| 1. |
- Bach, Tobias, et al.
(författare)
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The role of agencies in policy-making
- 2012
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Ingår i: Policy and Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 31:3, s. 183-193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is an extensive literature on the proliferation of agencies and the delegation of authority to such bodies across different countries. Much of this research asks whether New Public Management (NPM)-style agencification reforms have been implemented according to the original objectives, and what consequences – intended or unintended – the reforms have produced. Yet much of this research lacks an explicit link to the literature on the policymaking functions of public bureaucracies and their interactions with elected politicians. What are the consequences of agencification for the policy process at large? What policy relevant tasks do agencies perform, to what extent are they involved in policy-making, and what factors influence the quality and quantity of their participation? This introductory article gives an overview of key concepts such as “public agencies” and “policy autonomy” and the research literature. Moreover, it critically discusses relevant theoretical perspectives, outlines the articles included in this themed issue and argues for a more systematic and theoretically guided analysis of agencies’ role in policy-making.
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| 2. |
- Douglas, Scott, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding Collaboration : Introducing the Collaborative Governance Case Databank
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy & Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 39:4, s. 495-509
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studying collaborative governance has become a booming business. However, the empirical literature still struggles to produce robust generalizations and cumulative knowledge that link contextual, situational and institutional design factors to processes and outcomes. We still have not mustered the broad and deep evidence base that will really help us sort fact from fiction and identify more and less productive approaches to collaboration. The current empirical evidence in the study of collaborative governance consists chiefly of small-N case studies or large-N surveys. The challenge is to move from case-based, mid-range theory building to more largeN-driven systematic theory-testing, while also retaining the rich contextual and process insights that only small-N studies tend to yield. This article, and the articles in the accompanying special issue, introduces an attempt to provide this middle ground– the Collaborative Governance Case Database. The database has been developed to serve as a free common pool resource for researchers to systematically collect and compare high-quality collaborative governance case studies. This article is an introduction to the database, exploring its design, opportunities and limitations. This article is also an invitation; inviting all researchers to freely use the cases in the database for their own research interest and to help strengthening the database by adding new cases they are eager to share with colleagues.
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| 3. |
- Ellison, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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Covid (In)equalities : labor market protection, health, and residential care in Germany, Sweden, and the UK
- 2022
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Ingår i: Policy & Society. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 41:2, s. 247-259
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries-Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types-this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residential care. With attention paid to issues of "capacity" and the institutional arrangements in each case, we find that institutional histories in Germany and Sweden permitted a certain recidivistic reliance on established practices in the areas of employment and social protection. In sum, certain social and economic inequalities were mitigated as these countries set aside recent trends toward "liberalization" and mobilized longer-standing institutional capacities to protect some groups, although by no means all. Evidence of this trend is less clear in the health and residential care sectors, where Germany had existing capacity, allowing its older population to weather the crisis in better order than its counterparts in Sweden and the UK. In the UK, welfare liberalization has led to increased social and economic inequalities and funding reductions in health and residential care-all of which have reduced the country's ability to deal with severe crisis. The Covid response in this case was agile, but also chaotic, with little being done to ameliorate the positions of the most vulnerable groups.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Kerstin, et al.
(författare)
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Contingency planning for crisis management: Recipe for success or political fantasy?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Policy & Society: Journal of Public, Foreign and Global Policy. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035. ; 30:2, s. 89-99
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contingency planning is widely considered to be an essential role of public authorities. Anticipation of what may happen, coupled with the prior allocation of resources, personnel, equipment, crisis control rooms, tasks, responsibilities and decision guidance/rules, is assumed to maximise the chances of a successful response in the event of a crisis. However, this paper proposes that the relationship between crisis planning and crisis management outcomes is more complex and nuanced relationship the often assumed. Contingency planning which is successful in the pre-crisis stage, does not guarantee a successful crisis response. Correspondingly, contingency planning failures in the pre-crisis stage, do not automatically lead to a flawed crisis response. The reasons rest primarily with the multiple influences on crisis responses – only some of which can be anticipated and planned for. The conclusion provides policy-oriented and analytical reflections which recognise the value of contingency planning, while suggesting that we should not inflate our expectation of contingency planners or rush too quickly to vilify them for a lack of adequate preparations.
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| 5. |
- Huber, Evelyne, et al.
(författare)
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Private education and inequality in the knowledge economy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy and Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 39:2, s. 171-188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the consequences of public and private spending on education at all levels, looking at skills and income inequality. We use data for 22 affluent democracies from 1960 or 1995 (depending on data availability) to 2017. High levels of public education spending consistently lower income inequality, both measured as wage dispersion and as the education premium. In contrast, higher levels of private education spending are associated with both higher wage dispersion and a higher education premium. We show that this effect works in part through differential skills acquisition. Public education spending raises the math scores of 15-years old students at the mean and at the 25th percentile, but private education spending has no effect on skills at these levels. We find the same pattern among skills of adults; public education spending raises skills at the 25th percentile and the mean; private spending has no effect. Finally, we also show that higher levels of adult skills indeed depress the education premium.
