| 1. |
- Birnbaum, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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Tracing the sources of legitimacy : the impact of deliberation in participatory natural resource management
- 2015
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 48:4, s. 443-461
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is widely assumed that stakeholder participation has great potential to improve the perceived legitimacy of natural resource management (NRM) and that the deliberative-democratic qualities of participatory procedures are central to the prospects of success. However, attempts to measure the actual effects of deliberation on the perceived legitimacy of participatory NRM are rare. This article examines the links between deliberation and legitimacy in participatory NRM empirically by tracing the determinants of stakeholders' level of policy support and their views about procedural fairness. The study uses statistical methods to analyse survey data from a state-led initiative to develop new plans for ecosystem-based coastal and marine management through a participatory approach in five coastal areas in Sweden. We find that the perceived quality of deliberation had a positive impact on these aspects of legitimacy. However, both policy support and perceived procedural fairness were mainly driven by instrumental-substantive considerations rather than deliberative-democratic qualities of the process.
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| 2. |
- Erikson, Josefina, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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How platforms facilitate collaboration across organizational boundaries : fighting human trafficking in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer-Verlag New York. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of collaborations and partnerships that engage a variety of actors from both the public and private spheres has drawn attention during the last decade as a promising strategy for combatting trafficking and improving assistance to victims of trafficking. This article investigates the Swedish Civil Society Platform against Human Trafficking as an example of successful collaboration between civil society actors. The aim is to explore how the platform as a distinct organizational form is capable of dealing productively with some of the challenges facing internal and external collaboration. We utilize interviews with key actors and a study of policy documents as we argue that the modularity and flexibility of the platform organizational form are key factors in its success. While it is a robust type of organization that may be regarded as a trustworthy partner, it also permits its member organizations to continue functioning as independent entities.
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| 3. |
- Hanberger, Anders, 1953-
(författare)
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Public policy and legitimacy : a historical policy analysis of the interplay of public policy and legitimacy
- 2003
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 36:3-4, s. 257-278
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the interplay of local government policy and legitimacy from a broad postpositivist perspective where historical accounts and narratives are used in a complementary fashion. The basic assumption is that legitimacy is the product of satisfying felt needs and solving perceived problems. Health and social malaise problems and related policies of the past 120 years are analyzed in 50 Swedish municipalities. The analysis indicates that municipality policies respond to local problems only partly. Generally, local government policies responded dynamically to ''objective" and perceived problems before the 1970s, but did not resolve the problems. Today's legitimacy crisis could, to some extent, be explained by the discrepancy between high expectations created in the policy discourse and the central and local government's incapacity to offer sustainable solutions to ongoing problems. It is suggested that if history is considered more seriously in public policy making it could help policy makers and citizens readjust expectations, illuminate the limits and prospects for public policy, and identify ways to restore legitimacy. Moreover, legitimacy could be restored if more realistic policies are worked out and if a new division of power between the levels of government is introduced.
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| 4. |
- Huitema, Dave, et al.
(författare)
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The evaluation of climate policy: theory and emerging practice in Europe
- 2011
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Ingår i: Policy Sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 44:2, s. 179-198
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate policy is a relatively young and dynamic area of public policy making. However, its development has attracted far more attention than the results it delivers in practice, which of course are the concern of policy evaluators. This article attempts to provide the first systematic cataloging of the emerging patterns of policy evaluation undertaken in different parts of the European Union. Theories of policy evaluation suggest that these evaluation practices should acknowledge the inherent complexity of climate policy making, be reflexive by questioning official policy goals, and be participatory. A meta-analysis of 259 climate policy evaluations suggests that current practice engages with some but not all of these issues. This article concludes by analyzing the implications of this finding for those in the academic and practitioner community who are keen to understand the extent to which climate policy evaluation is delivering on its promises.
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| 5. |
- Johannesson, Livia, et al.
(författare)
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How to blame and make a difference: perceived responsibility and policy consequences in two Swedish pro-migrant campaigns
- 2021
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Ingår i: Policy Sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 54, s. 41-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we explore the assumption that blame-attribution can be an effective rhetorical strategy for non-elite interest groups who want power holders to be attentive to their demands. Through a qualitative analysis of two pro-migrant campaigns led by grassroot activists in Sweden, one taking place in 2005 and the other in 2017, we offer a nuanced empirical examination of non-elite initiated blame-games. We show how perceived responsibility influences these blame-games, and explore which policy consequences might emanate from them. We demonstrate that blame-making, under certain conditions, can be a successful strategy to gain policy influence, but that this strategy is conditioned by the complexity and transparency of the institutional arrangements of accountability within the policy sector. The focus on non-elite blame-making in order to change policies enables us to contribute to the theoretical discussion on the relationship between anticipatory and reactive forms of blame-avoidance behaviours, and to discuss the democratic implications of blame-games in both shorter and longer time perspectives. One implication of this study is that successful non-elite blame-making at one point in time actually can lower the chances of successful blame-making in the future.
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| 6. |
- Lim, Sijeong, et al.
