Public policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
Mark Bevir ◽  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
Important Shift ◽  
Interpretive Turn

Readers are introduced to how an anti-naturalist framework can ground a distinctively deliberative and interpretive turn in public policy. Over the last three decades there has been an important shift among a minority of public policy scholars toward interpretive and deliberative modes that are critical of naturalism’s justification of rule by supposedly scientific experts of human behavior. Like the interpretive turn more generally, this deliberative remaking of public policy has drawn on a great diversity of philosophical sources, including phenomenology, discourse theory, Dewey’s pragmatism, and post-structuralism. While we embrace the fact that this transformation of policy discourse and practice can be reached by a variety of philosophical routes, we also argue that an anti-naturalist framework can clarify certain confusions that cloud these debates.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 201-202
Author(s):  
Mark Bevir ◽  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Humanistic Approach ◽  
Interpretive Turn

Anti-naturalism’s effect on the study of human behavior and society is profound and comprehensive. In terms of empirical inquiry, a new approach to explanation and concept formation is generated. In terms of normative inquiry, the wall dividing the study of values versus facts comes tumbling down. Where naturalism built barriers separating ethics, political theory, and social science, anti-naturalism instead builds bridges and opens access to areas of mutual concern. An interpretive turn also generates a uniquely humanistic approach to civic life, democracy, and public policy....

scholarly journals Numbers don’t speak for themselves: strategies of using numbers in public policy discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Jablonka ◽  
Christer Bergsten
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Quantitative Literacy ◽  
Mathematical Literacy ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Epidemic Wave

AbstractIn mathematics education, there is general agreement regarding the significance of mathematical literacy (also quantitative literacy or numeracy) for informed citizenship, which often requires evaluating the use of numbers in public policy discourse. We hold that such an evaluation must accommodate the necessarily fragile relation between the information that numbers are taken to carry and the policy decisions they are meant to support. In doing so, attention needs to be paid to differences in how that relation is formed. With this in mind, we investigated a public discourse that heavily relied on numbers in the context of introducing, maintaining, and easing the rules and regulations directed to contain the spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2 during the first epidemic wave of COVID-19 in Germany with its peak in early April 2020. We used a public-service broadcasting outlet as data. Our theoretical stance is affiliated with post-structuralist discourse theory. As an outcome, we identified four major related strategies of using numbers, which we named rationalisation, contrast, association and recharging. In our view explicit attention to these strategies as well as identifying new ones can aid the task of furthering critical mathematical literacy.

scholarly journals Fukuyama on social capital

Sociologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53
Author(s):  
Suzana Ignjatovic
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Policy Discourse

The paper aims to provide a synthesis of Fukuyama's theory of social capital Three different conceptual issues are discussed in the article: definition paradigmatic framework, and methodology. Another aspect of Fukuyama's concept of social capital is discussed from the perspective of Fukuyama's great popularity in public policy since the nineties. The concluding part of the paper deals with Fukuyama's place in academic and policy discourse on social capital.

Building an Ethic of Public Policy Discourse: An Appeal to the African Studies Community

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
Jennifer G. Cooke ◽  
J. Stephen Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Policy Engagement ◽  
Trade And Investment

U.S. policy engagement in Africa has entered a phase of dramatic enlargement, begun during President Bill Clinton’s tenure and expanded—unexpectedly—under the administration of George W. Bush. In the last five years, several Africa-centered U.S. policy initiatives have been launched—in some instances backed by substantial funding increases—in trade and investment, security, development assistance, counterterrorism, and HIV/AIDS. By contrast with the Cold War era, recent initiatives—the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, a counterterrorism task force in Djibouti, President Bush’s $15 billion HTV/AIDS proposal, and the $5 billion Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)—have been largely free of partisan rancor or controversy.

scholarly journals Better Government, Better Science: The Promise of and Challenges Facing the Evidence-Informed Policy Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 521-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Bowers ◽  
Paul F. Testa
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Behavioral Science ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
New Policies

