Public Inquiries, Policy Learning, and the Threat of Future Crises

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Stark
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Inquiry

This book is animated by a simple but very important question. Can post-crisis inquiries deliver effective lesson-learning which will reduce our vulnerability to future threats? Conventional wisdom suggests that the answer to this question should be an emphatic no. Inquiries are regularly vilified as costly wastes of time that illuminate very little and change even less. This book, however, draws upon evidence from an international comparison of post-crisis inquiries in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to show that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the post-crisis inquiry is an effective means of learning from disaster and that they consistently encourage policy reforms that enhance our resilience to future threats. This evidence is accompanied by a re-booted conceptualization of the public inquiry, which better recognizes the complexity of the modern state, the challenges of policy learning within it, and contemporary forms of public policy scholarship.

Failing to Learn

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Stark
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
Public Inquiry ◽  
Central Argument

This chapter provides the reader with an introduction to the book’s fundamentals. It begins with a challenge to the conventional view that public inquiries are ineffective, which stresses that inquiry scholarship has simply not been rigorous enough to justify that position. The book’s response to that lack of rigour, in the form of its research design and theoretical framework, is then set out and justified. Thereafter three outputs are summarized as the book’s main contributions. First, an updated conceptual account of what the public inquiry is in relation to contemporary public policy and governance. Second, a central argument that inquiries produce certain types of policy learning that reduce our vulnerability to future crises. Finally, the identification of a series of factors that influence inquiry success and failure.

The Idea–Expression Dichotomy and its Role in Software-Related Disputes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Shemtov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
European Union ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Software Products ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Software Copyright

This chapter examines the idea-expression dichotomy principle and its application in dealing with software copyright infringement disputes. More specifically, it asks to what extent access to ideas or information embedded in the author’s work, as well as the freedom to utilize them, is justified as a matter of copyright law jurisprudence. The chapter first traces the origins of the idea-expression dichotomy and the key milestones in its development, before discussing the arguments for and against it. It also analyses the application of the idea-expression dichotomy in software-related disputes in the United Kingdom, European Union, and United States, with particular focus on functional aspects of software products and services. Finally, it looks at the public policy considerations that stand at the heart of the idea-expression dichotomy principle and their relevance to the software-industry context.

scholarly journals Policy learning and the public inquiry

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Stark
Keyword(s):  
Policy Learning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Inquiry

scholarly journals Global development in the twenty-first century

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Garnaut
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Global Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Twenty First Century

Frank Holmes was a New Zealand leader of what my recent book, Dog Days: Australia after the Boom, calls the independent centre of the polity. He saw great value in careful and transparent analysis of the public interest, separate from any vested or partisan political interest. The success of public policy in any democracy in these troubled times depends on the strength of a strong independent centre.

Reconsidering policy – our agenda revisited

2020 ◽  
pp. 185-196
Author(s):  
Kate Crowley ◽  
Jenny Stewart ◽  
Adrian Kay ◽  
Brian W. Head
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Complex Problems

In this chapter, we review our findings, relating each chapter’s conclusions to the over-arching re-consideration agenda. Policy learning and evaluation, and the continuing importance to policy analysis of policy change, are emphasised. We conclude that, appropriately refreshed, the public policy perspective remains critical to understanding and resolving complex problems in governing.

Reconsidering Policy Design: Policies and Publics

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. May
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Political Environments ◽  
Modes Of Thought

ABSTRACTOne of the emerging areas in the public policy literature concerns new modes of thought about the construction and analysis of public policy. This article extends notions about politics within the ‘policy design’ literature by considering the implications of different political environments for policy design and implementation. Two different political environments – policies with and without publics – that form ends of a continuum of policy publics are discussed. A contrast is drawn between these two polar political environments with respect to differing policy design and implementation challenges, as well as with respect to differing opportunities for policy learning.

scholarly journals Value-adding policy analysis and advice: new roles and skills for the public sector

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Scott
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advisory System ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Quality Policy

High-quality policy analysis and advice is critical to good governance. Teaching public policy for the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) provides a welcome opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities for the public sector advisory system with experienced practitioners from Australia and New Zealand. Public sector advisers in many jurisdictions recognize the existence of competition for these services from others, leading to some reflection on the comparative advantage the public sector can bring to its role (Bardach, 2000; Weimer and Vining, 1999; Radin, 2000).

scholarly journals Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Measuring What Matters

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Musikanski ◽  
Carl Polley
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Economic Paradigm

This essay focuses on ways in which the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom are measuring subjective well-being as well as on how other governments including Norway, Spain, China, Canada, and New Zealand, are exploring the development of subjective well-being indicators. It concludes with recommended actions to aid in the formation of a consistent and comparable subjective well-being indicator for use by governments globally. The third in a series for which the purpose is to provide information to grassroots activists to foster the happiness movement for a new economic paradigm, this essay builds on the previous essays, Happiness in Public Policy and Measuring Happiness to Guide Public Policy: A Survey of Instruments and Policy Initiatives.

Enterprise Response to Public Policy Reforms: A Scan of Extant Literature and an Agenda for Future Research

1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Venugopal ◽  
M.R. Dixit
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Policy Environment ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
International Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Differences ◽  
Industry Sectors ◽  
Vast Range

This paper scans the studies that have investigated the response of enterprises to public policy reforms and suggests an agenda for future research. It traces the evaluation of the literature on relationship between environment and organization as a backdrop for reviewing the 12 key research papers in the international context. It shows that organizations have responded more to the changes in the regulatory environment than in other types of environment. It also points to the shift from unfocused strategy to focused strategy as a response to the public policy environment. The Indian studies scanned by the paper have covered a vast range from understanding the rationale for the public policy reform to responses in specific industry sectors. Against this scan, the paper suggests an agenda for future research in the areas of disaggregated stud ies, organizational processes in strategy reformulation, learning and innovation, corporate governance, and inter-organizational differences in responses. A significant item on the agenda is the study of response of public policy to changes in the firm's strategy. The paper hopes that the agenda would stimulate the preparation of concrete research proposals that would extend the knowledge base of the interaction between the enterprise and its policy environment.

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