This document presents a conceptual framework for understanding policy capacity. The framework defines policy capacity as the set of skills (competences) and resources (capabilities) needed for policy-making. It categorizes competences into three types - analytical, operational, and political. Capabilities are assessed at the individual, organizational, and system levels. The framework aims to synthesize existing literature on policy capacity and provide a diagnostic tool to identify capacity gaps that can lead to policy failures. It considers policy capacity in all stages of the policy process from agenda-setting to evaluation.
Critical evaluation of the potential of stakeholder theory to contribute to u...Kennedy Mbwette
Critical evaluation of the potential of stakeholder theory to contribute to understanding of large-scale public service IT projects and their implementation
This document summarizes six articles on research methods in strategic management published in Organizational Research Methods. It discusses how each article advances understanding of specific methods or construct measurement. It urges readers to apply these methods more broadly to explore new areas of inquiry. It also identifies three directions for further advancing attention to measurement and methodology in strategy research: expanding application of methods to new contexts, exploring linkages between advances in measurement and theory, and considering how methods can reveal previously untested relationships.
Strategic management research in the public sector from 1985 to 2009 is reviewed. 34 empirical articles are analyzed using a conceptual framework with determinants, processes, and outcomes. Determinants like the environment and institutional context influence strategic planning. Processes include plan formulation, strategy content, and implementation. Outcomes are organizational capacity and performance improvement, but few studies examine links between processes and outcomes. More research is needed on these links using large-N and comparative case study methods.
This document analyzes 26 years of strategic management research published in four leading journals. Through a content analysis of keywords, it classifies articles into different subfields of strategic management and tracks how these subfields have evolved over time. It also identifies the most prolific authors and most cited papers to understand their influence on the development of the field. The analysis aims to provide insights into both the current state and possible future directions of strategic management research.
Applying multiple streams theoretical framework to college matriculation poli...Alexander Decker
This document applies Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze China's college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers. It discusses how the problem stream indirectly opened the policy window by raising awareness of the issue, while the political stream directly opened it through organized advocacy efforts. However, the policy stream was absent due to a lack of viable alternatives meeting criteria. As a result, the policy window closed without a policy being adopted, contributing to the reform's perceived failure except in some localities.
This document describes a field experiment conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School to study how colocation impacts scientific collaboration. In the experiment, biomedical researchers who applied for a research grant were randomly assigned to breakout sessions at a research symposium, with the goal of introducing exogenous colocation between some pairs of researchers. The researchers found that pairs who were colocated at the symposium, allowing for face-to-face interaction, saw a 70% increase in likelihood of subsequently collaborating on the research grant application. Certain types of researcher pairs, such as those who worked in similar areas or had previously collaborated, saw even larger impacts from being colocated.
Redefining Politics 2 - A New Political OntologyStephen Lahanas
This presentation introduces a new framework for organizing political practice and knowledge through exploitation of a common meta-ontology.
This presentation is brought to you as part of Semantech's InnovatioWorx applied innovation series.
This document summarizes Daniel Béland's article "Ideas, institutions, and policy change" published in the Journal of European Public Policy in 2009. The summary is as follows:
1. Béland argues that ideas play an important role in policy change by shaping the problems addressed, the content of reform proposals, and the construction of reform imperatives.
2. Historical institutionalism does not fully account for how ideas impact agenda-setting, the specific policy choices made, and strategies to convince others of the need for change.
3. Béland draws on literature on ideas and framing to discuss how ideas help construct problems, shape policy assumptions, and become discursive tools to build
Critical evaluation of the potential of stakeholder theory to contribute to u...Kennedy Mbwette
Critical evaluation of the potential of stakeholder theory to contribute to understanding of large-scale public service IT projects and their implementation
This document summarizes six articles on research methods in strategic management published in Organizational Research Methods. It discusses how each article advances understanding of specific methods or construct measurement. It urges readers to apply these methods more broadly to explore new areas of inquiry. It also identifies three directions for further advancing attention to measurement and methodology in strategy research: expanding application of methods to new contexts, exploring linkages between advances in measurement and theory, and considering how methods can reveal previously untested relationships.
Strategic management research in the public sector from 1985 to 2009 is reviewed. 34 empirical articles are analyzed using a conceptual framework with determinants, processes, and outcomes. Determinants like the environment and institutional context influence strategic planning. Processes include plan formulation, strategy content, and implementation. Outcomes are organizational capacity and performance improvement, but few studies examine links between processes and outcomes. More research is needed on these links using large-N and comparative case study methods.
This document analyzes 26 years of strategic management research published in four leading journals. Through a content analysis of keywords, it classifies articles into different subfields of strategic management and tracks how these subfields have evolved over time. It also identifies the most prolific authors and most cited papers to understand their influence on the development of the field. The analysis aims to provide insights into both the current state and possible future directions of strategic management research.
Applying multiple streams theoretical framework to college matriculation poli...Alexander Decker
This document applies Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze China's college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers. It discusses how the problem stream indirectly opened the policy window by raising awareness of the issue, while the political stream directly opened it through organized advocacy efforts. However, the policy stream was absent due to a lack of viable alternatives meeting criteria. As a result, the policy window closed without a policy being adopted, contributing to the reform's perceived failure except in some localities.
This document describes a field experiment conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School to study how colocation impacts scientific collaboration. In the experiment, biomedical researchers who applied for a research grant were randomly assigned to breakout sessions at a research symposium, with the goal of introducing exogenous colocation between some pairs of researchers. The researchers found that pairs who were colocated at the symposium, allowing for face-to-face interaction, saw a 70% increase in likelihood of subsequently collaborating on the research grant application. Certain types of researcher pairs, such as those who worked in similar areas or had previously collaborated, saw even larger impacts from being colocated.
Redefining Politics 2 - A New Political OntologyStephen Lahanas
This presentation introduces a new framework for organizing political practice and knowledge through exploitation of a common meta-ontology.
This presentation is brought to you as part of Semantech's InnovatioWorx applied innovation series.
This document summarizes Daniel Béland's article "Ideas, institutions, and policy change" published in the Journal of European Public Policy in 2009. The summary is as follows:
1. Béland argues that ideas play an important role in policy change by shaping the problems addressed, the content of reform proposals, and the construction of reform imperatives.
2. Historical institutionalism does not fully account for how ideas impact agenda-setting, the specific policy choices made, and strategies to convince others of the need for change.
3. Béland draws on literature on ideas and framing to discuss how ideas help construct problems, shape policy assumptions, and become discursive tools to build
The document discusses political advisory systems and their relationships with civil services. It notes that while political advisers can expand advice available to politicians, they can also narrow policy options and weaken the civil service. The challenges of advisory systems include balancing political responsiveness with institutional stability and ensuring transparency and accountability in their operations.
Adversarial and cooperative models in contracting for public servicesShantanu Basu
This document discusses contracting for public services and the transition from government to governance. It identifies several confounding factors that add environmental uncertainty and complicate the principal-agent relationship in contracting. Specifically, it examines claims that contracting leads to improved economy, efficiency and effectiveness but finds limited empirical evidence supporting this. Research designs studying contracting often have flaws and do not account for all contextual factors. The level of cooperation between principals and agents may depend on environmental turbulence, which could determine contract types. A proposed study would use a standard set of variables and a typology matrix to categorize contracts based on cooperation levels and turbulence across different contexts.
Some Reflections on Agricultural Innovation Systems Methodological FrameworkILRI
1. The document discusses a methodological framework for analyzing agricultural innovation systems using a six step approach.
2. The six steps include reviewing historical background, policy environment, key actors, functions of actors, competencies and habits, and linkages between actors.
3. The framework is meant to provide an inclusive analysis of the innovation process by considering the various actors, institutions, relationships, and interactions that influence innovation.
