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2014 | Buch

Understanding Policy Decisions

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This book proposes a model for understanding how innovative policy decisions are taken in complex political and organizational systems as well as the possible strategies that the promoter of the innovation can employ in order to maximize the probability of successful adoption and implementation. It presents a conceptual framework for the analysis of decisional situations in order to design the most appropriate strategies for overcoming conflict (e.g. of the NIMBY variety) and/or increasing the engagement of potentially interested actors. The book includes a template for decisional case studies, a protocol for the definition of a decisional strategy, and an exercise in decisional analysis.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Understanding Policy Decisions
Abstract
The point of departure of the analysis is the recognition that major policy change is extremely difficult. However from time to time this actually happens and therefore it seems necessary to understand when and how this is possible. After a short excursus on the special characteristics of contemporary public policies, four different theoretical models of how decisions are taken are presented and discussed. The conclusion is the definition of a conceptual framework specifying which are the variables that influence policy outcomes and in particular the possibility to adopt non-marginal policy change.
Bruno Dente
Chapter 2. Who Decides? Actors and Their Resources
Abstract
In public policy analysis the actors and their behaviours represent the core of any possible theoretical model. The analysis therefore starts with the definition of the actor and by a presentation of the different goals he can pursue. Then the types of resources used in the interaction are specified and this makes it possible to classify the actors into five groups. After a presentation of the different roles the actors can play in the process the attention is shifted to the decisional networks and to their different properties.
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Chapter 3. What is Decided? The Content of the Decision
Abstract
The chapter introduces the concept, typical of public policy analysis, that the content of the decision plays an important role in defining the relationship between the actors. The feasibility of a non incremental policy change depends also from the fact that it provides benefits to all the participants or only to some of them and that the cost and the benefits of the decision are concentrated on few actors or are distributed among a large group.
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Chapter 4. How Do We Decide? The Patterns of Interaction
Abstract
The ways in which the actors exchange their resources are absolutely crucial for defining the outcome of the decisional processes. In this chapter, after discussing the role of legal procedures in policy making, we will show the importance of communication between the actors (by discussing the prisoner dilemma) and of the fact that the moves of the actors are simultaneous or rather sequential (by discussing the “battle of the sexes”). We conclude by recalling the literature on policy “styles” and by proposing a classification of the patterns of interaction that distinguishes between confrontation (when the resources are weighted), bargaining (when the resources are exchanged) and collaboration (when the resources are pooled).
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Chapter 5. Where (and When) Do We Decide? The Context of the Decision
Abstract
The environment within which the decision-making process takes place makes the possibility to reach the desired outcome more or less likely. It is important to distinguish between the cognitive context, the economic context and the institutional context. Then we ask if and how we can assess the importance of the context in a specific decision making context and we conclude that the most important aspect concerns the stability of the context as it can open “windows of opportunity” for the adoption of a non-incremental policy change.
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Chapter 6. Strategies for Policy Entrepreneurs
Abstract
This chapter brings the analysis to an operative conclusion by pointing out the different strategies that the policy entrepreneur can use in order to make a non-incremental policy change possible. In particular it will show how it is possible to modify the distribution of the resources, the patterns of interaction, the content of the decision and the characteristics of the decisional network. The final remarks will concern on the one hand the importance of institutionalisation and on the other of the timing of the decision. A protocol for assessing the feasibility of policy innovation will conclude the work.
Bruno Dente
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Understanding Policy Decisions
verfasst von
Bruno Dente
Copyright-Jahr
2014
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-02520-9
Print ISBN
978-3-319-02519-3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02520-9