Leading from Below: How Sub‐National Governments Influence Policy Agendas

Keddie, Jeffrey; Smith, R. F. I.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8500.2008.00610.x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For example, they may try to build a coalition and facilitate cooperation around a specific vision (Carpenter, 2001;Klein Woolthuis et al, 2013: 94). Alternatively, as Keddie and Smith (2009) emphasize, subnational actors may seek to influence policy agendas at higher levels of government by offering alternative formulations of the problem-policy relationship (policy images, pace Baumgartner and Jones, 1993). Finally, they may engage in 'venue shopping' (Baumgartner and Jones, 1993) for their favoured ideas: a search across levels of governance for the most receptive arena within which to pursue their policy objectives (c.f.…”

Section: Entrepreneurial Strategic Action At the Local Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance

Catney

Henneberry

2016

Environ Plann C Gov Policy

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The paper uses a case study of urban regeneration policy in Sheffield, UK, to explore local public entrepreneurship in a system of multi-level governance. Recent analyses of public entrepreneurs have directed attention to the macro-political structural and institutional conditions that enable and constrain these actors, and to their individual characteristics and attributes. The stress has been on the national level and on individual action at the expense of the agency of local networks of entrepreneurs. In order to address this lacuna, we consider how local policy entrepreneurs work across governance levels and develop ideas, institutional structures and support in pursuit of their goals, using Kingdon's notion of policy streams as a vehicle for our analysis. We highlight the contingent and path-dependent nature of such entrepreneurship. In particular, we identify the temporal sequencing of agenda shifts and entrepreneurial actions as a crucial aspect of the policy process.Keywords Public entrepreneurship, multi-level policy, policy streams, policy windows IntroductionThe dominant narrative of central-local government relations in the UK has been the power of central government to make and remake the institutional landscape and, in so doing, to erode the institutional cohesiveness, policy competences and autonomy of local political institutions (c.f. Pratchett, 2004;Wilson, 2003). However, the past two decades have also seen the advance of multi-level governance (MLG) (Keating, 2014) and increased opportunities for 'authority migration' (Broschek, 2014) to institutional actors at supraand sub-national levels, allowing greater scope for the exercise of local autonomy. The UK's institutional regime is currently the subject of rapid restructuring. Examples of this include the rise of city regions (c.f. Deas, 2014;Etherington and Jones, 2009;Harding, 2007; Harrison, 2010Harrison, , 2012Jonas and Ward, 2007) and institutional innovations such as combined authorities and elected mayors. The implementation of these changes has been selective. The paper explores one explanation for this uneven distribution of powers: public entrepreneurship. While the concept challenges institutionalism's limited treatment of institutional change, accounts often fail properly to locate the actions of entrepreneurs within a context of MLG, restricting our understanding of how such a setting may enable or constrain agency. In a multi-level polity -or more specifically, in policy fields that incorporate institutional actors from many sites -numerous policy processes play out across different levels and are often misaligned. Within the UK, sub-national actors have been firmly subordinate to actors at higher levels and the former are reliant on the latter for resources to devise and implement policies. MLG is a potential alternative source of mobilization by sub-national actors (Marshall, 2005(Marshall, , 2006. Successful entrepreneurship thus depends on how well actors operate within and across governmental levels and the ways in ...

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Section: Entrepreneurial Strategic Action At the Local Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance

