Network Segregation and Policy Learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Douglas Henry
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
Network Ties ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Successes And Failures

Learning is an important concept in the study of public policy and covers a range of actions where evidence is used to shape and improve decisions, including using science to inform responses to problems; adjusting policy based on successes and failures; and forming new beliefs about salient issues, their causes, and appropriate solutions. Network concepts are central to theoretical treatments of learning. Three assumptions are often made about networks and their role in learning processes: (1) most policy networks exhibit segregation, in the sense that network ties tend to exist among actors with shared traits, such as belief systems or institutional affiliations; (2) segregated networks inhibit policy learning; and (3) network segregation is a result of homophily. This chapter reviews the rich literature underlying each of these propositions and shows that the relationships between networks and learning are more complex than often assumed.

scholarly journals In trust we trust: The impact of trust in government on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic

2022 ◽  
pp. 095207672110580
Author(s):  
Bishoy Louis Zaki ◽  
Francesco Nicoli ◽  
Ellen Wayenberg ◽  
Bram Verschuere
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Excess Mortality ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Policy Learning ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward myriad challenges to public policy, central of which is understanding the different contextual factors that can influence the effectiveness of policy responses across different systems. In this article, we explore how trust in government can influence the ability of COVID-19 policy responses to curb excess mortality during the pandemic. Our findings indicate that stringent policy responses play a central role in curbing excess mortality. They also indicate that such relationship is not only influenced by systematic and structural factors, but also by citizens’ trust in government. We leverage our findings to propose a set of recommendations for policymakers on how to enhance crisis policymaking and strengthen the designs of the widely used underlying policy learning processes.

scholarly journals Framing the Issue

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 721-721
Author(s):  
Brian Lindberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lame Duck ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Successes And Failures

Abstract GSA's Public Policy Advisor will lead a discussion of legislative activities related to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation during the past year. The panel will examine successes and failures and what may still be possible in the lame duck session and the next Congress.

scholarly journals The transformative capacity of the Brazilian federal government in building a social welfare bureaucracy in the municipalities

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália Guimarães Duarte Sátyro ◽  
Eleonora Schettini Martins Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Transformative Capacity ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Institutional Learning ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract The article analyzes the transformative capacity of the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger (MDS) in shaping structural change in Brazilian municipalities. The study is based on the concepts of organizational and institutional learning, on a combination of analytical categories of the institutional and neo-institutional approaches and on traditional means of government control. As for methodology, this study used process tracing, in-depth interviews, and documentary analysis of regulations, decrees, and resolutions that create direct and indirect incentives to induce agreements and cooperation of municipalities with the Ministry. We identified two important causal mechanisms: a) organizational and institutional learning processes; and b) inter-federative cooperation that, combined, generated significant changes in municipal bureaucratic capacity. The findings show the importance of the Union’s transformative capacity in the process of public policy decentralization in Brazil.

The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
History Of

Virtually every important question of public policy today involves an international organization. From trade to intellectual property to health policy and beyond, governments interact with international organizations (IOs) in almost everything they do. Increasingly, individual citizens are directly affected by the work of IOs. This book gives an overview of the world of IOs today. It emphasizes both the practical aspects of their organization and operation, and the conceptual issues that arise at the junctures between nation-states and international authority, and between law and politics. While the focus is on inter-governmental organizations, the book also encompasses non-governmental organizations and public policy networks. The book first considers the main IOs and the kinds of problems they address. This includes chapters on the organizations that relate to trade, humanitarian aid, peace operations, and more, as well as chapters on the history of IOs. The book then looks at the constituent parts and internal functioning of IOs. The text also addresses the internal management of the organization, and includes chapters on the distribution of decision-making power within the organizations, the structure of their assemblies, the role of Secretaries-General and other heads, budgets and finance, and other elements of complex bureaucracies at the international level.

Advocacy Coalitions in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Pierce ◽  
Katherine Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Advocacy Coalitions ◽  
Advocacy Coalition

The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) was developed to explain policy processes where contentious coalitions of actors seek to translate competing belief systems into public policy. Advocacy coalitions may include interest groups, members of the media, scientists and academics, and government officials that share beliefs about a public issue and coordinate their behavior. These advocacy coalitions engage in various strategies using resources to influence policy change or stasis. As part of this process, advocacy coalition members may learn within and/or across coalitions. This framework is one of the most prominent and widely applied approaches to explain public policy. While it has been applied hundreds of times, in over 50 different countries, the vast majority of ACF applications have sought to explain domestic policy processes. A reason for the paucity of applications to foreign policy is that some ACF assumptions may not seem congruent to foreign policy issues. For example, the ACF uses a policy subsystem as the unit of analysis that may include a territorial dimension. Yet, the purpose of the territorial dimension is to limit the scope of the study. Therefore, this dimension can be substituted for a government body that has the authority or potential authority to make and implement foreign policy. In addition, the ACF assumes a central role for technical and scientific information in the policy process. Such information makes learning across coalitions more conducive, but the ACF can and should also be applied to normative issues, such as those more common among foreign policy research. This article introduces the ACF; provides an overview of the framework, including assumptions, key concepts and theories, and transferability of the ACF to foreign policy analysis; and discusses four exemplary applications. In addition, it proposes future research that scholars should explore as part of the nexus of the ACF and foreign policy analysis. In the final analysis, the authors suggest the ACF can and should be applied to foreign policy analysis to better understand the development of advocacy coalitions and how they influence changes and stasis in foreign policy.

The role of super interest groups in public policy diffusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-541
Author(s):  
Stephanie L. DeMora ◽  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Adriana Ninci
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Advocacy Coalition Framework ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Advocacy Coalition

In recent years scholarship has drawn attention to the role of large multi-issue interest groups in policy networks and in public policy diffusion. This paper develops this field of study by demonstrating empirically the leverage of the ‘sustained organisational influence’ theory of policy diffusion. Specifically, it focuses on the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in diffusing the Stand Your Ground policy across US state legislatures. By comparing ALEC’s template policy to bills introduced and legislation subsequently enacted within state legislatures, we demonstrate that ALEC has positioned itself as a ‘super interest group’, exerting sustained organisational influence across an expanding number of states. In doing so, this paper moves theory beyond the typical advocacy coalition framework that implicitly assumes policymaking occurs discretely among specialists on an issue-by-issue basis. It also highlights the democratic implications of the role of super interest groups in shaping policy behind the scenes.

American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory

1964 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore J. Lowi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
American Business ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Single Well ◽  
Recent Addition ◽  
The Rich

Case-Studies of the policy-making process constitute one of the more important methods of political science analysis. Beginning with Schattschneider, Herring, and others in the 1930's, case-studies have been conducted on a great variety of decisions. They have varied in subject-matter and format, in scope and rigor, but they form a distinguishable body of literature which continues to grow year by year. The most recent addition, a book-length study by Raymond Bauer and his associates, stands with Robert A. Dahl's prize-winning Who Governs? (New Haven 1961) as the best yet to appear. With its publication a new level of sophistication has been reached. The standards of research its authors have set will indeed be difficult to uphold in the future. American Business and Public Policy is an analysis of political relationships within the context of a single, well-defined issue—foreign trade. It is an analysis of business attitudes, strategies, communications and, through these, business relationships in politics. The analysis makes use of the best behavioral research techniques without losing sight of the rich context of policies, traditions, and institutions. Thus, it does not, in Dahl's words, exchange relevance for rigor; rather it is standing proof that the two—relevance and rigor—are not mutually exclusive goals.

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