Subsidiary Decision-making Autonomy: A Systematic Literature Review of The De...CSCJournals
Over the past decades, subsidiary's autonomy has emerged as a focal point of research concerning Multinational Corporations (MNCs). The concept of autonomy has influenced the four research streams identified by the scholars within the subsidiary-management literature, Strategy-Structure, Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships, Subsidiary Roles and Subsidiary Development, albeit with a different degree of intensity. However, despite the high number of contributions concerning this theme, only a few have dealt with the elements determining the autonomy of firms belonging to MNCs and a complete systematization of the empirical studies containing sets of variables able to explain subsidiary autonomy is still lacking. Aiming at contributing to fill this gap, a Systematic Literature Review methodology has been implemented to guarantee a rigorous procedure. The main findings of this paper are the identification of the explanatory elements for the autonomy, named differently by scholars during the forty years of this review, such as determinants, variables, or factors, and a further contribution in clustering them according to common characteristics. Research findings contribute to consolidate and synthetize the results into a comprehensive framework, providing the basis for further directions of future research concerning firm autonomy within business groups.
Rethink the politics of development in Africa? how the political settlement s...Dr Lendy Spires
This document analyzes how the distribution of political power within ruling coalitions in Ghana shaped the allocation of resources to the education sector from 1993 to 2008. It finds that under both the NDC and NPP governments, regions with more powerful factions within the ruling coalition received more education spending per capita compared to need. A political settlements approach focusing on how power is distributed within ruling coalitions provides insights into how politics influences development outcomes in Africa.
This document provides an introduction to the study guide for the course "Comparative Political Systems" for MA Political Science students at the University of Calicut School of Distance Education. It outlines the 7 modules that will be covered in the course, including the Nature, Evolution and Scope of Comparative Politics, Theories of Comparative Politics, Federalism and Constitutionalism, functions of government, interest groups and party systems, bureaucracy, and a comparative analysis of political systems in the UK, USA, France, Russia, and China. It also lists the authors who prepared and reviewed the material. The course uses a comparative approach to analyze different countries' political institutions and processes.
Howdy! Check this article with sociology dissertation length sample to understand what length should be. http://dissertationlength.com/sociology-dissertation-length
This document reviews recent research attempting to estimate the causal effect of social capital. It discusses how nonrandom friendship formation poses challenges for these estimates, as friends tend to choose others similar to themselves (social homophily). While social capital is often defined as resources from social networks, friendship selection means estimates could reflect underlying similarities rather than true effects. The review examines studies employing innovative methods to address this issue, such as using longitudinal data or quasi-experiments. Overall, progress has been made, though careful consideration of assumptions is still needed to make valid causal claims about social capital.
1) The document analyzes the social structuration of the field of entrepreneurship research through a case study of articles published in the Journal of Business Venturing between 1986-1993.
2) It finds that the field is fragmented with researchers organized into loose subnetworks and competing to establish the definition of valid research.
3) References cited in the articles reveal two main research areas but also show the field is constructed through the collective reference practices of authors rather than following established disciplines.
1. The first article examines how organizational structures affect perceptions of factors contributing to construction project failure in Pakistan. It analyzes data from a questionnaire given to industry professionals and finds that organizational structure influences perceptions of planning and team-related failure factors.
2. The second article studies how organizational structures and processes relate to perceived school effectiveness, loyalty, and job satisfaction. It administers surveys to teachers and finds that schools with more participative processes and less centralized decision-making are seen as more effective, while organizational structure has a weaker influence.
3. Both articles analyze how organizational design features like structure and processes impact perceptions of or factors relating to organizational performance. The first focuses on construction projects while the second examines schools. They
The document discusses the need for theories to simplify the complex public policymaking process. It explains that theories develop presuppositions to help analyze and classify information. A good theory is scientific, subject to empirical testing, explains phenomena, and addresses important factors. The document then summarizes several influential theoretical frameworks for analyzing the policy process, including the punctuated-equilibrium framework, advocacy coalition framework, and policy diffusion framework. These theories examine factors like periods of change, interactions between advocacy coalitions, and variation in policy adoption across jurisdictions.
This document discusses how external shocks can lead to policy change through different coalition opportunity structures (COS). It analyzes South Korea's transition from an authoritarian to pluralistic political system in the 1980s and how three major nuclear accidents affected nuclear policy under each system. The findings indicate that contrary to the Advocacy Coalition Framework's predictions, external shocks in an authoritarian COS are exploited by dominant coalitions to strengthen their power rather than lead to policy change. Only in a pluralistic COS can external shocks provide opportunities for minority coalitions to influence policy change. The case study explores how COS can mediate the relationship between external shocks and policy change.
This document outlines the structure and requirements for a group report analyzing issues related to a company's privacy, security, copyright, terms of service policies and other topics. The report should include an executive summary, introduction to the company, identification of stakeholders, an in-depth analysis of 2-3 issues, proposed suggestions for improving policies, reasoning for changes, citations and images/visual aids. It provides formatting guidelines and states the report will be graded based on various sections.
Based on the social capital theory, this article takes the Chinese inland scholars’ co-authorship network in the field of information science as the case, and investigates the influence of periphery authors’ network embeddedness on research impact by applying Poisson regression model. The empirical results indicate that: (1) Degree centrality positively affect the net citations, (2) an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between the degree centrality and the net citations, which confirms the existence of the optimal collaboration size, and (3) structural hole positively affect the net citations.
Mpa 573 Effective Communication - tutorialrank.comBartholomew69
For more course tutorials visit
www.tutorialrank.com
MPA 573 Week 1 Job Description Memo
Emily Bicchieri is a newly elected city council member in the City of Kelsey. As part of her orientation to her new position, Ms. Bicchieri wants to learn the roles and functions of the people she must rely on for information. Ms. Bicchieri has heard that you will be briefing her on policies and program; therefore, she would like to know more about your role as the policy analyst for the City of Kelsey.
Resource: Appendix 3 of Public Policy Analysis
Write a 350- to 700-word memo explaining your role as a pol
This document provides an outline for a group report analyzing issues related to a company. The outline includes sections for an executive summary, company introduction, stakeholders, issues analysis, and citations. The issues analysis section will examine the relevance of selected issues, provide suggestions for improving policies, and reasoning for why the company should change. The report will be 10-20 pages long and include at least 12 citations in APA, Chicago, or Bluebook style. Digital and printed copies will be submitted by the specified deadlines.
Gender ethnicity and entrepreneurship RPMartin Kenney
This document describes a freely available database of emerging growth firms that went public through initial public offerings (IPOs) on US markets from 1990 to 2010. The database contains information on over 3,900 firms and 43,000 individuals involved in their management and boards of directors. The authors illustrate how the database can be used by examining gender and nationality trends among top managers and boards. They find that women are underrepresented but more prevalent in certain roles and industries. They also find more European than Asian immigrants in managerial positions, suggesting Europeans are more likely to immigrate with advanced degrees. The authors demonstrate the database's value by analyzing the educational and career backgrounds of Taiwanese managers.
This document outlines the course outline for a Qualitative Research Methods for Public Policy course at the University of Dar Es Salaam. The course is divided into three parts: research design and methodology, foundational qualitative methods like archival research and interviews, and data analysis. Students will learn about qualitative research approaches and gain hands-on experience with methods and data analysis software. Assessment includes participation, group assignments, a research proposal and report, and a final exam. The course aims to provide students with solid training in qualitative methods for application in research and policy contexts.
Niels opstrup is assistant professor in the department of POLY33
This summary provides the key details about the document in 3 sentences:
The document discusses a study examining the relationship between gender diversity in top management teams (TMTs) and financial performance in Danish municipalities. The authors find that gender diversity in TMTs is associated with better financial results, but only in municipalities that have a management structure supporting cross-functional teamwork. The study contributes to research on how demographic diversity impacts public sector organizations and sheds light on organizational factors that help leverage the benefits of diverse management teams.
Applying multiple streams theoretical framework to college matriculation poli...Alexander Decker
This document discusses the application of Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze China's college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers. It analyzes how the political stream promoted the issue onto the government agenda but failed to enter the decision agenda due to the lack of viable policy alternatives. The article argues that for a proposal to succeed in China it must satisfy necessary criteria and consider institutional obstacles. It concludes that while the multiple streams theory can be applied to China, the absence of strong policy development hindered this reform from being successfully implemented.
