Basis for policy formulation: Systematic policy analysis or intuitive policy decision?

This last chapter deals with the toolbox that central banks use to design and implement their monetary policy strategy. Central banks develop various types of model, both for forecasting and for policy analysis. The chapter discusses the main characteristics of the models used, their strengths and limitations. It assesses how dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are used for monetary policy analysis. Examples are provided on how they contribute to explore fundamental, long-term policy issues specific to LFDCs. The chapter also discusses the contribution of small semi-structural models which, though less strongly theory grounded than DSGE models, can be brought closer to the available data and are therefore possibly better suited to the context of LFDCs. Attention is also drawn to the key role of judgement as the indispensable complement, in monetary policy decision-making, to model-based policy analysis.

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Coalition Politics and Foreign Policy

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.396 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Sibel Oktay

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

International Relations ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

Comparative Politics ◽

Domestic Politics ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Democratic Peace ◽

Foreign Policy Analysis ◽

Institutional Factor ◽

Coalition Governments

Coalition governments are observed frequently in parliamentary systems. Approximately 70% of all governments in postwar Europe have been one type of coalition or another. Israel has never been ruled by a single-party government in its history. Recently, majoritarian systems like Britain produced coalitions, taking many by surprise. The prominence of coalitions in parliamentary democracies compels researchers to study them more closely. The Comparative Politics literature investigates, in particular, the dynamics of coalition formation and termination, as well as the domestic policy outputs of coalitions, especially compared to governments ruled by a single party. Coalitions have generated interest on the International Relations front as well. One avenue of research transcends the “political party” as a building block and conceptualizes coalitions as a “decision unit” by focusing on the group of veto players in a regime’s foreign policy apparatus. Another line of scholarship, situated in the “Democratic Peace” framework, looks at coalitions as a domestic-institutional factor to observe their effects on the likelihood of international conflict. Departing from the “Democratic Peace” tradition, more recent research in Foreign Policy Analysis rejuvenates the study of coalitions in international politics. This literature not only encourages theory development by scrutinizing why coalitions behave differently than single-parties in the international arena but also bridges the gap between International Relations and Comparative Politics. Emphasizing the organic relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy, foreign policy researchers dissect coalition governments to highlight the role political parties play on foreign policy formulation and implementation. This literature also illustrates the merits of methodological plurality in studying foreign policy. Using a combination of comparative case studies, process tracing, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and regression modeling, it sheds light not only on the broader trends that characterize coalition foreign policy but also on the causal mechanisms and contextual factors which often go unaccounted for in purely statistical analyses. The recent advances in role and image theories in Foreign Policy Analysis are expected to influence the study of coalitions and their foreign policies, offering an interpretivist take alongside this positivist trajectory.

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Processo Decisório e Política Externa nos Pequenos Estados da Periferia: Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau | Decision-Making Process and Foreign Policy in Small Peripheral States: Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau

Mural Internacional ◽

10.12957/rmi.2016.29990 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 167-185

Author(s):

Timóteo Saba M'bunde

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

International System ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Cape Verde ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Foreign Policy Analysis ◽

Cabo Verde ◽

Guinea Bissau

O texto questiona as perspectivas mais conservadoras do campo de Análise de Política Externa (APE), as quais se subsidiam de pressupostos teóricos do realismo para refutar a validade do uso de APE e processo decisório, como ferramentas cabíveis a estudar a política externa dos Estados da periferia do sistema internacional. O texto busca identificar o processo decisório de política externa em Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau e apresentar pistas pelas quais é possível lançar mão de APE para estudar a política externa desses dois países luso-africanos. O trabalho também apresenta alguns aspectos dos modelos políticos e constitucionais de Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau e a influência que os respectivos contextos políticos exercem sobre a formulação de política externa, caracterizando o tipo de processo decisório que tende a se predominar em cada um dos dois contextos.ABSTRACTThe paper question the most conservatives outlook of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) field, that subsidize from theoretical realism assumptions to refute the validity of the use of FPA and decision-making process as appropriate tools to study the foreign policy of international system peripheral states. The paper seeks to identify the decision-making process of foreign policy in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau and provides clues by which it’s possible to make use of FPA to study and understand the foreign policy of both luso-africans countries. The work also presents some aspects of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde political and constitutional models and the influence that the respective political contexts have on foreign policy formulation, characterizing the kind of decision-making that tends to predominate in each of the two contexts.Palavras-chave: processo decisório; política externa; Estados da periferia.Keywords: decision-making; foreign policy; peripheral States.Recebido em 14 de Agosto de 2017 | Aceito em 29 de Novembro de 2017.Received on August 14, 2017 | Accepted on November 29, 2017. DOI: 10.12957/rmi.2016.29990

