Arenas as Institutional Sites for Policymaking: Patterns and Effects in Comparative Perspective

In comparative approaches to the policy process, policymaking institutions are usually considered at the level of political systems. Countries, however, may vary not only in systemic institutions but also in types of policymaking arenas within specific domains. Systematic attention to this variation in policy arenas at both levels may complement existing theories of the policy process that focus on other explanatory variables and may increase the comparative potential of these approaches. As an explanatory variable, arena variation makes a difference to policy results in that it may increase or decrease the potential for policy change sought by policy entrepreneurs.     

The Australian Public Service and Policy Advising: Meeting the Challenges of 21st Century Governance

This concluding article summarises the case study findings comprising the Special Issue on ‘Advising Australian Federal Governments: Assessing the Evolving Capacity and Role of the Australian Public Service’, identifies and discusses cross‐cutting issues, and considers strategic implications for future practice and research. It reviews key findings from six case studies – Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Intergovernmental Relations, Housing, the BER Stimulus program, and Defence – and assesses the policy advising capacity of the Australian Public Service, with a focus on the policy‐political interface between governments and officials. Putting recent experience in historical context, it considers the performance of the Commonwealth's policy advisory system, the impact of prime ministers and centralisation, the link between advising and analytic capacities, the system's resilience and readiness, whether recent dissatisfaction over APS advising reflect lack of capacity or a culture clash, and the responsibility for ensuring high‐quality policy advice. It recommends developing a more systematic approach to assessing policy advising capability, building on recent APS reforms.     

Winnowing in Environmental Policy: Jurisdictional Challenges and Opportunities

While scholars developed an understanding of the processes moving issues from the systemic to the institutional agenda, we know little about the inner workings of the institutional agenda. Winnowing theory addresses this gap by examining the leadership, bill sponsor, and contextual factors helping bills move through the institutional agenda. By expanding winnowing theory to incorporate a fragmented policy domain, the environment, we find that multiple referral status actually helps a bill's chances of receiving attention and passing through the committee.     

Policy Transfer of Branding and Reputation Management: Motivations,Challenges, and Opportunities for a Small Rural Municipality

Abstract

This paper seeks to convey a broader understanding of policy transfers between different sectors, focusing on transfers from the for-profit sector to local government. Specifically, we study the reasoning in a transfer process of branding and reputation management policy. Our case is a rural Norwegian municipality struggling to combat depopulation. This study is longitudinal. We discover that some original program elements cannot easily be transferred to the democratic context of local government. The transfer involves both interpretations and adjustments of the policy because of municipal institutional characteristics and values. The success of transfer depends here on the ability to balance the original policy with practices widely valued within the new setting.     

合同制治理:城市治理面临的机遇与挑战

由新公共管理运动引发的政府治理方式的重要变革之一,是政府的公共政策和公共行政将越来越依靠合同推进.合同制治理为城市治理带来了机遇:即合同制治理可以提升城市政府管理效率,合同制治理可以带来经济利益和潜在社会收益.在合同制治理框架下我国城市治理也面临着挑战:即在合作方式选择阶段的效率与公共性的考量,在合同设计、谈判阶段的委托-代理与信息不完全,在合同执行、监管阶段的政治风险与法律责任等问题.因此,加强城市政府合同制治理能力建设重在:确保市场主体的充分竞争,创造公平的竞争环境;设立独立的合同执行与监管机构,提高政府合同管理能力;完善相应法律制度,维护合作双方利益.     

“Conservation” as a Catalyst for Conflict: Considering Stakeholder Understanding in Policy Making

Stakeholder negotiation processes are increasingly used in environmental management, but are often difficult due to values differences among stakeholders. These values can be reflected in the language used by stakeholders, which may lead to conflict in negotiation processes. This study investigated whether there are widespread differences among Colorado water stakeholders in how they define the term “conservation,” a key value and policy term, and whether this leads to conflict in negotiations. Using multiple methods in a cross‐sectional case study, use of the term and possible policy implications were analyzed. Stakeholder respondents in this study who had experienced difficulty in water negotiations also perceived a higher degree of miscommunication in their negotiations. The most important finding presented here suggests that clarity of language and transparent discussion of key value‐representative terms may aid in stakeholder negotiations, and that minority stakeholders may be more aware of values and language differences than their majority counterparts.     

