22. The Impact of Public Policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 395-416
Author(s):  
Jørgen Goul Andersen

This chapter examines the effects of public policy. It first considers economic paradigms and approaches to welfare and documents the overriding historical changes in approaches to the economy, from Keynesian ideas of macro-economic steering to more market-oriented economic perspectives. It then explores the idea of institutional complementarity, as expressed in the typologies of welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism, and flexicurity. It also looks at some of the empirical analyses of the effects of welfare policies and the tension between welfare and economic efficiency. Finally, it looks at policy feedback, path dependence, policy learning, social learning, policy transfer and policy diffusion, and policy convergence.

Author(s):  
Jørgen Goul Andersen

This chapter examines the effects of public policy. It first considers economic paradigms and approaches to welfare and documents the overriding historical changes in approaches to the economy, from Keynesian ideas of macro-economic steering to more market-oriented economic perspectives. It then explores the idea of institutional complementarity as expressed in the typologies of welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism, and flexicurity. It also looks at some of the empirical analyses of the effects of welfare policies and the tension between welfare and economic efficiency. Finally, it looks at policy feedback, path dependence, policy learning, social learning, policy transfer and policy diffusion, and policy convergence.


2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Carbone

ABSTRACTIt is commonly assumed that the advent of democracy tends to bring about social welfare improvements. Few studies, however, have examined empirically the impact of third-wave democratisation processes on social policies in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Through a diachronic comparison, this paper examines the effects of Ghana's democratisation process on the evolution of its health policy. It shows that the emergence of democratic competition played an important role in the recent adoption of a crucial health reform. A policy feedback effect on politics and a process of international policy diffusion were additional but secondary factors.


First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this updated volume explores policy failures and the valuable opportunities for learning that they offer. The book begins with an overview of policy learning and policy failure. The links between the two appear obvious, yet there are very few studies that address how one can learn from failure, learn to limit failure, and fail to learn. The book attempts to bring the two together. In doing so, it explores how dysfunctional forms of policy learning impact policy failure at the meso-level. The book expands on this by demonstrating how different learning processes generated by actors at the meso-level mediate the extent to which policy transfer is a success or failure. It re-assesses some of the literature on policy transfer and policy diffusion, in light of ideas as to what constitutes failure, partial failure, or limited success. This is followed by an examination of situations in which the incentives of partisanship can encourage a government to actively seek to exacerbate an existing policy failure rather than to repair it. The book studies the connections between repeated assessments of policy failure and subsequent opportunities for system-wide policy learning and reform. Finally, it introduces the idea of ‘policy myopia’ as a pressing source of failure in policy making and explores the possibility of developing policies that learn to help mitigate its impacts.


Author(s):  
Diane Stone

This chapter re-assesses some of the literature on policy transfer and policy diffusion, in light of ideas as to what constitutes failure, partial failure, or limited success. Rather than frame a policy transfer as a failure or success, scholars must recognise transfer (and so failure) as a messy process involving an array of meso-level actors. Two aspects are of particular note. First, the treatment of imperfect transfer as underscored by flawed lesson-drawing is useful as it takes one back to questions about the depth of learning. Second, the chapter highlights two aspects of learning that are often overlooked in mainstream accounts: ‘negative lesson-drawing’ and selective learning. Negative lesson-drawing is a quest to avoid policy failure where policy learning is not synonymous with policy adoption. Instead, policy lessons can help crystallise what ideas and policy paths decision-makers do not wish to follow.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Sirsch

AbstractThe article deals with the question whether an unconditional basic income (UBI) is part of an ideal liberal-egalitarian welfare regime. Analyzing UBI from an ideal-theoretical perspective requires a comparison of the justice performance of ideal welfare regimes instead of comparing isolated institutional designs. This holistic perspective allows for a more systematic consideration of issues like institutional complementarity. I compare three potential ideal welfare regimes from a liberal-egalitarian perspective of justice: An ideal social democratic regime, a mixed regime containing a moderate UBI and a maximal UBI regime where UBI replaces most of the welfare state. These regimes are evaluated with respect to three aspects of justice performance: the scope and neutrality of opportunities provided, institutional complementarities with a dynamic, globalized economy and the policy feedback effects on the political stability of liberal-egalitarian political coalitions. I conclude that the overall performance of a mixed regime is superior to the other regimes.


