Complementarity of additionalities resulting from European Union funds: Perspective of the users of research infrastructures

The goal of this paper is to investigate the complementarity of three types of additionalities: input (growth of R&D investments), behavioral (changes in the internal processes of the entity), and output (leveraging social or private returns), occurring as the result of the 7th Framework Programme and Horizon 2020 European Union funds part INFRA. The empirical contribution is based on results of self-created questionnaires conducted in 2016 with the use of CATI/CAWI on the unique sample of N = 401 users of European Union research infrastructures from 32 countries. We create a Behavioral Additionality Index (BAI), which is a measurement tool that combines eight types (scale, scope, cognitive capacity, challenge, network, follow-up, management, and acceleration) of behavioral additionalities. Based on the results of a logistic regression, we find that there is a positive relationship between input and behavioral additionality, as well as between behavioral additionality and output additionality. This last link, however, is not shown to be strengthened by input additionality. No significant differences in the level of the BAI were found between EU countries based on their level of innovativeness as measured by the Summary Innovation Index (SII), although we can observe that less developed EU countries, as well as on non-EU countries, have higher BAI scores compared to developed ones. The overall results lead to the conclusion that the evaluation of public financial support has to be conducted not only for input, behavioral, and output additionalities separately, but must also take into account their complementarity—with its major focus on the behavioral aspects of this effect.     

Policy conflicts in shale development in China and the United States

Policy conflicts are ubiquitous in many countries. Yet research on policy conflict is typically based on cases in western, democratic countries. As a result, little is known about the characteristics of policy conflicts in non-western countries, such as China, or how these characteristics compare to western contexts. The Policy Conflict Framework (PCF) was recently developed to help scholars identify, diagnose, and compare policy conflict characteristics. This research uses the PCF to guide a comparative analysis of the nature of policy conflicts in China and the United States. With interview data on policy actors from Chongqing, China and Colorado, USA, we present the findings by comparing the differences and similarities of policy conflicts in the two countries around shale oil and gas development. We conclude with the strengths and limitations of this comparative study of policy conflicts in China and other national contexts, along with recommendations for conducting PCF research in China.     

STI policy conventions in Uruguay. An analysis of political party platforms 2004–2019

Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) have been considered as critical tools in development processes, gaining growing importance in the public policy agenda. We assert that an intersubjective agreement about STI policy has emerged in Latin America from the beginning of the twenty-first century. This operates as a developmental convention which is based on a hybrid theoretical rationale from neoclassical economics and the innovation systems approach. This process has been analyzed from different perspectives of innovation and political economy studies. However, as far as we know, the role of political parties in the construction and reproduction of STI conventions has not been studied. After illustrating the general assertion with stylized facts from the whole Latin American region, we study the platforms that Uruguayan political parties presented in the national elections between 2004 and 2019. Text analysis techniques show that platforms of both left- and right-wing political parties were embedded in the current STI policy convention. However, critical discrepancies emerge in relation to policy implementation—the positive and negative agendas—which show that there has been political competition regarding the role of the state and of markets. This leads us to conclude that even though one can observe a shared set of building blocks on STI policy and development, there is competition within the current convention, suggesting that any agreement is illusory.     

Governance Arrangements for Transboundary Issues: Lessons from the Food Waste Programs of Italian Regions

Focusing on transboundary issues contributes to highlighting how new governance modes can emerge from increasing interdependence and complexity in public policies. This article analyzes food waste as a transboundary issue that cuts across different policy subsystems (PSs), intersects multiple levels of government, and calls into question consolidated policy making for new modes of governance. The analytical framework provides a multidimensional approach and a new typology of governance arrangements to be used in empirical research. Evidence from an Italian case study and an empirical investigation of 20 regional food waste programs shows that regions can adopt different driving ideas and can activate a variety of governance arrangements and differentiated, as well as viable, modes of integration between consolidated PSs. The article argues that different tool mixes combined with different levels of governance complexity may lead to a variety of governance arrangements and a differentiated likelihood of policy integration.     

