Practical Lessons from Policy Theories

These links to blog posts (the underlined headings) and tweets (with links to their full article) describe a new special issue of Policy and Politics, published in April 2018 and free to access until the end of May.

Practical lessons from policy theories@policy_politics special issue Guest edited by Chris @chris_weible and me, and free to download (for now) https://t.co/bSNd5LBRdF

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

In the introduction, we use the much-argued position – "many scholars hide behind a veil of jargon and obfuscation" – to encourage each author to state the contribution of their field in simple terms https://t.co/m0CxfctglA pic.twitter.com/nAQczVTdXZ

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

Three habits of successful policy entrepreneurs

In my article 'Three habits of successful policy entrepreneurs', I summarise the insights of 'multiple streams' analysis to show how entrepreneurs engage with the politics of evidence-based policymaking https://t.co/PPI3Q3orzc pic.twitter.com/nINp02ogCq

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

Telling stories that shape public policy

In 'Narratives as tools for influencing policy change', Deserai Crow and Mike Jones describe 5 key elements of good storytelling for policy https://t.co/nXTwEhc0qP pic.twitter.com/4VEzYrUdpL

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

How to design ‘maps’ for policymakers relying on their ‘internal compass’

In 'Using cultural theory to navigate the policy process', Richard Simmons describes how policymaking rules are internalised in individuals and reproduced in organisations https://t.co/IbiBqJ9qJn pic.twitter.com/hQVlRJKZSP

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

Three ways to encourage policy learning

In 'The lessons of policy learning', Claire Dunlop and @ProfCRadaelli explain the gap between policy learning as important aim but often-dysfunctional process https://t.co/IYiWAcTxVF pic.twitter.com/voc8UoJ49b

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

How can governments better collaborate to address complex problems?

In 'Practical prescriptions for governing fragmented governments', William Swann and @serena_y_kim_ use Institutional Collection Action (ICA) to explain how policymaking organisations can work together effectively https://t.co/7TIuRTfpvO pic.twitter.com/c3biW9JXYa

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

How do we get governments to make better decisions?

Policymakers have to process *too much information* (not too little). In 'Drawing practical lessons from punctuated equilibrium theory', @ckoski79 and Samuel Workman describe how organisations could process information effectively https://t.co/beNyeiDUbN pic.twitter.com/FSuBhVTnW7

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

How to navigate complex policy designs

In 'Policy design and the added-value of the institutional analysis development framework', @tanyaheikkila and Krister Andersson describe how to cooperate effectively to design good policy https://t.co/yMZhpB6Eog pic.twitter.com/acixaV6brd

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

Why advocacy coalitions matter and how to think about them

Last but not least, in 'Why advocacy coalitions matter and practical insights about them', @chris_weible and Karin Ingold explain the many ways in which people cooperate to influence politics and policy https://t.co/cYYp5tYcZO pic.twitter.com/36xsq2yAF8

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) April 30, 2018

None of these abstract theories provide a ‘blueprint’ for action (they were designed primarily to examine the policy process scientifically). Instead, they offer one simple insight: you’ll save a lot of energy if you engage with the policy process that exists, not the one you want to see.

Then, they describe variations on the same themes, including:

1. There are profound limits to the power of individual policymakers: they can only process so much information, have to ignore almost all issues, and therefore tend to share policymaking with many other actors.
2. You can increase your chances of success if you work with that insight: identify the right policymakers, the ‘venues’ in which they operate, and the ‘rules of the game’ in each venue; build networks and form coalitions to engage in those venues; shape agendas by framing problems and telling good stories, design politically feasible solutions, and learn how to exploit ‘windows of opportunity’ for their selection.

Background to the special issue

Don't miss 'Political Influence: A Seminar on Drawing Practical Lessons from Policy Theory' on 15 May. Watch online: https://t.co/fwvv1Qfysl pic.twitter.com/26HFRZOTck

— Policy & Politics (@policy_politics) May 10, 2017

Chris Weible and I asked a group of policy theory experts to describe the ‘state of the art’ in their field and the practical lessons that they offer.

Our next presentation was at the ECPR in Oslo:

Our #ecprconf17 panel Practical Lessons from Theories of the Policy Process https://t.co/kEo5MCQKvh has blogs>papers https://t.co/iOVlvaVH0e

— Professor Paul Cairney (@CairneyPaul) September 5, 2017

The final articles in this series are now complete, but our introduction discusses the potential for more useful contributions