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Policy Sciences
Published in: Policy Sciences 2/2021

08-04-2021 | Research Article

Policy capacities and effective policy design: a review

Authors: Ishani Mukherjee, M. Kerem Coban, Azad Singh Bali

Published in: Policy Sciences | Issue 2/2021

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Abstract

Effectiveness has been understood at three levels of analysis in the scholarly study of policy design. The first is at the systemic level indicating what entails effective formulation environments or spaces making them conducive to successful design. The second reflects more program level concerns, surrounding how policy tool portfolios or mixes can be effectively constructed to address complex policy objectives. The third is a more specific instrument level, focusing on what accounts for and constitutes the effectiveness of particular types of policy tools. Undergirding these three levels of analysis are comparative research concerns that concentrate on the capacities of government and political actors to devise and implement effective designs. This paper presents a systematic review of a largely scattered yet quickly burgeoning body of knowledge in the policy sciences, which broadly asks what capacities engender effectiveness at the multiple levels of policy design? The findings bring to light lessons about design effectiveness at the level of formulation spaces, policy mixes and policy programs. Further, this review points to a future research agenda for design studies that is sensitive to the relative orders of policy capacity, temporality and complementarities between the various dimensions of policy capacity.
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Footnotes
1
We thank an anonymous referee for raising this essential point.
 
2
We are aware of two major caveats. Firstly, our database only covers journal articles written in English. In addition, our database excluded monographs and edited book chapters. Studies that are written in other languages and those published as monographs and edited book chapters are likely to offer additional insights to the findings in the article, which demands further research.
 
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Metadata
Title
Policy capacities and effective policy design: a review
Authors
Ishani Mukherjee
M. Kerem Coban
Azad Singh Bali
Publication date
08-04-2021
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Policy Sciences / Issue 2/2021
Print ISSN: 0032-2687
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0891
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-021-09420-8

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