Contextual meanings in policy discourse: A case study of language use concerning resource policy in the New Zealand high country

Variation in the meaning and use of the term landscape by different decision makers and decision influencers in the New Zealand high country is analysed in relation to the way they describe a resource policy issue. The case study is based upon documentary sources and oral accounts of the role that trees might play in high country land use. Links between language use and interest are identified and explored, and some consequential implications discussed.     

Citizen participation and judgment in policy analysis: A case study of urban air quality policy

The emphasis currently placed on citizen participation in planning results in part from the recognition that planning requires judgments that have both value and technical components. This article describes a case study of a citizen participation process in which planners' judgments, rather than the judgments of the members of a citizens' task force, seemed to dictate the outcome. Although citizens were supposed to be influential in the policy analysis, they were, in effect, excluded from a meaningful role in the process. The analysis was actually guided by planners' supposedly technical judgments. Those judgments had important value implications, however, and those implications were not made clear to the citizens' task force. Examples are given of judgments made by planners at each stage of the analysis and the value components of those judgments are discussed. In each example, the judgments resulted in elimination of alternatives, selection of information, or integration of information. Two examples of methods of citizen participation which can increase the influence of citizens' judgments are also described.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

The potential for industrial policy: Lessons from the very high speed integrated circuit program

A Pentagon program to advance semiconductor technology offers some important empirical evidence for the national debate over industrial policy. While not an explicit attempt at promoting international competitiveness, the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) program does contain a whole series of industrial policy-like features, including joint government-industry planning, widespread industry participation, and multifirm collaboration. These striking features cannot be attributed solely to VHSIC's affiliation with the military. Instead, the sources of the program's industrial policy characteristics are to be found in the nature of the technologies selected for development, the incorporation of private sector advice, the mitigation of threats to proprietary interests, avoidance of redistributional issues, and the utilization of industry competition and networks of communication-all factors directly relevant to industrial policymaking generally.     

The application of venture analysis to public policy decisions: A case study of photovoltaics

Venture analysis is a group of analytical techniques normally used by the private sector to assist in major capital decisions. The approach can be applied to public policy decisions in those cases where changing private sector investment decisions are the central focus. A case study concerning a temporary subsidy to an emerging energy technology is reviewed. Major strengths of the approach are its use of numerous data- and opinion-gathering techniques and its explicit treatment of market and supply uncertainties. The major weakness is its lack of ability to handle those social costs and benefits for which no market exists. Implications for other policy studies are also presented.     

Local government,industrial policy and social consensus: the case of Modena (Italy)

The ‘Emilian model’ has become well known as a case of rapid economic growth based on small firms concentrated in ‘industrial districts’. This paper gives a detailed account of three local industrial policy initiatives adopted in Modena, one of the provinces of Emilia-Romagna in which the features of the model appear clearest. The policy of industrial parks was intended to make land available to firms for their orderly development; the loan guarantee consortium aimed to secure special financing for small firms; and the creation of ‘real service centres’ was directed towards supplying information on technology and markets to industrial districts specializing in particular sectors. In addition to describing these interventions, the paper also seeks to demonstrate that a climate of social consensus and strong credibility on the part of local government are necessary prerequisites for the success of local industrial policies.     

A new environment for public policy: Japanese manufacturing in Europe

During the late 1950s and early 1960s the growth of foreign direct investment, mainly by American firms, emerged as a political issue in Europe, and policies were devised to maximise the benefits and minimise the disadvantages which resulted from this process. Later, Japanese companies, with a vested interest in retaining markets in Europe and consolidating productive advantages worldwide became increasingly influential as a source of inward investment in manufacturing. As a consequence of this later trend the European Commission and individual countries in Europe have become increasingly concerned with the range of multilateral and bilateral issues which emerge from this development, its influence upon the formulation of industrial policy, and the wider issue of competitiveness.     

Feminist comparative policy: A new field of study

Abstract. This article presents feminist comparative policy (FCP) as a new field of study. It argues that FCP scholars have successfully developed a distinct approach to doing political research and a significant scientific community which follows this approach. In doing so, FCP scholars, particularly since the early 1990s, have moved this area of study into a new stage of institutionalization and influence. These achievements are documented in a discussion of first, the development and major features of the FCP approach and second, the individuals and research infrastructure that comprise the FCP community. The conclusion considers the successes of FCP in the context of speculations about its contributions to non feminist political science.     