Accountability of Local and State Governments in India.pdfunknownx7
This document provides an overview of recent research on accountability of local and state governments in India. It begins with an introduction to the concept of accountability and an analytical framework based on the Downsian model of electoral competition. It then reviews empirical studies on various factors that can lead to failures of accountability in India, including:
1) Limited voter participation and awareness, which can weaken the incentives for politicians to be responsive to citizens' needs.
2) Ideology, honesty and competence of political parties and candidates.
3) Capture by elites, where governments advance the interests of a few elite groups over the majority.
4) Clientelism and vote-buying, where politicians provide targeted private goods
The document discusses political advisory systems and their relationships with civil services. It notes that while political advisers can expand advice available to politicians, they can also narrow policy options and weaken the civil service. The challenges of advisory systems include balancing political responsiveness with institutional stability and ensuring transparency and accountability in their operations.
Adversarial and cooperative models in contracting for public servicesShantanu Basu
This document discusses contracting for public services and the transition from government to governance. It identifies several confounding factors that add environmental uncertainty and complicate the principal-agent relationship in contracting. Specifically, it examines claims that contracting leads to improved economy, efficiency and effectiveness but finds limited empirical evidence supporting this. Research designs studying contracting often have flaws and do not account for all contextual factors. The level of cooperation between principals and agents may depend on environmental turbulence, which could determine contract types. A proposed study would use a standard set of variables and a typology matrix to categorize contracts based on cooperation levels and turbulence across different contexts.
Some Reflections on Agricultural Innovation Systems Methodological FrameworkILRI
1. The document discusses a methodological framework for analyzing agricultural innovation systems using a six step approach.
2. The six steps include reviewing historical background, policy environment, key actors, functions of actors, competencies and habits, and linkages between actors.
3. The framework is meant to provide an inclusive analysis of the innovation process by considering the various actors, institutions, relationships, and interactions that influence innovation.
Subsidiary Decision-making Autonomy: A Systematic Literature Review of The De...CSCJournals
Over the past decades, subsidiary's autonomy has emerged as a focal point of research concerning Multinational Corporations (MNCs). The concept of autonomy has influenced the four research streams identified by the scholars within the subsidiary-management literature, Strategy-Structure, Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships, Subsidiary Roles and Subsidiary Development, albeit with a different degree of intensity. However, despite the high number of contributions concerning this theme, only a few have dealt with the elements determining the autonomy of firms belonging to MNCs and a complete systematization of the empirical studies containing sets of variables able to explain subsidiary autonomy is still lacking. Aiming at contributing to fill this gap, a Systematic Literature Review methodology has been implemented to guarantee a rigorous procedure. The main findings of this paper are the identification of the explanatory elements for the autonomy, named differently by scholars during the forty years of this review, such as determinants, variables, or factors, and a further contribution in clustering them according to common characteristics. Research findings contribute to consolidate and synthetize the results into a comprehensive framework, providing the basis for further directions of future research concerning firm autonomy within business groups.
Rethink the politics of development in Africa? how the political settlement s...Dr Lendy Spires
This document analyzes how the distribution of political power within ruling coalitions in Ghana shaped the allocation of resources to the education sector from 1993 to 2008. It finds that under both the NDC and NPP governments, regions with more powerful factions within the ruling coalition received more education spending per capita compared to need. A political settlements approach focusing on how power is distributed within ruling coalitions provides insights into how politics influences development outcomes in Africa.
This document provides an introduction to the study guide for the course "Comparative Political Systems" for MA Political Science students at the University of Calicut School of Distance Education. It outlines the 7 modules that will be covered in the course, including the Nature, Evolution and Scope of Comparative Politics, Theories of Comparative Politics, Federalism and Constitutionalism, functions of government, interest groups and party systems, bureaucracy, and a comparative analysis of political systems in the UK, USA, France, Russia, and China. It also lists the authors who prepared and reviewed the material. The course uses a comparative approach to analyze different countries' political institutions and processes.
Howdy! Check this article with sociology dissertation length sample to understand what length should be. http://dissertationlength.com/sociology-dissertation-length
This document reviews recent research attempting to estimate the causal effect of social capital. It discusses how nonrandom friendship formation poses challenges for these estimates, as friends tend to choose others similar to themselves (social homophily). While social capital is often defined as resources from social networks, friendship selection means estimates could reflect underlying similarities rather than true effects. The review examines studies employing innovative methods to address this issue, such as using longitudinal data or quasi-experiments. Overall, progress has been made, though careful consideration of assumptions is still needed to make valid causal claims about social capital.
1) The document analyzes the social structuration of the field of entrepreneurship research through a case study of articles published in the Journal of Business Venturing between 1986-1993.
2) It finds that the field is fragmented with researchers organized into loose subnetworks and competing to establish the definition of valid research.
3) References cited in the articles reveal two main research areas but also show the field is constructed through the collective reference practices of authors rather than following established disciplines.
1. The first article examines how organizational structures affect perceptions of factors contributing to construction project failure in Pakistan. It analyzes data from a questionnaire given to industry professionals and finds that organizational structure influences perceptions of planning and team-related failure factors.
2. The second article studies how organizational structures and processes relate to perceived school effectiveness, loyalty, and job satisfaction. It administers surveys to teachers and finds that schools with more participative processes and less centralized decision-making are seen as more effective, while organizational structure has a weaker influence.
3. Both articles analyze how organizational design features like structure and processes impact perceptions of or factors relating to organizational performance. The first focuses on construction projects while the second examines schools. They
The document discusses the need for theories to simplify the complex public policymaking process. It explains that theories develop presuppositions to help analyze and classify information. A good theory is scientific, subject to empirical testing, explains phenomena, and addresses important factors. The document then summarizes several influential theoretical frameworks for analyzing the policy process, including the punctuated-equilibrium framework, advocacy coalition framework, and policy diffusion framework. These theories examine factors like periods of change, interactions between advocacy coalitions, and variation in policy adoption across jurisdictions.
This document discusses how external shocks can lead to policy change through different coalition opportunity structures (COS). It analyzes South Korea's transition from an authoritarian to pluralistic political system in the 1980s and how three major nuclear accidents affected nuclear policy under each system. The findings indicate that contrary to the Advocacy Coalition Framework's predictions, external shocks in an authoritarian COS are exploited by dominant coalitions to strengthen their power rather than lead to policy change. Only in a pluralistic COS can external shocks provide opportunities for minority coalitions to influence policy change. The case study explores how COS can mediate the relationship between external shocks and policy change.
This document outlines the structure and requirements for a group report analyzing issues related to a company's privacy, security, copyright, terms of service policies and other topics. The report should include an executive summary, introduction to the company, identification of stakeholders, an in-depth analysis of 2-3 issues, proposed suggestions for improving policies, reasoning for changes, citations and images/visual aids. It provides formatting guidelines and states the report will be graded based on various sections.
Based on the social capital theory, this article takes the Chinese inland scholars’ co-authorship network in the field of information science as the case, and investigates the influence of periphery authors’ network embeddedness on research impact by applying Poisson regression model. The empirical results indicate that: (1) Degree centrality positively affect the net citations, (2) an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between the degree centrality and the net citations, which confirms the existence of the optimal collaboration size, and (3) structural hole positively affect the net citations.
Mpa 573 Effective Communication - tutorialrank.comBartholomew69
For more course tutorials visit
www.tutorialrank.com
MPA 573 Week 1 Job Description Memo
Emily Bicchieri is a newly elected city council member in the City of Kelsey. As part of her orientation to her new position, Ms. Bicchieri wants to learn the roles and functions of the people she must rely on for information. Ms. Bicchieri has heard that you will be briefing her on policies and program; therefore, she would like to know more about your role as the policy analyst for the City of Kelsey.
