Policy research as advocacy: Pro and con

Weiss, Carol H.

doi:10.1007/bf02692747

Cited by 54 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Several studies from the field of Science and Technology Studies have shown how processes of use and non-use of scientific knowledge in policy are influenced by social, cultural, and political values and interests (Collingridge and Reeve 1986;Turnhout 2003;Turnhout et al 2007Turnhout et al , 2008. In practice, instrumental use of knowledge is rare and knowledge is much more often used as advocacy or enlightenment (Weiss 1991). Frantz (2002) acknowledges the political character of policy termination and argues that policy terminators should make better use of political skills and resources.…”

Section: Studying Policy Terminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of a policy: policy succession and the attempted termination of ecological corridors policy in the Netherlands

Turnhout

2009

Policy Sci

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In policy analysis, studies on policy termination are rare. This article offers such a study. It presents the story of how, despite attempts by the government to terminate it, Dutch nature policy on ecological corridors continued to be implemented by regional governments and in the field. A case analysis is presented that integrates theories and insights not only from the termination literature but also from the literature on implementation. The different factors identified in the literature that enable or constrain implementation and termination have served as a basis for developing possible explanations of the case study. They cannot, however, serve as generic theories with predictive power. Policy termination as well as policy implementation are highly contextual processes and the question which factors will enable or constrain policy termination and implementation can only be answered on a case by case basis.

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Section: Studying Policy Terminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of a policy: policy succession and the attempted termination of ecological corridors policy in the Netherlands

Turnhout

2009

Policy Sci

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“…One reason for Campbell and Pedersen's conclusion is their focus on research organizations and their exclusion of interest groups, narrowly defined. This approach runs contrary to arguments developed by other authors who claim that many interest groups resemble private advocacy research organizations (for example, Coghlan and Brannick, 2014) or that the overall set of interest groups includes these types of organizations directly (for example, Weiss, 1991;Terry et al, 2007).In contrast, Daviter shows that knowledge regimes in EU policymaking are ineffective, their role in the identification of policy idea is only minor and interest groups dominate definition and redefinition of policy ideas. He argues that the specificity of the EU political system, where multiple actors compete to define policy ideas in multilevel policy-making processes, requires organized forms of representation in response.…”

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confidence: 69%

Policy ideas through the prism of knowledge regimes and framing

Rozbicka

2015

Int Groups Adv

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Policymakers are often confronted with problems that involve ambiguity and uncertainty (Zahariadis, 2003). In order to make sense of such problems and to identify possible solutions, they are on the lookout for policy ideas. Those are defined as general information, scientific or expert knowledge, cognitive frames, representations and moral values used by various stakeholders in order to justify collective choices for public policies. More specifically, they help those stakeholders to analyse and identify policy problems and define policy solutions that can be incorporated in the public agenda (Nay, 2012). To date, scholars have had a number of takes on how policy ideas are generated and delivered to policymakers. For example, Kingdon's (1984) Multiple Streams approach explains how and why some ideas move onto the policy-making agenda, while others do not. The extensive agenda-setting literature addresses the question of the saliency of policy ideas -that is, why some ideas are important and others not -and how varying levels of salience shape the public agenda (see, for example, McCombs and Shaw, 1972). And, policy communities' studies explored the question of idea generation and delivery through means of stable networks of policymakers, interest groups and experts (see, for example, Rhodes, 1986).Two books make interesting contributions to this scholarly debate. They focus on knowledge regimes and framing as two ways in which policy ideas can be generated and delivered to policymakers. Jointly, these books advance research on policy ideas by addressing questions about: Where do ideas come from? How do ideas change? And how do these patterns vary across different policy arenas? The authors do not

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“…Because value judgements and political philosophies clearly affect one's view of the school finance issue, it is difficult for the participant to not appear to be more of an advocate than an objective scientist. This creates a conflict with the stance of the dispassionate and disinterested observer that social scientists usually maintain (Weiss, 1991).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Social science in school finance court cases

Lamdin

1998

Know Techn Pol

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Policy research as advocacy: Pro and con

Cited by 54 publications

References 20 publications

The rise and fall of a policy: policy succession and the attempted termination of ecological corridors policy in the Netherlands

The rise and fall of a policy: policy succession and the attempted termination of ecological corridors policy in the Netherlands

Policy ideas through the prism of knowledge regimes and framing

Social science in school finance court cases

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