(författare)
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Foreign aid, economic globalization, and pollution
- 2015
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 48:2, s. 181-205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores how trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) condition the effect of foreign aid on environmental protection in aid-recipient countries. We suggest that (1) environmental protection should be viewed as a public good and (2) all else equal, resource flows from abroad (via aid, trade, and FDI) influence governments' incentives to provide public goods. (3) Because these resources shape governments' incentives differently, their interactive effects should be examined. We begin with the assumption that developing country governments seek some optimal level of environmental protection, a level conditioned by their factor-intensive growth phase. We hypothesize that at low levels of export receipts or FDI inflows from the developed world, foreign aid is associated with superior environmental protection. This is because foreign aid, as an environmentally neutral addition to revenue, allows recipient governments to partially relax the trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. As levels of export receipts or FDI inflows from the developed world increase, however, the salutary effect of foreign aid will diminish and eventually be reversed. This is because foreign aid mitigates the recipient government's dependence on traders and investors in the developed world, and concomitantly reduces their pro-environmental policy leverage. Our analysis of 88 aid recipients, for the period 1980-2005, lends support to our argument.
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| 7. |
- Lundin, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Expert knowledge use and deliberation in local policy making
- 2014
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 47:1, s. 25-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyzes the extent to which public administrators make use of expert knowledge (i.e., research or evaluation reports) when they prepare policy advice, and the extent to which politicians deliberate on the information provided to them by the administrators. The study is based on original, quantitative data from local politics in Sweden. We find that expert-informed policy advice from the administrators and critical reflection by the politicians are more pronounced when there is a lot of public attention. Furthermore, administrators use expert information more when they operate in a context in which there are large political disagreements. However, politicians deliberate less on the administrators' policy advices in such environments. Thus, conflict seems to generate a pressure on the administrators to search for expert knowledge. But at the same time, within a context of political disputes, politicians make less effort to understand and critically reflect over the information provided to them by the administration, and are less inclined to change their opinions even if good arguments are presented to them. Thus, the empirical analysis indicates that what role expertise gets in policy making is very much a consequence of the local political environment.
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| 8. |
- Nedlund, Ann-Charlotte, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Puzzling about problems : the ambiguous search for an evidence-based strategy for handling influx of health technology
- 2014
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 47:4, s. 367-386
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper focuses on problem frame differences among actors (members of an advisory body, senior administrators and clinical unit managers) who are concerned with the introduction of new health technology at the regional level in Sweden. It explores issues related to problem framing, puzzling, powering, participation and the various rationales articulated in the ambiguous search for an evidence-based strategy to handle the influx of new technologies. The Health Technology Advisory Committee (HTAC) was established in one Swedish county council in 2004 with the intention of controlling both the introduction of health technology and supporting policy decision and clinical practice by promoting the use of best evidence. The HTAC followed a scientific rationality dominated by one problem frame, although the problematic situation, as it was framed by all the actor groups, was highly complex and not solely a matter of evidence. This paper illustrates how problem frame differences shape the puzzling of a policy problem and how the different distinguishable policy styles are dependent on who is participating and who is not participating in the puzzling.
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| 9. |
- Nilsson, Jens, Doktor, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Beliefs, social identity, and the view of opponents in Swedish carnivore management policy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy sciences. - : Springer. - 0032-2687 .- 1573-0891. ; 53:3, s. 453-472
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the policy sciences, the intractability of disputes in natural resource governance is commonly explained in terms of a “devil shift” between rival policy coalitions. In a devil shift, policy actors overestimate the power of their opponents and exaggerate the differences between their own and their opponents’ policy beliefs. While the devil shift is widely recognized in policy research, knowledge of its causes and solutions remains limited. Drawing insights from the advocacy coalition framework and social identity theory, we empirically explore beliefs and social identity as two potential drivers of the devil shift. Next, we investigate the potential of collaborative venues to decrease the devil shift over time. These assumptions are tested through statistical analyses of longitudinal survey data targeting actors involved in three policy subsystems within Swedish large carnivore management. Our evidence shows, first, that the devil shift is more pronounced if coalitions are defined by shared beliefs rather than by shared identity. Second, our study shows that participation in collaborative venues does not reduce the devil shift over time. We end by proposing methodological and theoretical steps to advance knowledge of the devil shift in contested policy subsystems.
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| 10. |
- Sjöberg, Lennart
(författare)
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Attitudes toward Technology and Risk: Going beyond What Is Immediately Given
- 2002
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Ingår i: Policy Sciences. - : Kluwer Academic Publishers. - 1573-0891 .- 0032-2687. ; 35:4, s. 379-400
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, perceived risk and attitudes toward technology are considered in a wide contextual perspective. Risk perception data are related to technology and technology attributes, in particular with respect to the possibility of replacing a technology, to the belief that it may have as yet unknown effects, and have effects involving a destructive relationship with Nature. These contextual characteristics of a hazard are shown empirically to add powerful explanatory force to models of risk perception of attitudes toward technology. The risk concept is then further differentiated. Risk as a property of an activity is distinguished from risk as a property of an unwanted consequence (injury), the latter being clearly more important for policy attitudes. It is also found that the operational definition of risk and trust is an important factor in determining the relationship between these two concepts. Detailed study of gene technology and nuclear power showed that these hazards were particularly amenable to mapping with risk perception concepts of the kind applied here. In the case of gene technology it was also found that consumer intentions displayed much the same risk perception dynamics as policy attitudes.
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