Resource: Appendix 3 of Public Policy Analysis
Write a 350- to 700-word memo explaining your role as a pol
This document provides an outline for a group report analyzing issues related to a company. The outline includes sections for an executive summary, company introduction, stakeholders, issues analysis, and citations. The issues analysis section will examine the relevance of selected issues, provide suggestions for improving policies, and reasoning for why the company should change. The report will be 10-20 pages long and include at least 12 citations in APA, Chicago, or Bluebook style. Digital and printed copies will be submitted by the specified deadlines.
Gender ethnicity and entrepreneurship RPMartin Kenney
This document describes a freely available database of emerging growth firms that went public through initial public offerings (IPOs) on US markets from 1990 to 2010. The database contains information on over 3,900 firms and 43,000 individuals involved in their management and boards of directors. The authors illustrate how the database can be used by examining gender and nationality trends among top managers and boards. They find that women are underrepresented but more prevalent in certain roles and industries. They also find more European than Asian immigrants in managerial positions, suggesting Europeans are more likely to immigrate with advanced degrees. The authors demonstrate the database's value by analyzing the educational and career backgrounds of Taiwanese managers.
This document outlines the course outline for a Qualitative Research Methods for Public Policy course at the University of Dar Es Salaam. The course is divided into three parts: research design and methodology, foundational qualitative methods like archival research and interviews, and data analysis. Students will learn about qualitative research approaches and gain hands-on experience with methods and data analysis software. Assessment includes participation, group assignments, a research proposal and report, and a final exam. The course aims to provide students with solid training in qualitative methods for application in research and policy contexts.
Niels opstrup is assistant professor in the department of POLY33
This summary provides the key details about the document in 3 sentences:
The document discusses a study examining the relationship between gender diversity in top management teams (TMTs) and financial performance in Danish municipalities. The authors find that gender diversity in TMTs is associated with better financial results, but only in municipalities that have a management structure supporting cross-functional teamwork. The study contributes to research on how demographic diversity impacts public sector organizations and sheds light on organizational factors that help leverage the benefits of diverse management teams.
Applying multiple streams theoretical framework to college matriculation poli...Alexander Decker
This document discusses the application of Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze China's college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers. It analyzes how the political stream promoted the issue onto the government agenda but failed to enter the decision agenda due to the lack of viable policy alternatives. The article argues that for a proposal to succeed in China it must satisfy necessary criteria and consider institutional obstacles. It concludes that while the multiple streams theory can be applied to China, the absence of strong policy development hindered this reform from being successfully implemented.
Accountability of Local and State Governments in India.pdfunknownx7
This document provides an overview of recent research on accountability of local and state governments in India. It begins with an introduction to the concept of accountability and an analytical framework based on the Downsian model of electoral competition. It then reviews empirical studies on various factors that can lead to failures of accountability in India, including:
1) Limited voter participation and awareness, which can weaken the incentives for politicians to be responsive to citizens' needs.
2) Ideology, honesty and competence of political parties and candidates.
3) Capture by elites, where governments advance the interests of a few elite groups over the majority.
4) Clientelism and vote-buying, where politicians provide targeted private goods
BMIS 580Course Project Phase 2 Literature Review Assignment InsJeniceStuckeyoo
This document provides instructions for completing Phase 2 of a course project, which involves writing a literature review. The literature review must be at least 1,900 words and contain a minimum of 10 peer-reviewed sources. It must follow APA format and contain title, reference, and appendix pages if needed. The literature review should establish a theoretical framework for the topic, define key terms, identify supporting studies and models, and define the problem or area of study. The introduction should restate the project problem and purpose from Phase 1 and establish importance. The review of literature section should discuss what the research says about the problem and identify supporting studies. The conclusion should state how the literature attempts to solve the problem and if it leads to an appropriate
■ Academic PaperModern leadership principles for publica.docxoswald1horne84988
This academic paper argues for a new theory of public leadership based on three principles: authentic leadership, transformational leadership, and distributed leadership. It summarizes research showing that while effective leadership is important for public organizations, traditional views of limiting leadership's role have hindered the field. The paper proposes incorporating principles of authentic leadership to ensure leaders act in accordance with democratic values, transformational leadership to develop skilled public workers, and distributed leadership to address today's complex public organization structures. It analyzes a survey finding support for applying these modern leadership theories in the public sector. The paper calls for further research on how these principles relate to improved public organization performance and outcomes.
This document provides an overview of political economy analysis (PEA) and its operational relevance and impact on aid effectiveness. It discusses how PEA aims to situate development interventions within an understanding of prevailing political and economic processes to support more feasible strategies. While PEA highlights constraints, recent tools make it more actionable at sector and program levels. There is some evidence it improves donor awareness but limited evidence directly linking PEA to outcomes due to challenges evaluating intangible politically-informed activities. Overall PEA has increased in development thinking but implementing thinking politically faces barriers in entrenched donor institutions and incentives.
Respond to the colleagues post detailed below, with a discussio.docxpeggyd2
Respond
to the colleague's post detailed below, with a discussion of why the evaluation of policies is often controversial and political and how the values of evaluation conflict adhere to social work values. What policy advocacy skills can social workers use to ensure that appropriate evaluations are being conducted on policies?
RE: Discussion 1 - Week 11
COLLAPSE
A response to Jansson's assertion that evaluating specific policies is strongly influenced by values with respect to the case of the evaluation of special services.
According to Jansson (2018), an example of roadblocks in passing a research-based policy was given where an advocate performed an 18 month-long study on families that had been broken up receiving special services. In this study, the advocate found that even though her research showed that the services cut the overall costs of the governing bodies providing for the children and led to more families being reunified, she may still encounter decision makers actively arguing against the implementation of her policy calling for more funding towards special services. This assertion by the author of the textbook seems to hold weight as it has been found that, in previous cases of attempted policy implementation, decision makers have often prioritized their values over the research that is presented in front of them. For example, in cases where advocates wish to pass a needle exchange program, decision makers still vote against the policy and claim that a program such as this will only increase drug usage by individuals, despite the data showing the opposite effect happening (p. 493-495).
How the values of evaluation conflict adhere to social work values
In trying to perform the best possible research to back up a proposal for a policy, sometimes the individual performing the research may place more importance on goals of the research that should not be as important as others (Jansson, 2018, p. 494). A social worker may place more importance on cost-saving measures of a policy over the course of their research, rather than the overall well-being of the individuals who are subject to the research, which may conflict with core social work values. According to the NASW Code of Ethics (2017), a core value of social work is to advocate for social justice and fight for those populations that experience oppression and are vulnerable (2017). If a social worker prioritizes the cost efficiency of a policy to appease to the values of the decision makers over seeing if the policy is indeed helpful to the populations that it seeks to serve, then there exists a conflict between the evaluation of a policy and the overall social work values. However, it is important for advocates to make sure that any research being performed on potential policies have goals that are aligned with the core values of social work, namely that these policies advocate against social injustice for vulnerable populations, recognize the importance of relati.
A Review Of Experimental Evidence Of How Communication Affects Attitudes To I...Lori Moore
This summarizes 68 experimental studies on how communication affects attitudes toward immigration. The studies are categorized into 9 common communication strategies: 1) providing information to correct misperceptions, 2) appealing to emotions, 3) appealing to self-interest vs common interest, 4) emphasizing diversity vs conformity, 5) migrant descriptions, 6) emphasizing common ground, 7) appealing to empathy, 8) using certain messengers, and 9) appealing to identity. Most strategies are found to effectively influence immigration attitudes positively, except appealing to diversity which is ineffective, and appealing to self-interest and correcting migrant stock information which are mostly ineffective.
This document provides an overview of a PhD research proposal that will examine the social role of marketing audits in strategic planning processes. The research aims to understand how marketing audits develop social exchange, control, and order across organizations. Specifically, it will explore the boundary-spanning elements and social vocabulary of marketing audits, and how their role may change in different institutional contexts like competitive or permission-seeking environments. The research argues that a deeper understanding of the social mechanisms behind marketing audits is needed, as tools like these play an increasingly important role in shaping management thought and can influence strategy in unintended ways through their language and assumptions.