Governance in the Post‐Soviet Era: Challenges and Opportunities

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union's demise, the countries formerly comprising it embarked on massive reforms to transition from socialist to market‐driven economies. This transition also required substantial transformation of their governance systems. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors reflect on critical reforms in human resource management, ethics management, and anti‐corruption, and highlight successful initiatives in these fields. They also discuss the role of the Astana Civil Service Hub in helping the countries in the region to jointly look for solutions to common governance challenges and to learn from policies and strategies that proved effective for their peers. The authors conclude by identifying the common elements of effective public administration reforms in the post‐Soviet setting.     

Engaging in Small Talk: Nanotechnology Policy and Dialogue Processes in the UK and Australia

This article discusses the phenomena of nanotechnology, and notes that despite high investment levels for global research and development, the public presently understands neither the implications of this emerging technology nor how it might be best governed. It considers the notion of the public interest and its place in the public policy cycle, and notes some of the specific challenges posed by this new technology. Adopting a comparative jurisdictional approach, this article maps a range of policy and dialogue activities currently underway within the United Kingdom and Australia and concludes that policy dialogue is an essential component of public policy development for all emerging technologies. While the Australian government is currently beginning this process, compared to countries such as the United Kingdom, such efforts here are still embryonic. A fuller engagement in wide‐ranging public debate is suggested as a part of protecting the public interest.     

Demystifying Internet Neutrality in South Korea with Stakeholder Analysis

This study examines the Internet neutrality issue in Korea by analyzing the debates among the stakeholders. It addresses the dynamic discussions of the issues by identifying how diverse groups of stakeholders are affected by various actions taken by the emergence of Internet neutrality. It presents a statistical analysis that reveals the factors implicated in the Internet neutrality debate and significant differences among individuals on opposing sides in the debate. The findings reveal insights into the connection between specific factors and positions in the Internet neutrality debate. The findings show that the issue of Internet neutrality is complex and as multifaceted as the parties' diverse interests. It concludes by proposing an effective model to govern Internet neutrality in Korea, based on the typology proposed by Strover.     

The Decline of Traditional State Dirigisme in France: The Transformation of Political Economic Policies and Policymaking Processes

During the Mitterrand years, successive governments' policies of deregulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of many of its traditional interventionist instruments. As a result of this, as well as of the internationalization of world trade and the economic integration of Europe, French business has become more independent of the state as well as more interdependent. With these changes in both business and government have come a concomitant transformation in French policymaking processes, such that the traditionally heroic government policies formulated absent business input have been succeeded by more everyday ones, where business for the most part leads and government follows.     

Strategic Thinking,Shared Meaning‐Making and the Interpretive Turn in Policy ‐ A Case Study

Governments' demands for results in a complex and rapidly changing policy environment call for more strategic and nuanced ways of approaching policy. Drawing on the work of the British interpretive ‘turn’, evidenced in the network governance literature and the differentiated polity critique of Westminster narratives, and of Liedkta on strategy as design, this paper suggests that shared strategic narratives, more consciously applied to policy development and implementation, could deliver better results; that consensus from shared meaning‐making may have depth, and that it could emphasise the transformative over the conservative forces of individuals' traditions and beliefs. Data for the paper came from a micro‐study on the implementation of SmartGate automated border processing system in New Zealand.     

The Use of Statebuilding Research in Fragile Contexts: Evidence from British Policymaking in Afghanistan,Nepal and Sierra Leone

Statebuilding has risen to the forefront of international donor policies toward the security and development of fragile states, with governments now investing millions in statebuilding research every year. However, no serious study has examined the ways in which research influences policy in fragile states. Based on in-depth interviews with officials and researchers, this article begins to shed light on the central dynamics pertaining to research use in such contexts by exploring in some detail the experience of British in-country policymakers in three countries—Afghanistan, Nepal and Sierra Leone. The picture that emerges is a mixed one, with evidence of extensive use of different forms of research combined with worrying practices and lingering deficiencies in some key areas.     

