Symposium: public policy and organization termination

This symposium has three objectives: first, to define the terminology of policy and organization termination and provide a review of literature that will identify current theories and frameworks of termination; second, to publish new studies that test and evaluate the usefulness of these theories and frameworks; and third, to encourage further testing and study of theories and frameworks that have proven so far to be useful in explaining termination.     

Organization theory as ideological battleground in the year 2000

Organization theorists have always been divided among departments of political science, public administration, business, and so on, but they have traditionally shared a common acceptance of the natural science model as the vehicle for building new knowledge. The growth of nontraditional approaches to organization theory has led to conflict between mainstream and dissenting theorists on two levels: First, is the choice of topics to be studied a value-neutral decision, or is it a subtle way of promoting a traditional ideological agenda? Second, is the scientific method itself a vehicle for subtly introducing a bias into organization theory scholarship? The gap between mainstream and nontraditional scholars is wide and becoming wider; sadly, the prospects are bleak for a synthesis of these two approaches.     

British Steel And Government Since Privatization: Policy 'Framing' and the Transformation of Policy Networks

Privatization has its own distinctive dynamics, resulting particularly from the institutional restructuring which tends to transform policy networks and communities. This happens principally for two reasons. Firstly, the crucial balance of resource dependencies is changed irrevocably, and established policy communities break down. Secondly, the separation between the principal actors tends to produce a 're-framing' of major policy issues. Here, Schön and Rein's (1994) concept of issue 'framing' offers a useful metaphor for how actors give a coherent organization to a complex reality by selecting for attention a few salient features. At the same time, they argue also that the nature of 'objective' reality might be found in the world's tendency to resist our interpretations, leading to a discovery of the limitations of particular frames. The case of British Steel offers a good example of the dynamics of this process. In the days of state ownership, the British Steel Corporation and government generally shared similar 'frames' on major issues. Since privatization, however, the two actors have tended to adopt separate 'frames' and have become more independent of each other. Multi-arena politics, such as Europeanization, can drive them still further apart. Nevertheless, in recent years British Steel has come to appreciate some of the limitations of its own frame, and has sought to reconstruct its relationship with government. There is an imbalance in the resource dependencies, however, which precludes the reconstruction of a policy community     

Anti-Doping Policy in Sport: The Politics of International Policy Co-ordination

The characteristics and functioning of international policy processes are examined through the analysis of a case which explores the development of policy towards doping by athletes. Changes are traced in the dominant perception of the issue of doping in sport from a series of relatively self-contained problems which could be addressed by individual sports federations or competition organizers to one that requires extensive co-operation between federations and governments, and which has brought the issue of harmonization of policy to the forefront. The interests of the policy actors are identified and the role of two key organizations, the Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee, in facilitating closer co-ordination, is examined. It is argued that the process is best understood by using the concept of a policy network as both a metaphor and as an analytical tool. The value of the concept of an epistemic community is also considered and it is suggested that not only are doctors and scientists marginal in shaping anti-doping policy, but that there are also limited conditions under which epistemic communities can fulfil an effective role in the policy process.     

The organizational dimension of budgetary forecasting: Suggestions from revenue forecasting in the states

Officials in the fifty states were asked about: (a) practices and developments in the forecasting of revenues, (b) their perceptions of improvements in forecast accuracy, and (c) perceived improvements in the knowledge which specialists and elected officials have about the economies of their states. Findings suggest that explicit attention should be given to the organizational dimensions of forecasting and not merely to its technical aspects. Organizational processes which promote effective interaction and questioning of underlying assumptions seem to be related to both forecast accuracy and improved knowledge. These processes raise important questions about the relationships between career specialists and elected officials in organizing to think about the future.     

The adequacy of income: A social dimension in economic development

The adequacy of income of a household may be defined as the ratio of its income to the income level required to achieve the conventional standard of living in the socio‐economic group to which the household belongs. This concept has greater relevance than that of income for the study of consumer behaviour (e.g. propensity to save) and other social behaviour and pathologies. Income and need for income in a country do not necessarily rise proportionately over time, thus resulting in periods of declining, as well as periods of rising, income adequacy. Furthermore, in spite of the international demonstration effect, the need for income in developing countries is significantly lower than in developed countries resulting in a much smaller gap between income adequacies than between incomes.     

Networks in the Policy Process: An International Perspective

Abstract

This article (and more broadly this special issue) indicate that various types of policy networks, including governance networks, social networks, proto‐networks, and issue networks are defining the way that policy processes take place in various parts of the world. By focusing on network behavior in Africa, eastern Europe, and Denmark, it is clear that interorganizational cohesion, accesibility, trust generation, and “framing” issues are central to understanding network policy outcomes. Important implications regarding links between network characteristics and democracy are also suggested.     

Modules for modernisation: Colonial irrigation in India and the technological dimension of agrarian change

‘Water control’ is central to the political economy of water distribution in large‐scale irrigation in India. The changes in water distribution, irrigation technology, and agrarian development ‐through the introduction of the ‘block system’, technical devices called ‘modules’ and volumetric water pricing ‐ in the Nira Left Bank Canal (Bombay Presidency) in the period 1900–40, are discussed to show the relationship of the three dimensions of water control: technical, managerial and socio‐political. This analysis points to the crucial, but contradictory role of the state in triggering processes of agricultural modernisation through intervention in water management. The debate on the ‘success’ of the block system continues to the present day, but little progress has been made in designing solutions for inequality in water distribution. The article suggests that liberalisation policies create political and institutional space for changing accountability relations, and agricultural price regimes relevant to water management problems. It also argues that social scientists criticising present irrigation practices should position themselves within the engineering domain and try to ‘socialise’ the technical bias of the engineering establishment.     

Policy analysis: The undisciplined discipline

Policy analysis is an amorphous, multi-disciplinary, adademic pursuit in search of a professional focus. This discussion surveys the parameters of this pursuit and outlines the basic ingredients of a professional perspective. Argument is made for a multi-faceted, yet integrative approach which appreciates both the rational and trans-rational elements of public policy and which is anchored in a mixture of technical expertise and public regardedness.     

Policy Networks and Policy Learning UK Economic Policy in the 1960s and 1970s

Policy networks are advanced as an alternative to the Westminster model of the UK polity but the theory lacks an internal dynamic and has typological problems. This article applies Peter Hall's (1993) concept of 'social learning' to policy networks and maps the networks found in two case studies of British economic policy making: Hall's own study of the shift from Keynesianism to monetarism in the 1970s and the author's research on the advent of 'Keynesian-plus' in the early 1960s. The article advances three main propositions. Firstly, that integrating the concept of social learning can dynamize the policy network model. Secondly, the case studies suggest that different network configurations are associated with different orders of policy change but that Hall's definition of 'third order change' may be too restrictive. Thirdly, policy networks can be much more complex and fluid then is generally claimed, sometimes becoming so extensive that they might be termed a 'meta-network'.     

When Enlargement Meets Common Foreign and Security Policy: Serbia's Europeanisation,Visa Liberalisation and the Kosovo Policy

During the process of visa liberalisation Serbia made significant and unexpected adjustments in its Kosovo policy, which demonstrate the European Union's leverage. Serbia's compliance on Kosovo cannot be explained either by rational institutionalism, which accounts for domestic change based on cost–benefit calculations, or sociological institutionalism, which predicts domestic adaptation based on convergence of norms and identities. Applying discursive institutionalism, this empirical study of Serbia's Europeanisation identifies discursive denial as a strategy of the Serbian elite in pursuing costly policy implementation. It contributes a novel perspective on ‘shallow’ Europeanisation by highlighting a lack of discursive reinforcement of adopted rules.