Implementing Intervention Research into PublicPolicy—the BI3MalikPinckney86
This document discusses the need to better integrate intervention research and implementation research. It argues that intervention programs are often not successfully transferred into practice or public policy due to a lack of consideration for implementation factors. The document proposes a six-step approach called PASCIT to systematically connect intervention and implementation research from the beginning. This involves recognizing problems from a mission-driven perspective, ensuring robust intervention knowledge, identifying starting points for action, establishing cooperation with policymakers, and coordinating the joint development and implementation of interventions. An example of applying this approach is provided with the ViSC social competence program.
Jnl Publ. Pol., 32, 2, 79–98 r Cambridge University Press, 201.docxchristiandean12115
Jnl Publ. Pol., 32, 2, 79–98 r Cambridge University Press, 2012
doi:10.1017/S0143814X12000049
Policy formulation, governance shifts and policy
influence: location and content in policy
advisory systems
J O N A T H A N C R A F T Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser
University, Canada
M I C H A E L H O W L E T T Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser
University, Canada
A B S T R A C T
Most studies of policy formulation focus on the nature and kind of advice
provided to decision-makers and think of this as originating from a system of
interacting elements: a ‘‘policy advisory system’’. Policy influence in such models
has historically been viewed as based on considerations of the proximate location
of policy advisors vis à vis the government, linked to related factors such as the
extent to which governments are able to control sources of advice. While not
explicitly stated, this approach typically presents the content of policy advice as
either partisan ‘‘political’’ or administratively ‘‘technical’’ in nature. This article
assesses the merits of these locational models against evidence of shifts in govern-
ance arrangements that have blurred both the inside vs outside and technical vs
political dimensions of policy formulation environments. It argues that the
growing plurality of advisory sources and the polycentrism associated with
these governance shifts challenge the utility of both the implied content and
locational dimensions of traditional models of policy advice systems. A revised
approach is advanced that sees influence more as a product of content than
location. The article concludes by raising several hypotheses for future
research linking advisory system behaviour to governance arrangements.
Key words: Policy advice, policy advisory systems, influence, policy formulation
Introduction
The nature and sources of policy advice received by decision-makers in the
policy formulation process are subjects that have received their fair share of
scholarly attention. Many journals and specialised publications exist on
these topics and specialised graduate schools exist in most countries with
the aim of training policy analysts to provide better advice to decision-
makers based on their findings (Banfield, 1980; Geva-May and Maslove,
2007; Jann, 1991; Tribe, 1972). Studies have examined hundreds of case
studies of policy-making and policy formulation in multiple countries
(Durning and Osama, 1994; Fischer, 2003) and many texts chronicle
various policy analytical techniques expected to be used in the provision of
policy advice (Banfield, 1980; Weimer and Vining, 2004). Yet surprisingly
little systematic thinking exists about this crucial component and stage of
the policy-making process and many findings remain anecdotal and their
paedagogical value suspect (Howlett, Perl and Ramesh, 2009).
One problem with the early literature on the subject was that many
past examinations of policy advice focused on specific sets of po.
This document summarizes a case study examining resistance to change within the US State Department during the implementation of a new management initiative called ICASS. ICASS aimed to restructure administrative support and shift costs to other agencies with overseas presences. The study used interviews and surveys of State Department and other federal agency employees involved in ICASS implementation. It found significant resistance from stakeholders who felt their roles, control, and benefits were threatened by the changes. Understanding sources of this political and psychological resistance could help make future organizational reforms more successful.
This document discusses trends in leadership over time. It begins by looking at past models of leadership from the 20th century focused on situational and trait-based theories. More recent models in the past few decades have focused on transformational and instructional leadership. The document then examines current trends showing leadership as more distributed and collaborative. It discusses how future leadership will require adaptability, creativity, and drawing on personal values rather than following set rules. Leaders will need to motivate teams by connecting work to common goals and fostering responsibility. The conclusion discusses developing leadership over time through self-reflection and experiences that challenge one's self-concept.
1) The document discusses agenda setting in the policy process and how clinical practice issues can be moved onto organizational agendas.
2) It provides required readings on stakeholder engagement, policy briefs, nursing advocacy, and research usefulness for policymaking.
3) Readers are asked to identify a clinical practice issue for their organization's agenda, stakeholders interested in the issue, and strategies to inform and persuade stakeholders of the issue's importance.
Can aid bureaucracies think politically? The administrative challenges of pol...Dr Lendy Spires
This document summarizes a paper that examines the challenges of institutionalizing political economy analysis (PEA) within aid agencies. It focuses on the experiences of DFID and the World Bank in implementing PEA frameworks in Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda. While both agencies promote PEA as a way to improve aid effectiveness, the study finds that PEA has not been fully integrated into programming, management practices, or professional norms within the agencies. PEA remains confined mainly to governance specialists and has not disseminated more broadly. The future of PEA depends more on organizational change within agencies than on any particular analytical framework.
P o l i t i c a l c s r d o e s d e m o c r a t i c t h DIPESH30
The document discusses building a personal learning network for doctoral students, outlining essential members such as other students, professors, career professionals, veterans, and spiritual advisors. It describes how to connect with these groups through tools like social media, university resources, and meeting platforms. The purpose of a personal learning network is to improve engagement, develop relationships, and gain knowledge and insights from a community of diverse individuals.
1) The document discusses agenda setting in the policy process and how clinical practice issues can be moved onto organizational agendas. It provides required readings on stakeholder engagement, policy briefs, and examples of nursing advocacy in policymaking.
2) Students are asked to identify a clinical practice issue for their organization's agenda and propose strategies to inform and persuade stakeholders of its importance using insights from the provided media presentation and readings.
SYMPOSIUM CONCLUSION FUTURE RESEARCH ON THE DIMENSIONS OF.docxssuserf9c51d
SYMPOSIUM CONCLUSION: FUTURE RESEARCH
ON THE DIMENSIONS OF COLLABORATION
JOY A. CLAY
University of Memphis
As the research findings in this symposium
demonstrate, public and nonprofit managers in health and
human service agencies continue to collaborate with
multiple goals in mind. As would be anticipated, the
collaborations described in the symposium generally
addressed service gaps, enhanced services, improved
access, and expanded programs. A common underlying
expectation was that participation in the collaboration
would further an agency’s mission (Goodsell, 2011). As
cautioned by Word in her commentary, however, making
joint decisions and sharing power does not come easy when
agencies also must respond to countervailing pressures that
inherently flow from the agency’s political, social, and
economic contexts.
Overall, the symposium examines levels of
linkages, decision-making, hierarchy, autonomy, shared
administration, governance, outcomes, and more.
Reflecting their various research questions, the authors use
a variety of methods to examine the multiple dimensions of
collaboration. Clearly, the symposium’s researchers are
building on and adding to our knowledge about
cooperation, coordination, and collaboration (Keast,
Brown, & Mandell, 2007; Keast, Mandell, Brown, &
Woolcock, 2004) as well as how to assess the multiple
dimensions of collaboration. The authors effectively used
existing instruments and models to understand
collaboration dimensions but also propose new models and
test metrics/variables.
140 JHHSA SUMMER 2012
RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
The case authors and practitioner commentaries
respectively offer interesting suggestions for potentially
fruitful research directions. In reacting to the symposium,
key research directions appear to have some urgency.
Clearly, an important area of research should include a
fuller examination of collaboration impacts, beyond the
outcomes of a specific collaborative effort to community-
wide issues of equity, diversity, fairness, and
responsiveness. Mayhew’s research draws attention to the
need for more attention to how end users, not just the
collaboration participants, assess the effectiveness of the
collaboration and whether the resulting programming
actually yields innovation and effectiveness. Similarly,
Wrobel comments that assessing additional stakeholders,
especially parents, is needed to assess the impact on the
children and families served by a collaborative. These
researchers convincingly argue that there has been
insufficient attention to measure end user perceptions of
outcomes from collaborations.
