The innovativeness of national policy portfolios – climate policy change in Austria, Germany, and the UK

Abstract

To determine whether innovations in policy concerning climate-change mitigation are symbolic or truly radical in the sense of 'tipping' existing policy portfolios towards a new instrumental logic, we study policy innovations in the context of pre-existing policy portfolios and analyse the associated dynamics over time. Our analysis is facilitated by a new measurement of policy output, the Index of Climate Policy Activity. This new approach sheds light on the relative importance of policy innovations in complex policy portfolios, and serves as a blueprint for further analyses of the politics of policy innovation. Empirically, we analyse policy innovations within the policy portfolios of energy production in Austria, Germany, and the UK between 1998 and 2010. We find high stability in the instrumental logic but substantial change in policy settings and calibrations.

Proportionate and disproportionate policy responses to climate change: core concepts and empirical applications

“…In this context, the politics concerning the sources, patterns and effects of climate policy innovations have been discussed and yielded important insights (see Huitema, 2014a, 2014b). This article seeks to contribute to this body of literature by making a plea for adopting a sharper focus on the behaviour of policy-makers (and in particular politicians), who engage in developing and spreading policy innovations (see also Jacobs, 2014;Schaffrin et al, 2014;Stadelmann & Castro, 2014). In particular, it calls for more attention to be paid to the calculus underlying their decisions.…”

“…Knill, Schulze, and Tosun (2012) added a fourth category which denotes the scope of a policy instrument, that is, how it governs its target groups. These four categories have been used to empirically assess how policies -in terms of their density and intensity -have expanded and/ or contracted over time (Bauer, Green-Pedersen, Héritier, & Jordan, 2012;Jordan, Bauer, & Green-Pedersen, 2013;Knill et al, 2012;Schaffrin, Sewerin, & Seubert, 2014).…”

Emergence of polycentric climate governance and its future prospects

“…These two strands of research suggest that there is a new climate governance emerging (that is, dating mostly from the mid-2000s), although we certainly do not wish to over-stress its novelty (some national policies predate the UNFCCC) [34][35][36][37][38] . In fact, we firmly believe that now is the right time to debate the most appropriate analytical categories to measure the distribution of the new climate governance.…”

Kindred spirits or intergovernmental competition? The innovation and diffusion of energy policies in the American states (1990–2008)

“…Here, we examine policy innovation through the lens of policy diffusion, building upon Madisonian theories of federalism, which suggest that successful policy experiments by states will be mimicked and adopted by other states. In contrast, this approach says little about the initial invention of a policy or the subsequent effectiveness of adopted policies, though we provide some brief observations regarding the initial innovation of these policies in the United States (for discussion on the invention of climate-change policies, see Bauer and Steurer 2014, Jacobs 2014, Schaffrin et al 2014.…”