Integrating Concerns with Climate Change into Local Development Planning in Cambodia

Integration of climate change adaptation with development planning at multiple scales is widely seen as preferable to reactive, fragmented, or highly centralized responses. At the same time, there are growing concerns on when intervention is most appropriate, the transaction costs of coordination, and the adequacy of institutional capacity at local levels, especially in developing countries. This article examines entry points and mechanisms for integrating concerns with climate change into local development planning in Cambodia. An institutional ethnography of the planning process indicates that subnational planning is participatory and flexible; and thus, provides plausible entry points to integrate climate change concerns. Case study methods applied to two externally supported, climate‐resilient development projects identify promising mechanisms and strategies, as well as obstacles to integration. A vulnerability reduction assessment tool and top‐up grant scheme both included promising deliberative and participatory elements from which lessons for future and elsewhere can be drawn. At the same time, key stakeholders concede that local integration more widely is hampered by multiple obstacles, including weak institutional capacity, low community participation, and lack of resources and incentives. Addressing these challenges requires political commitments for good governance, capacity development, and additional resources.     

The advocacy coalition framework in Japan: Contributions to policy process studies and the challenges involved

The advocacy coalition framework (ACF), a unified framework for understanding the policy process, has been applied in various countries and regions; however, there are few contributions from Japan, despite seemingly favorable conditions for applying it. An exploration of what hinders ACF applications in Japan is worthwhile for developing the ACF as a framework for comparative policy process studies across various social and political settings. Therefore, this study aims to systematically review previous Japanese ACF studies. Our review found that Japanese ACF studies are fewer in number, have less coverage of policy fields, and have less methodological diversity and transparency than international trends. While most of the Japanese ACF studies supported the basic hypotheses of the ACF, we found a need to refine some hypotheses and research methods of the ACF studies. We also discuss the background factors in the inactivity of ACF studies in Japan and suggest solutions for it.     

Insurgent Bodies in Cultural Responses to Reproductive Justice in Chile and Ireland

Transnational solidarity and comprehensive critiques of colonial legacies and patriarchal systems united the cultural responses created during the campaigns for reproductive justice in Ireland and Chile in 2018. This article considers the performance piece ‘Abortistas’ by the Yeguada Latinoamericana in Chile and the poem ‘Granuaile’ by Róisín Kelly in Ireland. Taking a decolonial feminist approach, this comparative study explores the interstices of art form and geopolitically distinct territories to examine how the creative practitioners' discursive construction of insurgent bodies aids critique of the lived experiences of women and pregnant people under the restrictive reproductive laws of both countries.     

Policy learning and change during crisis: COVID-19 policy responses across six states

Whereas policy change is often characterized as a gradual and incremental process, effective crisis response necessitates that organizations adapt to evolving problems in near real time. Nowhere is this dynamic more evident than in the case of COVID-19, which forced subnational governments to constantly adjust and recalibrate public health and disease mitigation measures in the face of changing patterns of viral transmission and the emergence of new information. This study assesses (a) the extent to which subnational policies changed over the course of the pandemic; (b) whether these changes are emblematic of policy learning; and (c) the drivers of these changes, namely changing political and public health conditions. Using a novel dataset analyzing each policy's content, including its timing of enactment, substantive focus, stringency, and similar variables, results indicate the pandemic response varied significantly across states. The states examined were responsive to both changing public health and political conditions. This study identifies patterns of preemptive policy learning, which denotes learning in anticipation of an emerging hazard. In doing so, the study provides important insights into the dynamics of policy learning and change during disaster.     

Legitimación en las acciones colectivas

This paper analyses the standing in collective actions to enforce undefined and collective interests as well as homogeneous individual interests, according to the Brazilian legal doctrine and legislation. He treats the types of class actions, the standing to bring a suit and the adequate representation in the Latin American countries that have developed these matters: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. Of Argentinean Law, the author examines the collective amparo contained in article 43 of the National Constitutional, and the environmental and consumer’s procedures. Of Brazilian Law, the author studies the actions to enforce undefined and collective interests and homogeneous individual interests, contained in the 1990 Consumer’s Defense Code. The Brazilian Law guidelines have influenced the Model Code of Collective Procedures for Iberoamerica and the Chilean and Mexican Laws. In Colombia the collective interests are enforced by popular actions, and the equivalent to the homogeneous individual interests are defended through group actions.