Catney

Henneberry

2016

Environ Plann C Gov Policy

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“…Despite these gaps, states and territories used soft power to ‘lead from below’ [ 25 ]. To overcome ineffective hierarchical modes of policy making, coordination within and between subnational governments through exercising ‘soft power’ can influence national agendas by building good will across party lines while still allowing jurisdictions to respond to their own ‘domestic’ politics [ 24 , 25 , 27 ]. The work of the Food & Drink Reform project was promoted by the study informants as an example of jurisdictions working together across partisan lines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite a resistance at the national level to frame obesity prevention as anything beyond personal responsibility, the political context of commissioned research such as the evidence check [ 65 ] for the National Obesity Strategy consultation paper [ 55 ] reflects that the COAG Obesity Working Group were interested in framing obesity as a social and commercial problem and sought solutions framed with that lens [ 17 ]. Through the Food & Drink Reform states/territories were pursuing subnational policy harmonisation, agreeing to a set of nationally consistent protocols with enough flexibility to use different policy instruments and focus on different settings to achieve a shared goal [ 22 , 24 , 25 ]. The unevenness and diversity of Australia’s economic geography is expanding; undertaking this approach within the Australian federation creates “a laboratory for natural experiments in policy that enhance opportunities for cross-jurisdictional learning through comparison of different approaches to related problems” [ 24 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intergovernmental policy opportunities for childhood obesity prevention in Australia: Perspectives from senior officials

et al. 2022

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Background Early childhood (from conception to five years) is a key life stage for interventions to prevent obesity. In the Australian Federation, policy responsibility for obesity prevention sits across all levels of government and several intergovernmental institutions, rendering a complicated policy space. There is a gap in our understanding of the role of intergovernmentalism in developing obesity prevention policy in Australia. Given the complexity of intergovernmental structures and initiatives influencing childhood obesity prevention policy, it is important to understand the perspectives of senior health officials within the bureaucracy of government who through their roles may be able to influence processes or new strategies. Methods Document analysis relating to obesity prevention in the intergovernmental context provided material support to the study. This analysis informed the interview guides for nine interviews with ten senior health department officials (one interview per jurisdiction). Findings Several opportunities exist to support nutrition and obesity prevention in early childhood including marketing regulation (discretionary choices, breastmilk substitutes, commercial complementary foods and ‘toddler milks’) and supporting the early childhood education and care sector. This study found a widening structural gap to support national obesity policy in Australia. New public management strategies limit the ability of intergovernmental institutions to support coordination within and between governments to address complex issues such as obesity. Subnational informants perceived a gap in national leadership for obesity prevention, while a Commonwealth informant noted the commitment of the national government to partner with industry under a self-regulation model. In this gap, subnational leaders have pursued nationally consistent action to address obesity, including the development of a national obesity strategy as a bipartisan endeavour across jurisdictions. Public officials calculate the strategic possibilities of pursuing opportunities within state agendas but note the limited chances of structural change in the absence of national leadership and funding.

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“…The 'outcomes approach' provided the grounds for the introduction of national literacy testing and benchmarking. Keddie and Smith (2009) argue that the Howard government assumed a highly interventionist role in education that was coercive in the use of policy tools and opportunistic in its choice of targets. The Commonwealth government used its financial power to require states to implement policies on conditions it determined.…”

Section: The Horizontal Federalism As a Response To Growing Downwards Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocational education and training in Australia and three-dimensional federalism

Klatt

Polesel

2013

Australian Journal of Education

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Education policy-making in Australia remains one of the most complex of government's responsibilities, affecting a broad spectrum of social and political advancements of national and international importance. The advancement of education policy has been accepted as a key factor in achieving the labour productivity and innovation capacity that are needed to compete within the global economy and to build social capital. Yet, the challenge of development and implementation of education policy in Australia has been significantly influenced by its unique federal model, where the state and commonwealth jurisdictions increasingly overlap. This article offers a descriptive account of federal policy involvement in Australian education since federation, with particular attention to vocational education. It demonstrates that national education policy development is characterised by downwards, upwards and horizontal patterns of cooperation between national and state governments, which are in turn influenced by contextual factors such as national economic policy goals, economic and social conditions and political configurations. The article presents an innovative approach to educational research as it brings together two fields of specialisation: vocational education and training research and political science.

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Leading from Below: How Sub‐National Governments Influence Policy Agendas

Cited by 6 publications

References 14 publications

Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance

Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance

Intergovernmental policy opportunities for childhood obesity prevention in Australia: Perspectives from senior officials

Vocational education and training in Australia and three-dimensional federalism

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