Especially relevant to health and human services
sectors, research directed at improving our capacity to
identify specific indicators that pinpoint cultures of
competition vs. collaboration could enable participants and
policymakers to build more effective collaboration ...
This document provides a preliminary literature review of policy engineering methods related to the concept of responsibility. It summarizes key access control models and discusses how they address concepts like capability, accountability, and commitment. The document also reviews engineering methods and how they incorporate responsibility considerations. The overall goal is to orient further research towards a new policy model and engineering method that more fully addresses stakeholder responsibility.
Public private partnerships (ppp) in disaster managementfswardhana134680
This document discusses public-private partnerships (PPPs) in disaster management in developing countries. It provides a literature review on PPPs and their potential application to disaster management. The document develops a conceptual framework describing how partnerships between public and private actors, with certain characteristics like risk-sharing and coordination, could help establish platforms to contribute to disaster management objectives in developing countries.
This document discusses building resilience to disasters through partnerships based on lessons from the Hyogo Framework for Action. It outlines how the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction partnership works with stakeholders to build legitimacy for agreements like the Hyogo Framework. The Hyogo Framework emphasizes a shared responsibility for disaster risk reduction among all actors. It also highlights challenges like continuing risk accumulation and the need to better integrate disaster risk reduction into development plans and budgets. National platforms have engaged stakeholders in over 80 countries, but coordinating action across sectors and levels of government remains a challenge that needs to be addressed in future frameworks.
Dokumen tersebut membahas tentang kepemimpinan situasional, yang merupakan proses mempengaruhi orang lain untuk merealisasikan tujuan bersama. Kepemimpinan situasional melibatkan fleksibilitas gaya kepemimpinan sesuai dengan kompetensi dan komitmen bawahan. Terdapat empat tingkat perkembangan bawahan dan gaya kepemimpinan yang sesuai untuk setiap tingkatan. Model kepemimpinan situasional memiliki du
The Antyodaya Saral Haryana Portal is a pioneering initiative by the Government of Haryana aimed at providing citizens with seamless access to a wide range of government services
Combined Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Vessel List.Christina Parmionova
The best available, up-to-date information on all fishing and related vessels that appear on the illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing vessel lists published by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) and related organisations. The aim of the site is to improve the effectiveness of the original IUU lists as a tool for a wide variety of stakeholders to better understand and combat illegal fishing and broader fisheries crime.
To date, the following regional organisations maintain or share lists of vessels that have been found to carry out or support IUU fishing within their own or adjacent convention areas and/or species of competence:
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT)
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM)
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO)
North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC)
North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC)
South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO)
South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO)
Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA)
Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)
The Combined IUU Fishing Vessel List merges all these sources into one list that provides a single reference point to identify whether a vessel is currently IUU listed. Vessels that have been IUU listed in the past and subsequently delisted (for example because of a change in ownership, or because the vessel is no longer in service) are also retained on the site, so that the site contains a full historic record of IUU listed fishing vessels.
Unlike the IUU lists published on individual RFMO websites, which may update vessel details infrequently or not at all, the Combined IUU Fishing Vessel List is kept up to date with the best available information regarding changes to vessel identity, flag state, ownership, location, and operations.
Jennifer Schaus and Associates hosts a complimentary webinar series on The FAR in 2024. Join the webinars on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, eastern.
Recordings are on YouTube and the company website.
https://www.youtube.com/@jenniferschaus/videos
Jennifer Schaus and Associates hosts a complimentary webinar series on The FAR in 2024. Join the webinars on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, eastern.
Recordings are on YouTube and the company website.
https://www.youtube.com/@jenniferschaus/videos
About Potato, The scientific name of the plant is Solanum tuberosum (L).Christina Parmionova
The potato is a starchy root vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile
Synopsis (short abstract) In December 2023, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 30 May as the International Day of Potato.
UN WOD 2024 will take us on a journey of discovery through the ocean's vastness, tapping into the wisdom and expertise of global policy-makers, scientists, managers, thought leaders, and artists to awaken new depths of understanding, compassion, collaboration and commitment for the ocean and all it sustains. The program will expand our perspectives and appreciation for our blue planet, build new foundations for our relationship to the ocean, and ignite a wave of action toward necessary change.
Awaken new depths - World Ocean Day 2024, June 8th.
Policy Capacity
1. See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284137897
Policy capacity: A conceptual framework for understanding policy
competences and capabilities
Article in Policy and Society · November 2015
DOI: 10.1016/j.polsoc.2015.09.001
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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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2. Policy capacity: A conceptual framework for understanding
policy competences and capabilities
X. Wu a,*, M. Ramesh a
, M. Howlett a,b
a
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
b
Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
Abstract
Although policy capacity is among the most fundamental concepts in public policy, there is considerable disagreement over its
definition and very few systematic efforts try to operationalize and measure it. This article presents a conceptual framework for
analysing and measuring policy capacity under which policy capacity refers to the competencies and capabilities important to
policy-making. Competences are categorized into three general types of skills essential for policy success—analytical, operational
and political—while policy capabilities are assessed at the individual, organizational and system resource levels. Policy failures
often result from imbalanced attention to these nine different components of policy capacity and the conceptual framework
presented in the paper provides a diagnostic tool to identify such capacity gaps. It offers critical insights into strategies able to
overcome such gaps in professional behaviour, organizational and managerial activities, and the policy systems involved in policy-
making.
# 2015 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction: Policy capacity in theory and practice
Policy capacity has emerged as a major concern as governments are called upon to address increasingly complex
problems. The increasing complexity of many contemporary policy problems coupled with rising expectations of the
public present unprecedented challenges to the capacity of governments to make and implement effective policies.
The global financial crisis of 2008, for example, starkly underscored the inability of industrialized countries to govern
the global financial sector, not to mention developing countries where this and other capacity deficits are
understandably pronounced and persistent.
Such concerns have sparked a renewed interest both among practitioners and scholars about the nature of policy
capacity, its definition and composition in the contemporary era (Fukuyama, 2013; OECD, 2006).
Most scholars define policy capacity from the perspective of the government as affecting ‘‘the ability of
governments to make intelligent choices’’ (Painter & Pierre, 2005), to scan the environment and set strategic
directions (Howlett & Lindquist, 2004), to weigh and assess the implications of policy alternatives (Bakvis,
2000), and to make appropriate use of knowledge in policy-making (Parsons, 2004). While it is a cliche´ to argue
www.elsevier.com/locate/polsoc
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sppwuxun@nus.edu.sg (X. Wu), mramesh@nus.edu.sg (M. Ramesh), howlett@sfu.ca (M. Howlett).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polsoc.2015.09.001
1449-4035/# 2015 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
3. having adequate policy capacity is a necessary pre-condition for policy success, there are many disagreements
about the detailed conceptual and definitional aspects of the subject which have hindered efforts at better
understanding and diagnosis, and improved practice.
Some scholars, for example, have opted for limited or restricted definitions of capacity, concentrating only on the
availability or quality of specific and particular skills such as policy advising to support decision-making. Painter and
Pierre (2005), for example, define policy capacity as: ‘‘. . . the ability to marshal the necessary resources to make
intelligent collective choices, in particular to set strategic directions, for the allocation of scarce resources to public
ends.’’ Others have similarly retained this relatively narrow focus but included additional skills and resources such as
those involved in the acquisition and utilization of policy relevant knowledge, the ability to frame options, the
application of both qualitative and quantitative research methods to policy problems, the effective use of
communications, and stakeholder management strategies (Howlett, 2009).
On the other hand, others such as Davis (2000), have called for a more expansive definition, arguing policy capacity
should include the ability of governments to efficiently implement preferred choices of action as well as decide upon
them. Still others have focussed their attention on the meta-level of governance. Parsons (2004), for example, defined
policy capacity as the ‘weaving’ function of modern governments—the ability to join together the multiplicity of
organizations and interests to form a coherent policy fabric. Holmberg and Rothstein (2012) and Rotberg (2014)
similarly go well beyond policy formulation in emphasizing the systemic and structural preconditions of good
governance, such as honesty, rule-of-law, merit appointments, social trust and legitimacy, as key components of policy
capacity.
