduced environmental taxes is Ghana. This paper analyzes the policy processes related to the emergence and implementation of three environmental taxes in Ghana, namely, taxes on plastics, overaged vehicles, and petroleum applying a public choice approach as the framework of analysis. Overall, we find that all actors behaved as proposed by public choice resulting in environmental tax designs that do not follow what economists consider optimal. Nevertheless, the taxes contributed to mitigate environmental problems, partly because a share of the tax revenue was used for this purpose. Thus, environmental taxes have the potential to mitigate environmental problems in Africa provided functioning administrations are in place. This is, however, currently not the case in many African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the coming decades, accelerating processes of climate change are expected to impact the world's fisheries. These changes will likely exacerbate ongoing challenges in the governance of small-scale fisheries, which play a significant role in supporting livelihoods and food security throughout the world. Among fishers in Mexico, the perceived impacts of climate change on coastal fisheries are increasingly salient. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the realities of climate change and other socio-environmental phenomena are discursively co-produced by fishers and government actors in a distinct type of political arena: the general assemblies of federated fishing cooperatives. Fishing cooperatives in Mexico organize into regional-level federations, which in turn form national-level confederations. Confederations are therefore multi-level, nested organizations for collective action and political representation. Here, we examine the interactions between fishers and federal government officials in the 2016 general assembly of one confederation, which represents 25 federations with 338 cooperatives. The general assembly of the confederation serves as a political space for open democratic participation among members and, in this case, discussions between fishers and government representatives. The discourses employed by fishers and government actors reveal tensions about the role of the state, the purpose of scientific knowledge in resource management, and the nature of the cooperative small-scale fishing sector. Insights from this case are used to advance discussions about the value of examining discursive practices to gain insights about fisheries policy, through a critical discussion of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We theorize discursive practices as part of politicized performances that coalitions of actors use to express policy preferences and weave together governance narratives, which are useful for understanding positions and broader debates at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, several countries have experienced widespread, intense debates about morality issues such as the death penalty, abortion, ART/stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia. Assuming the distinctiveness of morality policies from other policy fields, this article analyses three alternative institutional models for explaining variations in the amount of conflict over these morality issues across 24 Western democracies. Is either the US-developed “policy type” model or the European-developed “two worlds” of morality politics, based on religious and secular party systems, applicable more broadly? Are there regional patterns (Europe and non-Europe) to any institutional findings? How does each model contribute to our understanding of morality policy comparatively across Western democracies? We find broader cross-national support for the policy type model, with the two worlds model largely restricted to Europe. The US has more morality policy conflict because of its unusual combination of a political party targeting religiously oriented voters within an institutional framework of multiple venues. The US and other non-European countries have similar patterns of institutional deliberation through decentralization, and the US also has similarities in multiple venues with religious party systems in Europe. Secular European party systems with centralized institutions have the fewest venues for morality policy debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korean policy studies have had a strong tradition in the field of policy analysis but less so in the study of policy processes. This essay offers strategies for building research programmes towards advancing theories about policy processes, particularly policy scholarship in South Korea. Using the advocacy coalition framework as an illustrative approach, the essay describes four strategies for cultivating policy process research programmes: (1) recognizing the framework-theory distinction, (2) conducting comparative research, (3) developing methodology and hypotheses and (4) growing the academic community. This essay shows how these strategies can guide a research community towards better policy process scholarship attuned to the South Korean context yet connected to the global policy process community. [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]

The purpose of this essay is to analyze two theories. One is a relatively new approach called Instrument Constituencies. The other is an established approach called the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). This essay begins by comparing the two theories by an explicit set of criteria. It then lays out opportunities for refinement and advancement of Instrument Constituencies towards its better placement, usefulness, and longevity as a policy process theory. Research prospects at the intersection of Instrument Constituencies and the ACF are then presented with a set of research questions and hypotheses. This essay concludes with a summary of insights about the field of policy processes gained from this theoretical exploration. While there are opportunities for improvements and important caveats for consideration, this essay makes an optimistic argument for the potential of Instrument Constituencies to offer generalizable and context-specific knowledge in helping to advance policy process research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While empirical studies on technological innovation systems (TIS) usually focus on policy instruments and their suitability for curing identified weaknesses of such emerging systems, the underlying policy processes and their effects have been largely disregarded. We address this gap by exploring the style of two crucial policy-making processes and how it influences the functioning and performance of a TIS, taking the case of offshore wind in Germany. Our findings indicate important positive and negative impacts of the policy style on the TIS. For example, the muddling through character apparent in one of the policy processes negatively influenced entrepreneurial activities, knowledge development and finally technology diffusion, whereas the participatory nature of both processes had a positive impact both on TIS functioning and performance. Based on our findings we derive implications on how to improve policy making so as to foster the development of an emerging TIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The article explores the moments wherein participatory approaches in climate change adaptation (CCA) policies contribute to reinforcing, rather than transforming, the underlying causes of vulnerability. Using the case of food insecure households in the district of Humla in northwestern Nepal, the study demonstrates that the same social and power relations that are driving local vulnerability dynamics, such as caste, gender, and access to social and political networks, also play important roles in shaping the impact of CCA policies. By tracing Nepal’s CCA programs, starting with the local level, through district to international-national level dynamics, the study adds insights into the barriers to exclusion that embed power relations all the way through the chain of policy development. The purpose is to better understand how CCA can perpetuate rather than alleviate the conditions that create differential vulnerability patterns at village level. It raises questions about how whether CCA programs are an adequate response to increasing vulnerability for some of the world’s most marginalized people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]