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Advancing foreign policy analysis by studying leaders from the global South

International Affairs ◽

10.1093/ia/iiaa219 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 97 (2) ◽

pp. 405-421

Author(s):

Klaus Brummer

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

Speech Acts ◽

English Language ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Global South ◽

Context Sensitivity ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Foreign Policy Analysis ◽

Individual Decision

Abstract Using the concept of ‘context sensitivity’ as organizing theme, this article explores different avenues of advancing foreign policy analysis (FPA) scholarship based on insights from the global South. Since foreign policy decision-makers in the global South operate in (at times very) different political environments than their western counterparts, the applicability of FPA approaches cannot be taken as a given, which is why their context sensitivity (i.e., the extent to which core concepts and indicators contained in those approaches travel to non-western settings) needs to be explored. This article suggests that our understanding of the motives and behaviours of individual decision-makers can be advanced in three distinct ways based on insights from the global South. First, several of the FPA constructs that focus on individual decision makers have seen hardly any applications to non-western cases, which is why the latter contributes to ascertaining the analytical scope of those constructs. Second, taking more fully into account the differences in decision-making environments within which leaders from the global South operate can advance leader-oriented FPA approaches by helping to specify certain theoretical assumptions proposed by them. Finally, the aspiration to analyse leaders from the global South can advance FPA in terms of method by, for instance, developing non-English language coding schemes for profiling leaders based on speech acts that are cognizant of the specificities of individual languages, while at the same time allowing for measurement equivalence across different languages.

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Policy analysis in the education sector in Colombia

Policy Analysis in Colombia ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447347712.003.0010 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 153-168

Author(s):

Sandra García ◽

Darío Maldonado ◽

Sarah Muñoz-Cadena

Keyword(s):

Policy Analysis ◽

National Level ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Education Sector ◽

Direct Impact ◽

Public School Teachers ◽

Training Compensation ◽

Teacher Policy

This chapter presents a detailed case study of policies governing the hiring, training, compensation, and evaluation of schoolteachers. It traces reforms over a period of two decades and identifies key actors and competing decision criteria at each stage of the policy process. It also looks at teacher policy to illustrate the practice of policy analysis in education policy in Colombia at the national level after the 1990s reforms. The chapter uses reform in policies regarding public school teachers as a case to analyse the process of policy formulation and implementation in the education sector in Colombia. It defines several issues that have a direct impact on the quality of primary and secondary education.

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Translating Science into Policy and Legislation

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190497620.013.27 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jason Gallo

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Decision Support ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Social Economic ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Constructivist Approach ◽

Differential Outcomes ◽

Heterogeneous Variables

Evidence-informed policy is a deliberate process that features analysis of evidence as a necessary step to reaching a public policy decision. Risk is inherent in policy decisions, and decision-makers must often balance consideration of costs; social, economic, and environmental impacts; differential outcomes for various stakeholders; and political considerations. Policymakers rely on evidence to help reduce uncertainty and mitigate these risks. This chapter considers the policymaking process as infrastructure and takes a constructivist approach to the development of evidence. It highlights the reflexivity between the demand for, and supply of, evidence and issues of power, authority, expertise, and inclusion. Finally, the chapter addresses the challenges of applying evidence to complex problems where multiple, heterogeneous variables affect outcomes and concludes with a call for further research to examine the decisions, values, and norms embedded in the design and development of the technical architectures and processes used in policy analysis and decision support.

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Deliberative Policy Analysis

The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198747369.013.39 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 583-594

Author(s):

Frank Fischer ◽

Piyapong Boossabong

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Decision Making ◽

Policy Analysis ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Practical Method ◽

Theoretical Perspectives ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Decision Making ◽

Policy Problems

Deliberative policy analysis has its origins in the argumentative turn in policy analysis. It emerged as an alternative to the use of standard empirical-analytic methods of the social sciences to solve public policy problems. Not only has the conventional neopositivist approach failed to produce the promised results, it has generally operated with a technocratic, and largely an anti-democratic, bias. Basic to deliberative policy analysis is a method for bringing together a wider spectrum of citizens, politician and experts in the pursuit of policy decisions that are both effective and democratically legitimate. This chapter begins with an outline of the theoretical perspectives underlying deliberative policy analysis. Then, the process and practice is illustrated by the case study, which shows how the approach has moved from a theory to a practical method for policy decision-making.