Research,politics, and the dynamics of policy development: A case study of Motor Carrier regulatory reform

This article presents a case study of the role of research in securing passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-296). It highlights the role of research in shaping policymakers' views on the benefits of reduced federal economic regulation of the industry, assesses how political considerations influenced the Department of Transportation's research program, and explores the deficiencies and limitations of the Department's research program.The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the U.S. Senate or the Department of Transportation. We wish to express our appreciation to Leslie Baldwin and Dennis Marvich for their perceptive comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case study of the Dutch energy sector

Proposals to alter large-scale socio-technical systems through government actions in order to promote goals such as sustainability are highly uncertain policy projects. What is being proposed is the replacement of specific elements of existing policy ‘mixes’—the goals and means—by others, in the expectation of avoiding counterproductive or sub-optimal policy outcomes. While laudable, such efforts are fraught with risks; including the possibility of the creation of sub-optimal policy mixes or of failed reform efforts with resulting poor outcomes. This article develops a model and typology of policy regime change processes and outcomes following Thelen and others in arguing that complex policy mixes typically emerge through one or more of four processes, ‘drift’, ‘conversion’, ‘layering’ and ‘replacement’, and that the expected outcomes of these different processes in terms of their ability to meet initial expectations are linked to the manner in which policy goals and means are (or are not) combined in a consistent, coherent and congruent fashion. This propensity is illustrated through examination of the case of energy transition management as practiced in the Netherlands.     

Understanding policy change through bricolage: The case of Chile's renewable energy policy

Chile is a country where path dependency made energy policy change extremely difficult by international standards. However, the country has recently become a renewable energy poster child thanks to a gradual process of policy change. How was this possible? This article contributes to discussions about policy change driven by ideas and to explaining the puzzling case of Chilean energy policy change. It does so by discussing the mechanism of bricolage—the recombination of old and new ideas by policy entrepreneurs—and its capacity to produce policy change in contexts of high path dependency. The article develops the political manifestations and consequences of bricolage and problematizes how actors continue to contest and change ideas' meaning after they have been institutionalized, a key question when analyzing processes of bricolage. The analysis is based on an array of data sources including interviews with key actors, newspaper notes, and legislative proceedings.     

Narrative analysis for the policy analyst: A case study of the 1980–1982 medfly controversy in California

Narrative policy analysis provides a way of analyzing those highly uncertain and complex policy issues whose truth-value cannot be ascertained and about which the only thing practicing policy analysts know are the stories policymakers use in articulating these issues. One extremely well-documented controversy, the 1980-82 California Medfly Crisis, illustrates how a comparison and analysis of the structure of the dominant stories in that controversy reduces some of its underlying uncertainty. By focusing on the differential risk perceptions reflected in the stories, narrative policy analysis identifies an important area in which conventional policy analysis could have contributed to the controversy's resolution.     

Environmental policy and equity: The case of superfund

This article analyzes the equity implications of the EPA's Superfund program by examining the geographic distribution of sites, who pays for cleanup, and cleanup pace. Although the “polluter pays” principle is used to justify Superfund policy, it is a goal that is not—and indeed usually cannot—be attained for past contamination. Further, the geographic distribution of Superfund sites suggests that the likely beneficiaries of program expenditures live in counties that are on average both wealthier and more highly educated than the rest, and also have lower rates of poverty. The pace of the EPA's cleanups, however, depends mostly on the sites' potential hazard, and is not apparently motivated by the localities' socioeconomic characteristics or political representation. The program is found in several respects to be both inefficient and inequitable, yet Superfund enjoys considerable support for reasons beyond these traditional public policy goals, including its political and symbolic appeal.     

Public policy and competition amongst foreign investment projects: A case study of the Daya Bay economic development zone in South China

By the second half of the 1980s, economic reform in China had produced differentiated interests between regions and a decentralized authority in the country. The central government had increasingly delegated its powers over funding, foreign exchange, resources and investment to local governments, and local governments in different regions had gained more autonomy to control the resources. This situation resulted in the proliferation of power centres at local levels where independent policies were generated to protect and pursue regional interests and resist the general policies of the centre. Conflicts of interest and competition intensified and became more popular than during previous periods. This tendency particularly manifested itself in local policy making concerning the introduction of foreign investment and projects. The case of the founding and evolution of the Daya Bay economic development zone in South China indicates the extent to which the competition between different coastal regions, and between the coastal regions and the central government had been generated. In this case study, the contextual changes that created a competitive environment will be reviewed briefly; the general conditions and motivation to establish the zone will be introduced; then the focus will be on analysing a series of policy formulations surrounding the competition for foreign investment projects. The case study is concluded by an assessment of the ‘incremental’ nature of Chinese policy making.     

Parental schooling choice: A case study of minnesota

Public support of nonpublic elementary and secondary education has become one of the most controversial issues in American educational policy, with tuition tax credits and deductions subjects of ongoing debate at both the state and federal level. This article presents the results of one of the first empirical investigations of how a tax subsidy for tuition costs actually influences parents' school choices using data from Minnesota, the first state to have a tuition subsidy pass judicial review at all levels. It should be uyseful to policy makers, researchers, adn practitioners who are concerned with how parents make schooling decisions on behalf of their children, and how tax subsidies for educational expenses might affect those choices.     

Diversity as a policy goal: The case of television

Diversity in communications is most appropriately understood as a free flow of ideas. In order to implement diversity, a comprehensive model of the communication process must be used for policy research, so that the various participants in the process can be properly restrained from abridging the free flow of ideas. The setting of priorities for implementing diversity has been illustrated using available studies of broadcast and cable television.