2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-392
Author(s):  
Sabine Beckmann

This paper examines the impact of political regulations on the gendered division of work between men and women. In particular it focuses on unpaid care and men and highlights, from a cross-national perspective, to what extent different policy frameworks constrain or facilitate the gendered division of unpaid care and men’s contribution and aspirations in relation to care. To address these concerns I firstly propose a model which describes the connection between welfare regimes, division of care, and gender relations on a theoretical basis. Secondly I analyse the development of welfare policies and policy outcomes in Sweden, France and Germany. I will particularly focus on the division of unpaid care between men and women and how men’s behaviour and attitudes have altered over recent decades (e.g. by taking parental leave). Another aspect which will be considered examines how the modifications in gender culture have been supported by social policy in the three countries. Finally I conclude that analysing the gendered division of unpaid care provides a further understanding of the gender order in Sweden, France and Germany. ZusammenfassungGegenstand dieses Beitrags ist die Frage nach den sozialpolitischen Steuerungsmöglichkeiten einer geschlechtergerechten Verteilung von Arbeit zwischen Männern und Frauen. Der besondere Fokus der Untersuchung liegt auf der unbezahlten Arbeit und Männern. Es wird also die Frage behandelt, ob und wie verschiedene Wohlfahrtsstaatssysteme die Verteilung der unbezahlten Arbeit beeinflussen und welche Rolle hierbei Männer spielen. Es wird zunächst ein Modell dargestellt, welches den Zusammenhang zwischen Wohlfahrtsregime, Arbeitsteilung und Geschlechterbeziehungen theoretisch umschreibt. Anhand dieses Modells wird die Entwicklung der auf Geschlechterleitbildern basierenden Wohlfahrtsstaatspolitik in Schweden, Frankreich und Deutschland analysiert und in Zusammenhang mit dem Wirken der Politik anhand der Verteilung von Care zwischen Männern und Frauen gebracht. Besondere Beachtung findet hierbei, inwieweit sich das Verhalten und die Interessen von Männern, beispielsweise hinsichtlich ihrer Bereitschaft Erziehungszeit zu übernehmen, verändert haben, und wie der entsprechende geschlechterkulturelle Wandel sozialpolitisch aufgegriffen und unterstützt wurde. Darüber hinaus zeigt der Beitrag, dass die Erweiterung von Länderanalysen um den Faktor der unbezahlten Arbeit eine genauere Analyse der länderspezifischen Geschlechterordnung ermöglichen kann.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artan Karini

Abstract Drawing on the policy-transfer literature, where processes such as Europeanization accentuate the role of policy networks as facilitators or constraints in the implementation of acquis, in addition to the familiar mechanism of “conditionality”, the principal objective of this article is to explore the challenges of policy learning toward administrative-capacity building and, more specifically, the role of what I refer to here as “donor-bureaucrat-contractor” networks in the Western Balkans. By employing a qualitative methodology consisting of forty semi-structured interviews and focus groups with policymakers, donor officers, civil-society experts and consultants in the region during the period of January 2011 to December 2016, a critical analysis of aid-supported policy learning via training as a conduit to administrative capacity-building reveals a series of context-specific dimensions, such as the informality of such networks, overreliance on local NGOs as “capacitybuilding” implementation partners and the ability of the context to affect donor behaviour - all ultimately contributing to the (non-) occurrence of policy transfer. Th e overarching conclusion this article draws is that potential answers to problems with aid-supported policy learning in the region may probably lie in the invisible workings of the aforementioned networks rather than solely in the official channels of communication between Brussels and regional governments. From a policymaking standpoint, this conclusion in itself may as well be construed as a recommendation to mobilize future research surrounding the impact of such networks on European Union (EU) accession processes in the region. Th is may encourage research organizations both in the EU and the region to (re) orient future endeavors towards this dimension of administrative capacity-building - a core requirement for EU accession - especially as the EU itself faces its own enlargement dilemmas following Brexit while the region faces threats of a potential revival of “old” ethnic conflicts, both affecting the progress of administrative reforms and prospects of EU accession.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Evren Tok ◽  
Duygu Sever

This study investigates the case of Qatar Singapore Regional Training Center for Public Administration.As a tool for this process of policy transfer, the article further evaluates the case of Singapore- Qatar Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) Regional Training Centre for Public Administration (RTCPA) in Doha, Qatar, as a mechanism to foster this policy transferThe study suggests that this evaluation would be a fruitful example in revealing the strengths and weakness of such initiatives and can offer a scheme for insights regarding effective tools of policy learning.


Author(s):  
Miguel M. Pereira

Abstract Prior research suggests that partisanship can influence how legislators learn from each other. However, same-party governments are also more likely to share similar issues, ideological preferences and constituency demands. Establishing a causal link between partisanship and policy learning is difficult. In collaboration with a non-profit organization, this study isolates the role of partisanship in a real policy learning context. As part of a campaign promoting a new policy among local representatives in the United States, the study randomized whether the initiative was endorsed by co-partisans, out-partisans or both parties. The results show that representatives are systematically more interested in the same policy when it is endorsed by co-partisans. Bipartisan initiatives also attract less interest than co-partisan policies, and no more interest than out-partisan policies, even in more competitive districts. Together, the results suggest that ideological considerations cannot fully explain partisan-based learning. The study contributes to scholarship on policy diffusion, legislative signaling and interest group access.


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