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| 6. |
- Niklasson, Birgitta, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Does agency age matter in administrative reform?: Policy autonomy and public management in Swedish agencies
- 2012
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Ingår i: Policy and Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 31:3, s. 195-210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract This paper looks at the policy autonomy of different ‘‘generations’’ of agencies in Sweden. Taking a historical institutional perspective, we argue that the policy autonomy of public agencies is related to the dominant political and administrative trends at the time when the agency was first created, i.e. that institutional relations created at that formative moment tend to persist. In the Swedish context, one such trend is of particular importance; the managerial trend that started in 1963 with the Program Budgeting (PB) reform. This was an institutional reform that presented a paradigm shift in Swedish public administration. This reform was reinforced in the 1990s by the New Public Management (NPM) reform, which introduced new instruments and measures consistent with the managerial paradigm previously introduced by the PB reform. This managerial trend aimed at limiting agencies’ policy autonomy. Thus, we hypothesise that (1) agencies founded before the PB reform will enjoy more extensive policy autonomy than agencies founded during or after this reform and (2) there will be no such difference between agencies founded before and after the NPM reform. These hypotheses are tested on empirical data consisting of a web survey in which 157 Swedish agencies have stated to what extent they perceive that they enjoy policy autonomy. The results confirm both our hypotheses, thus demonstrating the importance of considering the scope of institutional change when analysing and comparing the effects of administrative reforms in different countries. # 2012 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Parker, Charles F., 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative crisis management : a plausibility probe of core assumptions
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy & Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 39:4, s. 510-529
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, we utilize the Collaborative Governance Databank to empirically explore core theoretical assumptions about collaborative governance in the context of crisis management. By selecting a subset of cases involving episodes or situations characterized by the combination of urgency, threat, and uncertainty, we conduct a plausibility probe to garner insights into a number of central assumptions and dynamics fundamental to understanding collaborative crisis management. Although there is broad agreement among academics and practitioners that collaboration is essential for managing complex risks and events that no single actor can handle alone, in the literature, there are several unresolved claims and uncertainties regarding many critical aspects of collaborative crisis management. Assumptions investigated in the article relate to starting-points and triggers for collaboration, level of collaboration, goal-formulation, adaptation, involvement and role of non-state actors, and the prevalence and impact of political infighting. The results confirm that crises represent rapidly moving and dynamic events that raise the need for adaptation, adjustment, and innovation by diverse sets of participants. We also find examples of successful behaviours where actors managed, despite challenging conditions, to effectively contain conflict, formulate and achieve shared goals, adapt to rapidly changing situations and emergent structures, and innovate in response to unforeseen problems.
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| 8. |
- Petridou, Evangelia, et al.
(författare)
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For safety’s sake : the strategies of institutional entrepreneurs and bureaucratic reforms in Swedish crisis management, 2001–2009
- 2017
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Ingår i: Policy & Society. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 36:4, s. 556-574
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study focuses on the bureaucratic reforms in Sweden which resulted in the creation of the Secretariat for Crisis Management and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. We investigate the mechanisms that lead to divergent change through the critical juncture analytical approach. The study’s findings suggest that the bureaucratic reforms were the result of the critical juncture between 2001 and 2009, which included, inter alia, the release of a commission of inquiry report, a major political crisis and a national election. Moreover, we situate entrepreneurial agency in this analysis while we contribute to the theorization of institutional entrepreneurship by focusing on the implementation stage of institutional change. In order to overcome the institutional resistance stemming from an attempt to preserve the existing power structures, institutional entrepreneurs use the following three strategies: (i) the strategy of listening; (ii) the strategy of advertising early success and (iii) the strategy of picking up the phone.
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| 9. |
- Pierre, Jon, 1953
(författare)
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Nudges against pandemics: Sweden's COVID-19 containment strategy in perspective
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy and Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 39:3, s. 478-493
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden's strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic stands out internationally as more liberal in terms of not ordering a complete lockdown of society. Sweden kept its primary schools, daycare centers and industries largely open. The government financially supported furloughed workers and increased its support to regional and local governments delivering healthcare and elderly care. However, the death toll in Sweden which passed 4000 by late May 2020 stands in stark contrast to those of other, comparable countries, raising questions about the design of the strategy, and its appropriateness. The paper argues that key assumptions sustaining the strategy, for instance that symptom-free people do not carry, and cannot transmit the Coronavirus, or that local and regional government staff had the necessary training and equipment to tackle the pandemic, along with problems associated with coordinating a decentralized healthcare system, may explain the poor performance of the Swedish containment strategy.
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| 10. |
- Sørensen, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Political boundary spanning : Politicians at the interface between collaborative governance and representative democracy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Policy & Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1449-4035 .- 1839-3373. ; 39:4, s. 530-569
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research finds that productive interfaces between collaborative and bureaucratic forms of governance hinges on the extent to which public managers act as competent boundary spanners who process information, accommodate communication and align and coordinate behavior, and it seems likely that politicians have an equally important role to play in aligning processes and arenas of collaborative governance with representative democracy. The empirical forms that political boundary making takes are examined in a study of 28 cases of local, regional or national level policy-making in nine Western countries. This study indicates that there is considerable variation in the way politicians perform political boundary spanning particularly with respect to their degree of engagement in collaborative policymaking arenas and the focus of their boundary-spanning activities. Furthermore, the study shows that collaborative governance tends to go best in tandem with representative democracy in those cases where politicians perform both hands off and hands on boundary-spanning activities.
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