“Studying Public Policy”: Historical Institutionalism and the Comparative Method

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-761
Author(s):  
Gerard W. Boychuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Outcome Studies ◽  
Suggested Approach ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Explicit Comparison

AbstractThis article argues that Simeon's insistence on the value of explicit comparison within individual studies of public policy needs to remain central even in historical institutionalist approaches which “take time seriously” and focus on causal mechanisms—a methodological injunction sometimes seen to augur in favour of single-case and single-outcome studies. However, if Simeon's suggested approach is to reflect the major advances that have occurred since he wrote, it will require more fully and more explicitly combining the power of the comparative method with the powerful insights generated by a logic of intertemporal causal mechanisms unfolding over time.

Investigating the President

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Kriner ◽  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theater ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
Congressional Investigations ◽  
Over Time

Although congressional investigations have provided some of the most dramatic moments in American political history, they have often been dismissed as mere political theater. But these investigations are far more than grandstanding. This book shows that congressional investigations are a powerful tool for members of Congress to counter presidential aggrandizement. By shining a light on alleged executive wrongdoing, investigations can exert significant pressure on the president and materially affect policy outcomes. This book constructs the most comprehensive overview of congressional investigative oversight to date, analyzing nearly 13,000 days of hearings, spanning more than a century, from 1898 through 2014. The book examines the forces driving investigative power over time and across chambers, and identifies how hearings might influence the president’s strategic calculations through the erosion of the president’s public approval rating, and uncover the pathways through which investigations have shaped public policy. Put simply, by bringing significant political pressure to bear on the president, investigations often afford Congress a blunt, but effective check on presidential power—without the need to worry about veto threats or other hurdles such as Senate filibusters. In an era of intense partisan polarization and institutional dysfunction, the book delves into the dynamics of congressional investigations and how Congress leverages this tool to counterbalance presidential power.

When Culturally Significant Songs are Decontextualised: The Initiation Song Somagwaza, A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Dowling ◽  
Somikazi Deyi ◽  
Anele Gobodwana
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Ritual Music ◽  
Constant Comparative Method ◽  
Small Focus ◽  
Over Time

While there have been a number of studies on the decontextualisation and secularisation of traditional ritual music in America, Taiwan and other parts of the globe, very little has been written on the processes and transformations that South Africa’s indigenous ceremonial songs go through over time. This study was prompted by the authors’ interest in, and engagement with the Xhosa initiation song Somagwaza, which has been re-imagined as a popular song, but has also purportedly found its way into other religious spaces. In this article, we attempted to investigate the extent to which the song Somagwaza is still associated with the Xhosa initiation ritual and to analyse evidence of it being decontextualised and secularised in contemporary South Africa. Our methodology included an examination of the various academic treatments of the song, an analysis of the lyrics of a popular song, bearing the same name, holding small focus group discussions, and distributing questionnaires to speakers of isiXhosa on the topic of the song. The data gathered were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysing qualitative research.

Environmentalists, Nuclear Waste, and the Politics of Passive Exclusion in Germany

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Hunold
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
The State ◽  
Radioactive Wastes ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Ecological Democracy ◽  
Over Time

In this essay I examine the dispute between the German GreenParty and some of the country’s environmental nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs) over the March 2001 renewal of rail shipmentsof highly radioactive wastes to Gorleben. My purpose indoing so is to test John Dryzek’s 1996 claim that environmentalistsought to beware of what they wish for concerning inclusion in theliberal democratic state. Inclusion on the wrong terms, arguesDryzek, may prove detrimental to the goals of greening and democratizingpublic policy because such inclusion may compromise thesurvival of a green public sphere that is vital to both. Prospects forecological democracy, understood in terms of strong ecologicalmodernization here, depend on historically conditioned relationshipsbetween the state and the environmental movement that fosterthe emergence and persistence over time of such a public sphere.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Study on Employees’ Experiences of a Support model for Systematic Work Environment Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Hellman ◽  
Fredrik Molin ◽  
Magnus Svartengren
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Work Groups ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Environment Management ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Support Model

Background: The aim is to explore how an organisational work environment support model, the Stamina model, influences employees’ work situations and the development of sustainable work systems. Methods: It was a qualitative study with semi-structured, focus-group interviews, including 45 employees from six work groups. Eighteen focus group interviews were conducted over a period of two years. Data were analysed with constant comparative method. Results: The core category, shifting focus from an individual to an organisational perspective of work, illustrated how communication and increased understanding of one’s work tasks changed over time and contributed to deeper focus on the actual operation. These insights were implemented at different time points among the work groups during the two-year process. Conclusions: Our results indicate that working with the model engages employees in the work environment management, puts emphasis on reflections and discussions about the meaning and purpose of the operations and enables a shared platform for communication. These are important features that need to continue over time in order to create a sustainable work system. The Stamina model, thus seems to have the potential to promote productive and healthy work places.

The Governance of the European Union: A New Institutionalist Approach

1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon J. Bulmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Community ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
System Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Comparative Public Policy ◽  
Policy Perspective

ABSTRACTThe analysis of European integration has tended to use a toolkit drawn from international relations. But since the revival of integration in the mid-1980s, the governance of the European Community and European Union has increasingly come to resemble that of a multi-tiered state. Accordingly, this article analyzes the governance of the European Union from a comparative public policy perspective. Using new or historical institutionalism, three levels are considered. In the first part, attention is focused on the EU's institutions and the available instruments of governance. The second part examines the analysis of governance at the policy-specific or sub-system level, and puts forward an approach based on governance regimes. The final part considers the institutional roots of the persistent, regulatory character of governance in the European Union.