Collaborations between the academy and governments promise to improve the lives of people, the operations of government, and our understanding of human behavior and public policy. This review shows that the evidence-informed policy movement consists of two main threads: ( a) an effort to invent new policies using insights from the social and behavioral science consensus about human behavior and institutions and ( b) an effort to evaluate the success of governmental policies using transparent and high-integrity research designs such as randomized controlled trials. We argue that the problems of each approach may be solved or at least well addressed by teams that combine the two. We also suggest that governmental actors ought to want to learn about why a new policy works as much as they want to know that the policy works. We envision a future evidence-informed public policy practice that ( a) involves cross-sector collaborations using the latest theory plus deep contextual knowledge to design new policies, ( b) applies the latest insights in research design and statistical inference for causal questions, and ( c) is focused on assessing explanations as much as on discovering what works. The evidence-informed public policy movement is a way that new data, new questions, and new collaborators can help political scientists improve our theoretical understanding of politics and also help our policy partners to improve the practice of government itself.

Elevating the Scientific and Public Policy Discourse on Crime Prevention: Taking Stock of the ‘What Works’ Report’s Influence 20 Years on

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-285
Author(s):  
Brandon C Welsh ◽  
Andrea B Wexler
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
University Of Maryland ◽  
What Works ◽  
Prevention Programmes ◽  
The University ◽  
Evidence Based Policing

Abstract In 1997, the Office of Justice Programs published Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising (Sherman, L. W., Gottfredson, D. C., MacKenzie, D. L., Eck, J. E., Reuter, P., and Bushway, S. D. (1997). Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising. Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs). The report was commissioned by the US Congress and was prepared by a team of criminologists from the University of Maryland. It aspired to be a methodologically rigorous and comprehensive review of the effectiveness of crime prevention programmes, ranging from prenatal home visits to community policing to parole. This 20-year review of the ‘what works’ report finds that it has been influential in elevating both the scientific and public policy discourse on crime prevention. It did this on three main fronts. First, it reaffirmed that not all evaluation designs are equally valid and made clear that only designs that provide confidence in observed effects should contribute to the evidence base. Secondly, it advanced the equally important task of assessing research evidence and, despite some limitations, adopted a more rigorous method for this purpose. Thirdly, undergirding all of this was the report’s commitment to the communication of science for the benefit of all parties: policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and the public. Implications for policy—with special reference to evidence-based policing—and research are discussed.

The Depreciating Public Policy Discourse

1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHARLES J. FOX ◽  
HUGH T. MILLER
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Discourse

scholarly journals The politics of cognition: liberalism and the evolutionary origins of Victorian education

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW DANIEL EDDY
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
National Legislatures

AbstractIn recent years the historical relationship between scientific experts and the state has received increasing scrutiny. Such experts played important roles in the creation and regulation of environmental organizations and functioned as agents dispatched by politicians or bureaucrats to assess health-related problems and concerns raised by the public or the judiciary. But when it came to making public policy, scientists played another role that has received less attention. In addition to acting as advisers and assessors, some scientists were democratically elected members of local and national legislatures. In this essay I draw attention to this phenomenon by examining how liberal politicians and intellectuals used Darwinian cognitive science to conceptualize the education of children in Victorian Britain.

A Consciousness-Based Look at Spontaneous Creativity

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Sarath
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Societal Benefits ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Transcendent Experience ◽  
Paradigmatic Change ◽  
Intersubjective Field

This chapter explores improvisation from a consciousness-based standpoint. Examination of an inner mechanics for the transcendent experience frequently reported by improvisers sets the stage for consciousness-based distinctions between improvisation and composition processes, in which improvisation is extricated from common misclassification as an accelerated subspecies of composition. Temporal, cultural, and linguistic factors are considered in distinguishing between improvisatory and compositional paradigms. The intimate melding between musicians and listeners in peak improvised performance is paralleled with the deep collective communion associated with group meditation practice as indicative of a nonlocal, intersubjective field of consciousness, empirical support for which suggests that possible societal benefits may result from certain applications. An “improvisatory hermeneutics” is considered as a means for new ways of perceiving global challenges and paradigmatic change that centers intersubjectivity and other anomalous possibilities not commonly embraced in academic and public policy discourse.

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