The politics of policy anomalies: bricolage and the hermeneutics of paradigms

Wilder, Matt; Howlett, Michael

doi:10.1080/19460171.2014.901175

Cited by 44 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…This is an ideational phase where “agents interested in reforming existing distributional arrangements contest the definition, meaning and solution to the problems identified by opposing ideologies” (Blyth, , p. 234). That said, Hall () has been criticized for an oversimplified critical juncture type change, seeing ideas as too static with a diminished role for actor agency (Matthijs, ; Wilder & Howlett, ).…”

Section: The Later Critical Junctures Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Critical Juncture Concept’s Evolving Capacity to Explain Policy Change

Hogan¹

2019

European Policy Analysis

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This article examines the evolution of our understanding of the critical junctures concept. The concept finds its origins in historical intuitionalism, being employed in the context of path dependence to account for sudden and jarring institutional or policy changes. We argue that the concept and the literature surrounding it-now incorporating ideas, discourse, and agency-have gradually become more comprehensive and nuanced as historical institutionalism was followed by ideational historical institutionalism and constructivist and discursive institutionalism. The prime position of contingency has been supplanted by the role of ideas and agency in explaining critical junctures and other instances of less than transformative change. Consequently, the concept is now capable of providing more comprehensive explanations for policy change.KEY WORDS: Critical juncture, contingency, path dependence, ideas, policy 以不断演变的关键时刻概念解释政策变化本文考察了对关键时刻概念的理解所发生的演变。此概念起源于历史制度主义, 在路径依赖的背景下得以应用, 用于解释突发和不符合制度的变化或政策变化。笔者主张, 围绕此概念的相关概念和文献 (现包括观念, 话语和政府机构) 逐渐变得日益全面和复杂, 因为历史制度主义已延伸到观念历史制度主义 (ideational historical institutionalism) 和建构话语制度主义 (constructivist and discursive institutionalism)。偶发性所占的重要位置已被观念和政府机构所扮演的角色所取代, 用于解释关键时刻和其他略低于重大变化的时刻。结果则是, 关键时刻概念现能为政策变化提供更多全面性的解释。关键词: 关键时刻, 偶发性, 路径依赖, 观点, 政策 La capacidad evolutiva del concepto de coyuntura cr ıtica para explicar el cambio de pol ıtica Este art ıculo examina la evoluci on de nuestra comprensi on del concepto de coyunturas cr ıticas. El concepto encuentra sus or ıgenes en el institucionalismo hist orico, siendo empleado en el contexto de la dependencia de la trayectoria para explicar cambios institucionales o pol ıticos repentinos y discordantes. Argumentamos que el concepto y la literatura que lo rodea, que ahora incorpora ideas, discurso y agencia, se ha ido haciendo cada vez m as comprensivo y matizado a medida que el institucionalismo hist orico fue seguido por el institucionalismo hist orico ideacional y el institucionalismo constructivista y discursivo. La posici on principal de la contingencia ha sido suplantada por el 170

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Section: The Later Critical Junctures Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Critical Juncture Concept’s Evolving Capacity to Explain Policy Change

Hogan¹

2019

European Policy Analysis

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“…Succinctly put, given that paradigms are fundamentally political in nature, they cannot be proved wrong (Blyth, ). To this end, Wilder and Howlett (, p. 194) employ the term “gatekeeper” to designate the policy actors that adapt evidence, either positively or negatively, to conform to political preferences, and amend existing solution sets or complement cognitive schemas. Such gatekeepers enjoy significant “institutional power over ideas” in that they may frame what may be considered an anomaly (e.g., banks being “too big to fail”) as possible to handle within the existing paradigm (e.g., regulation on “systemic risk,” “living wills,” or the need for a banking union in the euro area).…”

Section: Ideational Power Policy Paradigms and Political Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Of paradigms and power: British economic policy making since Thatcher

Carstensen

Matthijs

2017

Governance

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How do ruling policy paradigms persist over time and why do they often undergo significant internal ideational changes? While the impact of Peter Hall's approach to policy paradigms on the study of governance has been immense, there is a burgeoning consensus that a “Kuhnian” understanding of paradigms makes punctuated equilibrium style shifts the only game in town. While Hall's approach can account for inter‐paradigm change with reference to exogenous shocks, it does not allow for significant ideational shifts to occur intra‐paradigm. To remedy this, we place ideational power dynamics at the heart of the study of policy paradigms. We demonstrate the general applicability of our approach by examining the evolution of British macroeconomic policy‐making since 1990. We show how key policy‐makers were able to employ their institutional and ideational power to reinterpret and redefine the dominant neoliberal understanding of the economy to match their own specific ideas and policy priorities.

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“…However, unlike the literature on paradigms in organizational theory (Hassard 1988), reflection on the incommensurability thesis by policy scholars has been of rather recent vintage, with much of this work tending to deny, either explicitly or implicitly, the appropriateness of the thesis to policy studies Carstensen 2011a;Daigneault 2014;Schmidt 2011;Wilder and Howlett 2014).…”

Section: The Incommensurability Thesis and Social Scientific Paradigmsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Ideas beyond paradigms: relative commensurability and the case of Canadian trade-industrial policy, 1975–95

Wilder¹

2014

Journal of European Public Policy

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In light of recent interest in the theoretical foundations of policy paradigms, this paper aims to specify the qualities that differentiate paradigmatic from non-paradigmatic policy ideas. While the incommensurability thesis that underlies the concept of paradigms has been the target of much criticism, there is something intuitively appealing about the incommensurability of policy alternatives that is not yet fully understood. Hesitant to abandon completely the notion of incommensurability, this paper emphasizes the relative nature of ideational commensurability and provides an account of how the exclusivity of a paradigm may wither in relation to competing perspectives. The empirical section demonstrates this pattern of paradigmatic policy-making by examining solutions advanced to alleviate problems in Canadian trade-industrial policy between 1975 and 1995. Contrary to the popular perception that paradigmatic ideas yield policy stability, the findings suggest that even in areas where clearly articulated paradigms initially exist, strictly paradigmatic thinking is often fleeting.

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The politics of policy anomalies: bricolage and the hermeneutics of paradigms

Cited by 44 publications

References 94 publications

The Critical Juncture Concept’s Evolving Capacity to Explain Policy Change

The Critical Juncture Concept’s Evolving Capacity to Explain Policy Change

Of paradigms and power: British economic policy making since Thatcher

Ideas beyond paradigms: relative commensurability and the case of Canadian trade-industrial policy, 1975–95

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