Policy capacities and effective policy design: a review

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.

Agenda-setting instruments: means and strategies for the management of policy demands

“…The second, consistent with recent design studies that suggest that governments have come to rely on a mix or portfolio of policy tools rather than single instruments (see e.g. Mukherjee et al, 2021), is to consider the types of policy mixes deployed in advancing strategies presented in Table 1. That is, what combination of specific instruments are deployed to routinise or regularise demands?…”

“…Capano & Lippi, 2017) but also how they are assembled as 'policy mixes' or 'portfolios' to attain specific policy goals (Howlett, Mukherjee, & Woo, 2015). More recently, scholars have focussed on identifying conditions that can improve the effectiveness or likely success of policy tools to anticipate and accommodate policy shocks (Bali, Howlett, & Ramesh, 2021;Bali & Ramesh, 2018;Capano & Woo, 2018;Mukherjee, Coban, & Bali, 2021).…”

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Sustainability Strategy: Human Rights Governance in the Tripartite Network

“…Substantive instruments are predominant (Howlett and Mukherjee, 2014 ) through their Workers' Welfare Standards and grievance mechanisms. However, the procedural instrument of network structure, as highlighted by Mukherjee et al ( 2021 ), may not be applicable in this case, with specific measures for tournament construction workers linked directly to SC operations, rather than being network centered. Despite being the Local Organizing Committee and contributing to collective action, with the Senior Sustainability Manager on their staff, Q22's input is primarily peripheral (Rhodes and Marsh, 1992 ), and procedure driven, establishing numerous policies which reflect their responsibility and commitment to operate ethically (Wettstein, 2015 ).…”

“…Policy design can be defined as an activity to pursue policy goals through gathering and applying knowledge, conducted in specific spaces, dependent on contextual conditions, and can be constrained by the previous design (Capano, 2018 ). Designing successful policies requires both substantive instruments, a set of alternative arrangements capable of resolving or addressing a policy problem, as well as a procedural instrument, and a set of activities related to securing some level of agreement among those charged with formulating, i.e., network structure (Howlett and Mukherjee, 2014 ; Mukherjee et al, 2021 ). The development of systematic approaches and tools is also required for the exploration of design spaces and diversity of preferences of different stakeholders (Taeihagh, 2017 ).…”

Improving the Sustainability Effectiveness of Traditional Arts and Crafts Using Supply–Demand and Ordered Logistic Regression Techniques in Taiyuan, China

“…Currently, the scholarly community is placing increasing importance on research that evaluates public policy. This research is mainly centered on the effects of policy implementation, unexpected influences, as well as the cost, viability, and acceptability of policy action [18,19]. By comparison, policy matching has been neglected.…”