Coming from a Public Management perspective, Moore (1995) has proposed a ‘‘strategic triangle’’ comprising
public value, legitimacy and support, and organizational capacity as crucial for the effective functioning of public
sector agencies. But there is also little agreement on whether concepts of policy capacity should be restricted to the
capacity of only government or public service, or be expanded to include the non-governmental and private sectors.
Fellegi (1996), for example argues that the concept of policy capacity should include the nature and quality of the
resources available to review, formulate and implement policies, and the practices and procedures by which these
resources are mobilized and used, both within the public service and beyond it to the non-governmental sector and to
society as a whole. Whether and to what extent such ‘governance capacity’ differs from ‘policy capacity’ (Howlett &
Ramesh, 2015) remains a key question in this area.
Thus while the scholarly literature offers a large number of different definitions of policy capacity that highlight
different dimensions of the subject, there has been to date no systematic attempt to develop a working definition of
policy capacity that encompasses all of these elements and their interrelationships. Most of the existing definitions of
policy capacity focus on what can be done with it, such as ‘‘to make intelligent collective decisions’’ and ‘‘to weigh and
assess different alternatives’’, but fall short of specifying not only what constitutes policy capacity but how existing
and potential resources and skills can be combined to augment and deploy it. This lack of a practical operational
definition has resulted in limited use of the concept in practice despite the attention paid to it in the scholarly
community (Brown, Bezo, & Nanivska, 2013; Hallsworth & Rutter, 2011; Wang, 2013).
This article serves to fill this gap and introduces a framework for analysing policy capacity which each of the
articles in this special issue subsequently develops and expands upon.
2. Defining policy capacity: An conceptual framework
Policy capacity is defined here, similar to Gleeson, Legge, and O’Neill (2009) and Gleeson, Legge, O’Neill, and
Pfeffer (2011), as the set of skills and resources—or competences and capabilities—necessary to perform policy
functions. Following on Moore’s (1995) analysis, key skills or competences which comprise policy capacity can be
categorized into three types: analytical, operational and political. Each of these three competences involves resources
or capabilities at three different levels—individual, organizational, and systemic—generating nine basic types of
policy-relevant capacity. This is the basic model or framework employed in this special issue.
This definition, comprising three sets of skills and competences and three levels of resources and capabilities, is
sufficiently broad to encompass all the aspects of policy capacity cited by the authors mentioned above, and allows
their similarities and differences to be demonstrated in a clear and straightforward fashion. This, in turn, allows for a
superior operationalization of the concept and its translation into practice than has heretofore been possible.
Our overall framework of policy capacity is shown in Table 1.
X. Wu et al. / Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171166
4. While serving to synthesize the literature cited above, the nested logic of this model outlined in Fig. 1 also contains
several significant departures from past efforts made to define policy capacity. First of all, it is not restricted to a
particular function, stage or task in a policy process, but rather covers all policy processes, including agenda setting,
formulation, decision-making, implementation and evaluation. This recognizes that the nature of the challenges
government’s face in performing these policy functions is quite different and adequate capacity in carrying out one
task does not guarantee the effective performance of other functions. At the same time, it allows for the possibility that
there are often skills and resources that can be shared across task environments.
The second significant difference is that the concept goes beyond the government in understanding capacity,
recognizing that a wide range of organizations, such as political parties, NGOs, private businesses, and international
organizations, as well as multiple government agencies, are involved in policy processes and thus their capacities
affect the government’s own capacity to perform. That is, the skills and resources of governments have counterparts in
policy-oriented non-governmental organizations and need to exist or be built up if either of these actors is to be
effective in their policy roles. Therefore, while the policy capacity of a government plays the key role in determining
policy outcomes, and is the principle subject of inquiry here, the model recognizes that the capacity of other
stakeholders in policy-making is an important aspect of policy capacity which needs to be subjected to similar
treatment.
Third the taxonomy allows for a nested model of capacities in which system level resources affect organizational
ones and vice versa, just as organizational and individual level resources interact in the same fashion.
At the system level, capabilities such as the level of support and trust a public agency enjoys from its political
masters and from the society at large as well as the nature of the economic and security systems within which policy-
makers operate, are key components of policy capacity. Factors such as trust and available personnel and financial
resources are critical determinants of organizational capabilities and thus of public managers’ and analysts’ ability to
perform their policy work. Political support both from above and below is vital because agencies and managers must
be considered legitimate by citizens and policy subjects in order to access resources and support from their authorizing
institutions and constituencies on a continuing basis, and such resources must also be available for award in the first
place (Painter & Pierre, 2005).
While existing definitions of policy capacity tend to focus on capacity at the macro level, such as the whole
government or the country, policy capacity at such a level does not exist in a vacuum, and the skills and competences
displayed by individual players and institutions play decisive roles in performing key functions in policy processes. At
the individual level, policy professionals—such as policy-makers, public managers, and policy analysts—play a key
role in determining how well various tasks and functions in policy process are conducted, and their policy capacity is
determined by their knowledge about policy processes, skills in policy analysis and evaluation, managerial expertise,
and political judgement. However, high levels of individual policy capacity may not guarantee policy effectiveness
because various other resources and capacities are required at the organizational level as well as at system level if they
are to perform these tasks effectively.
At the organizational level, the availability and effectiveness of information infrastructure, human and financial
resource management systems, and political support, can enhance or detract from individual capabilities.
Organizations that unduly circumscribe individual decision making responsibility or undermine morale among policy
professionals, for example, can undermine an agency’s ability to acquit its functions (Gleeson et al., 2011; Tiernan &
Wanna, 2006).
Fourth, it bears repeating that the conceptual framework defines policy capacity as what results from the
combinations of skills and resources at each level. Analytical-level capacities help to ensure policy actions are
X. Wu et al. / Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171 167
Table 1
Policy capacity: skills and resources.
Levels of resources and capabilities Skills and competences
Analytical Operational Political
Individual Individual analytical capacity Individual operational capacity Individual political capacity
Organizational Organizational analytical capacity Organizational operational capacity Organizational political capacity
Systemic Systemic analytical capacity Systemic operational capacity Systemic political capacity
5. technically sound in the sense they can contribute to attainment of policy goals if carried out. Operational-level
capacity allows the alignment of resources with policy actions so that they can be implemented in practice. And
political-level capacity helps to obtain and sustain political support for policy actions (Fukuyama, 2013; Gleeson
et al., 2009, 2011; Rotberg, 2014; Tiernan & Wanna, 2006).
Although these analytical, operational and political-level capacities are inter-connected, they are governed by
different considerations and their contributions to policy process are separable and irreplaceable. However they may
not all be required for particular actions to succeed. Rather some may be more critical than others, a possibility allowed
for in this arrangement (Howlett & Ramesh, 2015). Such a categorization of ‘critical capacities’ offers considerable
advantages in the application of the concept in practice, as improvements in any of the three types of competences are
affected by different processes, considerations which are lost when any are ignored or their impact incorrectly
assessed.
This multi-dimensional perspective on policy and governance capacity allows us to understand better why policy
failures are widespread and persistent: policy successes demand high levels of capacities in multiple dimensions—
analytical, operational and political—but not always in equal measure or all at once. Building and attaining required
capacities are difficult goals to meet in practice but not impossible as the articles in this issue attest.
3. Articles in this issue
Each article in this special issue addresses one of the basic types of policy capacity set out in Table 1 and helps
illustrate how such capacity emerges and how it can be augmented and enhanced.