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Retrospective Policy Analysis of Tobacco Prevention and Control in Ethiopia

Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences ◽

10.4314/ejhs.v30i3.14 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Teshome Tesfaye Habebo ◽

Amirhossein Takian

Keyword(s):

Policy Analysis ◽

Tobacco Control ◽

Policy Process ◽

Tobacco Consumption ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Tobacco Prevention ◽

Prevention Policy ◽

Hand Search ◽

Leading Role ◽

And Control

BACKGROUND: The trend of non-communicable diseases is alarmingly increasing and tobacco consumption and exposure to its smoke have been playing the leading role. Thirty-seven Ethiopians deaths per day are attributable to tobacco. Unless appropriately mitigated, this has social, economic and political impacts. Implementation of the appropriate policy is a good remedy; however, the policy process has never been straight forward and always successful. The involvement of different actors makes policy process complex hence agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluations have been full of chaos and even may fail at any of these levels. Thus the aim of this review was retrospectively analyzing tobacco-related policies in Ethiopia that are relevant to control tobacco use and mitigate its impacts.METHODS: Systematically, we searched in pub-med, Scopus, Web of Science and Embase. Additionally, we did hand search on Google scholar and national websites. The terms "tobacco","cigar", "cigarette", "control", "prevention", "policy" and"Ethiopia" were used. Eleven of 128 records met the inclusion criteria and then included. For data analysis, we applied the health policy analysis framework developed by Walt and Gilson.RESULT: Lately, Ethiopia enacted and started to implement tobacco control policies and programs, but its implementation is problematic and consumption rate is increasing.CONCLUSION: Despite the early involvement in tobacco control initiatives and enactment of legal frameworks, Ethiopia's journey and current stand to prevent and control the devastating consequences of tobacco is very limited and unsatisfactory. Therefore, we strongly call for further action, strong involvement of private sector and non-governmental organizations.

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The Burden of Motherhood: An Assessment of Government Policy Towards Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Working Mothers in Nigeria

Religación. Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ◽

10.46652/rgn.v6i28.790 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (28) ◽

pp. 183-194

Author(s):

Linda Nwaodu

Keyword(s):

Policy Analysis ◽

Exclusive Breastfeeding ◽

Working Mothers ◽

National Policy ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

World Health ◽

Child Feeding ◽

Young Child Feeding ◽

Infant And Young Child ◽

The Impact

Nigeria has witnessed a rapid increase in female labour participation such that it risks a decline in exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate – despite the World Health Organization’s and government’s endorsement of EBF. EBF is a beneficial process of feeding an infant with breast milk only during the first six months. This study aims to assess the extent to which the Nigerian policy addresses the barriers and contributes to improved EBF rates among working mothers in Nigeria. It takes a qualitative approach – policy analysis. The policy analysis critically evaluated the content of the National Policy on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Nigeria (2010) and the Labour Act (2004). The policy documents addressed these barriers to an extent. However, they showed minimal coherence. There are still policy gaps and disparity between the policies and their implementation – attributable to inadequate clarity and insufficient mechanism to spur policy compliance. Therefore, nutritionists should be engaged in such nutrition-specific policy formulation. Further research to measure the impact of this recommendation is encouraged.

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Pakistan’s Monetary Policy: Some Fundamental Issues

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v56i1pp.31-58 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 31-58 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zafar Hayat

Keyword(s):

Monetary Policy ◽

Conflicts Of Interest ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Central Banking ◽

Jel Classification ◽

Price Stability ◽

Inflation Expectations ◽

Academic Qualification ◽

Institutional Capacity Building

Over the last three decades, the landmark transformation of central banks from secrecy to openness and transparency has significantly enhanced their performance to successfully anchor inflation expectations and achieve price stability. The extent of such a transformation of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), especially in terms of statutory objectives, monetary policy mandate, conflicts of interest, disclosures, and dissemination of effective public economic information is assessed vis-à-vis the current popular central banking practices. The assessment indicates that the SBP is yet to be transformed to be able to achieve price stability which is a cornerstone for the achievement of sustainable economic growth. On the statutory front, such a transformation requires amending the SBP Act 1956, in line with the statutes for the best monetary policy frameworks by; (1) making price stability as the overriding objective of the SBP; (2) putting in place a clear mechanism for its accountability against price stability, consistent inflation targets, and; (3) elimination of the cushion for government‘s involvement with the monetary policy decision making processes. Some of the other areas like, institutional capacity building of the SBP, in terms of the relevance and level of the academic qualification, research profiles, and experiences of the Board, higher as well as lower tier management need special attention. Such transformations may not only enhance assimilation, creation, sharing, and funnelling of existing as well as new knowledge into monetary policy formulation, but may help change the static mindset at the SBP, hence allowing the institution to flourish. JEL Classification: E5, E52, E58 Keywords: Statutory Objectives, Conflicts of Interest, Disclosures, SBP

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