Dilemmas of Policy Innovation in the Public Sector: A Case Study of the National Innovation Summit

Policy innovation is a significant challenge for the public sector. This article illustrates its magnitude through a case study of the National Innovation Summit. The article concludes that the Summit represented an elaborate process of search and engagement that sanctioned an outcome that was, in most respects, largely pre‐determined. Its outreach and deliberations served the political purpose of mobilising industry and media attention and communicating the government's commitment. But there is no evidence that it exercised any substantive influence on policy development. The obstacles confounding any other outcome are considerable. Strategic thinking is inhibited by various organisational factors including lock‐in to a present successful strategy, the constraints on policy choices associated with multiple veto points and the need to maintain medium term fiscal and policy discipline across a wide range of agencies and claimants. The article explores ways these inhibitions might be overcome.     

无领导小组讨论的设计程序与原则

无领导小组讨论是评价中心的重要组成部分,其有效性直接影响评价中心整体的信度和效度.影响无领导小组讨论有效性的因素中,设计过程是一个被忽视的问题,而很多人对于如何设计无领导小组讨论也是心中无底.本文结合我们设计评价中心的过程,重点对无领导小组讨论的选题原则、设计过程、设计要点、注意事项等进行了分析和说明,试图为理论和实际工作者提供一点参考.     

Assessing Policy Design and Interpretation: An Institutions‐Based Analysis in the Context of Aquaculture in Florida and Virginia,United States

Recently in the field of policy studies, there has been a renewed interest in research that connects policy design with broader governance outcomes. As opposed to past studies of policy design that have characterized policies along broad categories of variables, however, recent studies have sought to systematically assess the language of public policies and resultant outcomes. This paper contributes to the existing and emerging literature on policy design by coupling a content analysis of polices governing the aquaculture industry in two U.S. states and interviews with aquaculture community members to understand policy design and perceptions of policy legitimacy, coerciveness, and enforcement.     

Changing the Tobacco Use Management System: Blending Systems Thinking with Actor–Network Theory

Managing “wicked” issues like the tobacco epidemic is addressed using a combination of Open Systems Thinking (OST) and Actor–Network Theory (ANT). OST was used to construct a model of the tobacco problem as a management system acting in a broader environment. This highlighted several problems with the current system but provided no mechanism for reform. ANT, the “sociology of translation,” was used for understanding how change occurs. Unlike systems thinking, ANT focuses the contest for change on heterogeneous networks of human and nonhuman actors that must be constructed through a process of defining and defending models of change, building alliances, gaining public acceptance, and finally achieving institutional acceptance of the reform (or of some compromise). We then show how this dual approach can shed light on a current challenge in controlling tobacco, the issue of product regulation, and the broader issue of harm reduction versus harm elimination.     

The Four Predicaments of American Liberalism: Challenges and Opportunities in a Presidential Election Year

The presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have indicated an apparent resurgence in American liberalism. More significantly, they have underlined both the highly problematic nature of the liberal legacy within the Democratic Party and the difficulties of mobilising liberal themes in the battle of ideas that characterises the conduct of politics in the United States. The article examines the difficulty of the issue by reference to four predicaments that persistently condition the status and deployment of liberal themes. In analysing the problems of strategy, historical narrative, political positioning and ideational engagement, the study analyses the negative connotations of contemporary liberalism, the multiple limitations of liberal reform, and liberalism's deficiencies in the politics of America's core ideas. A revived liberal prospectus will depend upon the ingenuity of liberal forces in challenging the conservative ascendancy in ideational competition, and in renegotiating a public settlement of their own with the central strands of political legitimacy.     

Thinking Strategically in Federal Policy: Defining the Attributes of High‐level Policies

Governments frequently develop policies that are strategic in nature. Strategic issues at the national level are those requiring long timeframes for impact, coordinated approaches across multiple tiers of government, are cross‐sectoral, and require systemic approaches to design and implementation. Yet the process of how national strategic polices are developed and implemented in Australia is unclear, and largely unattended in the literature. This paper provides a foundation to understanding the characteristics of strategic polices and approaches to their development. Five national policies are compared (National Competition Policy, National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, the Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure, Australia in the Asian Century, and the National Food Plan) and discussed. An analytical framework is constructed and key attributes of strategic policy identified.