3.1. Analytical capacities
Referring to individual-analytical capacity, Michael Howlett in this volume argues all governments need a
significant number of officials with a modicum of analytical capacity, defined as the ability to access and apply
technical and scientific knowledge and analytical techniques, if they are to be able to devise and implement policies in
an efficient and cost-effective way. This is especially important in the context of the growing emphasis on evidence-
based policy making which requires that officials involved in policy work have the ability to absorb and process
information in all aspects of policy formulation, decision-making, implementation and evaluation. Many studies of
knowledge utilization in government point out that governments do not often use evidence even when it is available
because they lack the skills to use it. This discussion suggests governments, as a whole, exhibit an uneven distribution
of capacities, technical capabilities, and utilization practices across different organizational and thematic venues and
this can be problematic for policy-making.
Governments and their agencies also must possess ample organizational-analytical capacity, defined by Valerie
Pattyn and Marlene Brans in their article as the availability of individuals with analytical skills, existence of a
X. Wu et al. / Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171168
Political Capacity
Analytical
Capacity
Operational
CapacitySystem
Organization
Individual
Fig. 1. A nested model of policy capacity.
6. machinery and processes for collecting and analysing data, and organizational commitment to evidence-based policy,
if they are to be effective. An efficient information system for collecting and disseminating information within and
across public sector agencies is especially important in the context of the present day emphasis on evidence-based
policy-making which requires not only the ability to analyse data but also its availability in a timely and systematic
manner (Davies, Nutley, & Smith, 2000). Pattyn and Brans study the evaluation capacity of Flemish public
organizations in Belgium with the purpose of understanding organizational-analytical capacity. Their paper highlights
the capabilities governments need to build and enhance their evaluation ability and ultimately their organizational-
analytical capacity.
In her contribution, Angel Hsu deals with systemic-analytical capacity, defined as the general state of scientific,
statistical, and educational facilities in a society which allows policy makers and workers to access high quality
information to carry on their analytical and managerial functions. She finds the state of education in general and public
policy education and training in particular, along with diligent collection and widespread dissemination of data on
public affairs, to have a strong impact on governments’ capacity to perform their functions. She argues this varied
policy analytical capacity can be evaluated through observed gaps in policy areas such as environmental data
monitoring and reporting among countries and further argues that the varied policy analytical needs of the global
environmental knowledge system necessitates the participation of new institutions and actors if capacity in this area is
to be enhanced.
3.2. Operational capacity
At the individual-operational level, Anne Tiernan argues the ability of individual managers to perform key
managerial functions is a vital determinant of the government’s overall policy capacity. But she points out the
contradictions between an avowed emphasis on leadership in discussions of public sector reforms and the promotion of
managerial reforms emphasizing efficiency and technical skills. Focussing on senior public servants in Britain, she
points out the difficulties involved promoting leadership in public service without clarifying broader arrangements for
accountability which can undermine rather than bolster capacity at this level.
Focussing on organizational-operational capacity, B. Guy Peters in his paper argues how well policy managers and
workers perform depends very much on the internal organization of public agencies and upon the political-institutional
environment within which they work. The agencies’ relationship with legislative and executive institutions and actors
and the training and aspirations of public servants, he argues, are particularly important determinants of their capacity
and effectiveness.
Alison Hughes and her colleagues then examine capacity at the systemic-operational level. As perceived by health
policy workers and senior managers in three health authorities in Australia, this study finds capacity at this level in its
essence to be about coordination of governmental and non-governmental efforts to address collective problems.
Hughes and her co-authors highlight the dispersed and incremental character of health development and focus on the
wider policy environment within which such incremental development takes place in this sector. Specifically, they
highlight the roles leadership, shared vision, constituency building, policy (and health services) research, and an
inclusive policy conversation, play in policy capacity development at this level.
3.3. Political capacity
In their work on individual-political capacity, Leslie Pal and Ian Clark examine a key skill required of policy actors:
political knowledge and experience or ‘‘policy acumen’’ (Wu et al., 2010). In their article, Pal and Clark demonstrate a
keen nose for politics not only within but also relating to the broader environment is essential for individual policy
actors to be able to play an effective role in the policy process. Identifying other key actors and understanding their
essential interests and ideologies as well as the relationships among them, they argue, are essential traits of successful
public managers, as is the understanding of the political trade-offs necessary for an agreement among contending
actors and interests.
Writing on organizational-political capacity, Claire Dunlop finds a key challenge at this level lies in developing
learning relationships with governance partners and the public. To succeed, governments need to define an issue and
draw the public into focussing on it and actively contributing to its resolution (Post, Salmon, & Raile, 2008). Crucially,
she argues, two-way communication can allow citizens to monitor states’ activities, enter into dialogue with state
X. Wu et al. / Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171 169
7. actors on issues that matter to them, and influence political outcomes. [http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/
communication-and-governance/the-role-of-communication-in-governance-and-development] (Haider, Mcloughlin,
& Scott, 2011).
Finally, in their article, Woo, Ramesh and Howlett argue systemic-political capacity is the most wide-ranging and
all-encompassing of all nine types and one which has the potential to shape all other capacities. Insofar as it forms the
environment that frames all governmental activities, they argue, it is ‘steering’ level capacity, through which all the
other aspects of policy capacity may be shaped. This systemic-political capacity is shaped by the level of trust in the
political, social, these economic, and security spheres of policy action and the authors contend constitute a ‘diamond’
which provides a useful framework for thinking about the different aspects of legitimation capacity. This is especially
useful, they argue, as possible deficiencies in political capacity that a government may face and needs to focus on to
gain public trust can thus be identified and overcome.
4. Conclusion
It is widely acknowledged that policy capacity is a vital determinant of the extent to which policy actors are able to
address public problems. High levels of capacity are linked to superior policy outputs and outcomes while capacity
deficits are viewed as a major cause of policy failure and sub-optimal outcomes (Canadian Government, 1996;
Fukuyama, 2013). However this broad agreement on the importance of policy capacity has not been matched by
agreement on its conception and measurement (Gregory & Lonti, 2008; Waller, 1992). While achieving such
arrangements may not be simple or easily accomplished, the framework set out in this Introduction helps to clarify the
existing literature and provides policy-makers and commentators with a better idea of how capacities can be built than
existing conceptions currently allow.
Here we have proposed that policy capacity is a function of three sets of skills and competences (political,
operational, and analytical) and three levels of resources and capabilities (systemic, organizational, and individual),
generating nine types of policy capacity, as set out in Table 1. Viewing policy capacity as a bundle of these nine
capacity types allows for a better understanding of the concept than has heretofore been present in the literature.
Recognition of policy capacity as comprising nine different capacity types allows analysts to go beyond general
observations on governments’ capacity to address public problems and exercise more precision in their assessment of
governments’ ability to make good policy choices and implement them effectively. Of course, not all policy skills are
equally valuable and understanding them how they are nested within each other and which is most significant in any
particular circumstanceare criticalconcernsforunderstandingcapacity,identifyinggaps,andbuildingwhen foundshort.
More importantly, it affords practical tools to policymakers for assessing their own policy capacity and devising
ways to build it. Papers in the collection add nuances and textures to the discussion contained in this framing paper.
They help continue and advance the discussion begun here, developing answers to such questions as:
How can policy capacity and its components be measured? If direct measures are not available, then what proxy
measures are available that may be reasonably used as substitutes?
Are some capacity types more important than others? If yes, then what weighting should we attribute to them?
While we know the components of policy capacity vary by ‘‘level’’ (i.e. system, agency, individual), do they also
vary by policy sector (e.g. water, telecommunications)? And if so, in what way(s) and why?
What are the implications of governments’ different levels of policy capacity for policy success and failure? For
policy change? And
How do capacities change? And more importantly, how can they be built and strengthened? Are governments with
already high levels of capacity best placed to further enhance their capacity?
These are all significant questions which need clarification and understanding in order for policy research in this
important area of policy studies to move forward.
Acknowledgements
This paper is based on a commissioned report that M. Ramesh prepared for Eupolis Lombardia in 2013. The authors
are grateful to Eupolis Lombadia and particularly its Director Dr Alessandro Colombo for comments and support.
X. Wu et al. / Policy and Society 34 (2015) 165–171170
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