Reconsidering institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Kate Crowley ◽  
Jenny Stewart ◽  
Adrian Kay ◽  
Brian W. Head
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
Policy Network ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
Emergent Networks ◽  
Over Time

Although institutions are central to the study of public policy, the focus upon them has shifted over time. This chapter is concerned with the role of institutions in problem solving and the utility of an evolving institutional theory that has significantly fragmented. It argues that the rise of new institutionalism in particular is symptomatic of the growing complexity in problems and policy making. We review the complex landscape of institutional theory, we reconsider institutions in the context of emergent networks and systems in the governance era, and we reflect upon institutions and the notion of policy shaping in contemporary times. We find that network institutionalism, which draws upon policy network and community approaches, has a particular utility for depicting and explaining complex policy.

Three stages of entrepreneurial orientation: the founder’s role

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Ljungkvist ◽  
Börje Boers ◽  
Joachim Samuelsson
Keyword(s):  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the development of the five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) over time by taking a founder’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on an in-depth single-case study. It combines semi-structured interviews in the company with archival data, such as annual reports, press clips and interviews in business magazines. Findings The results indicate that the EO dimensions change from being personalized and directly solution-oriented to being intangible value-creation-oriented. Originality/value By suggesting ownership-based EO configurations, this study contributes insights into how different ownership forms propel EO. These configurations – that is, personal, administrative based and intangible focused – show the impact of the EO dimensions and provide a systematic and theoretical understanding of EO change over time.

scholarly journals Evolution of Cultural Identity Terms in Lay and Academic Sources: Implications for Research and Public Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxanne Moadel-Attie ◽  
Sheri R. Levy ◽  
Bonita London ◽  
Rami Al-Rfou
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Computational Techniques ◽  
Psychosocial Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Google Books ◽  
Over Time

Increasingly, individuals identify as bicultural and multicultural, yet are sometimes externally misclassified, contributing to experiences of invisibility within U.S. society. Using computational techniques, we examined the transmission of cultural identity terms through time, providing some evidence for the changing representation of social identity. We examined the usage patterns of cultural identity terms with the prefixes (mono-, bi-, multi-), modifying the social identity terms: culture, ethnicity, and race (e.g., comparing monocultural, monoethnic and monoracial). For bicultural and multicultural terms, those with -racial suffixes were the earliest used terms, while those with -cultural and -ethnic suffixes gained more popularity recently. We examined the evolution of the higher frequency social identity terms in lay sources (NY Times, Reddit), and found that interracial and multicultural were the most popular over time, peaking recently. We examined the potential time lag in the sequence of identity terms amongst academic (PsycINFO, NIH and NSF Databases), lay (NY Times) and mixed sources (Google Books N-Grams), supporting our hypothesis that newer terms (e.g., multicultural) are first used and gain prevalence in lay sources, then mixed sources, and eventually academic sources. The implications of these findings for research, public policy and psychosocial experiences of individuals are discussed.

scholarly journals O Projeto de Agendas Políticas da Colômbia: análise da atenção presidencial durante as administrações de Uribe e Santos (2002-2018)

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1565-1587
Author(s):  
Juan Guillermo Vieira Silva ◽  
Jeraldine Alicia del Cid Castro
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political System ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This article has two interrelated objectives: to introduce the Colombian Political Agendas Project (COL-PAP) and offer an exploratory example of the applications of its databases. As a prelude, we describe some characteristics of the Colombian political system and the presidents analyzed. The study presents the objectives of COL-PAP, the creation of the codebook and the databases built so far, with special attention to the databases gathering bills and CONPES documents. The example discussed explores the dynamics of presidential attention in the period 2002-2018, especially the attention distributed among public policy issues over time, and its allocation among instruments. The study shows that attention varies among issues, but also that it is assigned differently between instruments, according to the opportunity structure they offer. Inspired in the discussion and findings related to the databases built so far for COL-PAP, the study suggests future lines of research for Colombia, Latin America, and the CAP in general.

scholarly journals Service Customer Loyalty: An Evaluation Based on Loyalty Factors

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2260
Author(s):  
Neringa Vilkaite-Vaitone ◽  
Ilona Skackauskiene
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Customer Behavior ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Single Measure ◽  
Suggested Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

This study sheds light on customer loyalty based on three groups of factors (customer, service provider, and environment). Noting the diversity of the effects of customer loyalty factors, this research investigates the impact of every factor upon customer loyalty. This paper provides an innovative insight into how a variety of customer loyalty factors might be combined into a single measure of customer loyalty. Finally, this study examines phases of customer loyalty and identifies the factors that prevent a peak of customer loyalty. The factors determining customer loyalty explain why customers move across different loyalty phases over time. The results of the empirical testing confirmed the practical applicability of the suggested approach for evaluating customer loyalty based on these factors. An innovative approach to the evaluation of customer loyalty is essential for marketers because it will help them to evaluate loyalty in cases where data about customer behavior are not collected. The findings of the research contribute to a better understanding of which factors are a viable basis for increasing customer loyalty, specifically in the catering and beauty markets, and offer guidance to marketing managers on how to shift customers to more desirable loyalty phases.

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