The eight (and final) of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the  1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This brief lecture is on the role of policymaking environments and the theories that describe them (also based on text in Chapter 13): "The second part of our universal story is that people respond to bounded rationality within complex policymaking environments. We can describe this...

The seventh of a series of podcasts tying together 500 Words posts. This lecture is on the distinction between comprehensive/ bounded rationality and how policy actors deal with bounded rationality. It is based on text in Chapter 13, including: "Theories also describe different ways in which responses to bounded rationality affect policymaking behaviour: • Policymakers can only pay attention to a tiny proportion of their responsibilities, and policymaking organizations struggle to process...

The sixth of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the  1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This lecture is on using ‘evolutionary theory‘ to connect Multiple Streams Analysis, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, and Complexity Theory Relevant posts: Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Evolution (see also cairney-2013-policy-politics-evolution.pdf (wordpress.com)   ) Policy in 500 Words: Multiple...

The fifth of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the  1000 Wordspodcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This lecture is on Policy in 500 Words: The Advocacy Coalition Framework  Here is the ACF story. People engage in politics to turn their beliefs into policy. They form advocacy coalitions with people who share their beliefs, and compete with other coalitions. The action takes place within a subsystem...

The fourth of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the 1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This brief lecture is on the relationship between rational choice theory, game theory, the IAD, the SES, and Ecology of Games Relevant posts: Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Rational Choice and the IAD Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: game theory and thought experiments Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: the...

The third of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the 1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This brief lecture describes bounded rationality and its implications for power/ knowledge, the NPF and SCPD Relevant posts: Policy in 500 words: uncertainty versus ambiguity Policy in 500 Words: Power and Knowledge Policy in 500 Words: the Narrative Policy Framework Policy in 500 Words: Social...

The second of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the 1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students (although, just to confuse you, this podcasts connects to a 1000 Word post) . This brief lecture is on multi-centric policymaking, as described fully in Making Policy in a Complex World. From Policy Concept in 1000 Words: Multi-centric Policymaking Many theories in this 1000 words series describe multiple...

The first of a series of podcasts tying together multiple 500 Words posts. They’ll sound a bit different from the 1000 Words podcasts because I recorded them in front of our MPP students. This brief lecture is on defining and measuring public policy and policy change. The relevant posts are: Policy in 500 Words: what is public policy and why does it matter? Policy in 500 Words: how much does policy change? The first thing we do when studying public policy is to try to define it – as, for...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 words: Critical Policy Studies and the Narrative Policy Framework ‘Critical policy analysis’ (or studies’) is a broad term to describe a wide collection of texts, and it is difficult to come up with a definitive account, beyond the idea that it is perhaps based on the equally broad description ‘post-positivism’ and methods such as discourse analysis (also note the phrase ‘argumentative turn’). However, a discussion of ‘post-positivism’ is incredibly valuable even...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: The Psychology of Policymaking Psychology is at the heart of policymaking, but the literature on psychology is not always at the heart of policy theory. Most theories identify ‘bounded rationality’ which, on its own, is little more than a truism: people do not have the time, resources and cognitive ability to consider all information, all possibilities, all solutions, or anticipate all consequences of their actions. Consequently, they use informational...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Combining Theories The combination of multiple theories in policy studies is like a valence issue in politics: few would disagree with the idea, largely because the sentiment is rather vague. Who would not want to combine the insights of a wide range of theories and studies to advance our knowledge? The more problematic and debatable part of this task relates to the details: how do we do it? I outline three main ways in which scholars address this issue...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: the intersection between evidence and policy transfer We can generate new insights on policymaking by connecting the dots between many separate concepts. However, don’t underestimate some major obstacles or how hard these dot-connecting exercises are to understand. They may seem clear in your head, but describing them (and getting people to go along with your description) is another matter. You need to set out these links clearly and in a set of logical...

see also Teaching evidence based policy to fly: how to deal with the politics of policy learning and transfer From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Policy Transfer and Learning ‘Policy learning’ describes the use of knowledge to inform policy decisions. That knowledge can be based on information regarding the current problem, lessons from the past or lessons from the experience of others. This is a political, not technical or objective, process (for example, see the ACF post). ‘Policy...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: the Westminster Model and Multi-level Governance A stark comparison between the ‘Westminster Model’ (WM) and Multi-level Governance (MLG) allows us to consider the difference between accountable government and the messy real world of policymaking. The WM may be used as an ideal-type to describe how power is centralized in the hands of a small number of elites: We rely on representative, not participatory, democracy. The plurality electoral system...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Power and Ideas Compare with Policy in 500 Words: Power and Knowledge Policy theory is about the relationship between power and ideas. These terms are difficult to disentangle, even analytically, because people often exercise power by influencing the beliefs of others. A good rule of thumb, from classic studies, is that the more profound and worrying kinds of power are the hardest to observe. Dahl argued that elitism was unobservable; that it was...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Context, Events, Structural and Socioeconomic Factors We need a way to describe the things that policymakers take into account when they make decisions. We also need a way to categorise these things in order of importance, from factors that simply catch their eye, to factors that seem to be out of their control and/ or force them into making particular choices. For example, ‘policy context’ or ‘structural factors’ may be used to describe the extent to...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Complex Systems There is an unnecessary tendency for proponents of complexity theory to say that it is radically new; a scientific revolution; that it will change the way we think about, and study, the natural and social world. It suggests that we shift our analysis from individual parts of a system to the system as a whole; as a network of elements that interact and combine to produce systemic behaviour that cannot be broken down merely into the...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Evolution Evolutionary theory is prevalent in policymaking studies and it can be useful if we overcome some initial barriers. First, ‘evolution’ comes with a lot of baggage when we move from a discussion of animals to people. We can blame ‘social-Darwinism’ for the racist/ sexist idea that some people are more evolved than others. Second, the word ‘evolution’ is used frequently in daily life, and academic studies, without a clear sense of its meaning....

See also Policy in 500 Words: Social Construction and Policy Design The 5000-word version has a detailed guide to further reading. From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: the Social Construction of Target Populations: The ‘social construction of target populations’ (SCTP) literature identifies: The value judgements that policymakers express when justifying their agendas to legislatures and the public. The enduring impact of these value-driven policies beyond the terms of single elections...

[see also Policy in 500 Words: Multiple Streams Analysis and Policy Entrepreneurs] From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Multiple Streams Analysis: ‘Ideas’ are the beliefs we develop and use to understand and interpret the world. Some beliefs are so deeply ingrained in our psyche that we generally take them for granted. Others are more visible – our beliefs about policy problems help us argue for particular solutions. Indeed, ‘policy solution’ is closer to the intuitive meaning of ‘I have an...

[compare with the more recent Policy in 500 Words: The Advocacy Coalition Framework] From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith developed the ACF to describe and explain a complicated policymaking environment which: contains multiple actors and levels of government; produces decisions despite high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity; takes years to turn decisions into outcomes; and, processes policy in very different ways. Some...

Note: PET has changed a lot, as reflected in Policy in 500 Words: Punctuated Equilibrium Theory From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Punctuated Equilibrium Theory: Policymaking can appear stable for long periods, only to be destabilised profoundly. Most policies can stay the same for long periods while a small number change quickly and dramatically. Or, policy change in one issue may be minimal for decades, followed by profound change which sets policy on an entirely new direction. The aim...

From Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Framing: ‘Framing’ is a metaphor to describe the ways in which we understand, and use language selectively to portray, policy problems. There are many ways to describe this process in many disciplines, including communications, psychological, and sociological research. There is also more than one way to understand the metaphor. For example, I think that most scholars describe this image (from litemind) of someone deciding which part of the world on which...