Policy and Society最新文献

Explaining regulatory intermediaries’ compliance through the accountability regimes framework 通过问责制框架解释监管中介机构的合规情况

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-10-11 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf029

Eva Thomann

{"title":"Explaining regulatory intermediaries’ compliance through the accountability regimes framework","authors":"Eva Thomann","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf029","url":null,"abstract":"This article assesses how accountability relations between intermediaries, regulators, and regulatory targets affect intermediary non-compliance. Regulatory intermediary theory (RIT) maps how intermediaries, who are given responsibility but often lack hierarchical accountability to regulators, have multiple roles in the process of regulatory compliance. Intermediaries need to comply with the tasks that they have been delegated to perform. However, beyond acknowledging the importance of complex actor relations, RIT lacks a clear theory of how these relationships may affect the realization of regulatory intentions during policy implementation. This article introduces the accountability regimes framework (ARF) to model the multiple formal and informal roles of intermediaries, identify accountability dilemmas, and theorize the conditions under which they trigger intermediary non-compliance. The ARF is applied to study “Prevent Duty,” an anti-radicalization policy which requires social science lecturers in British universities to report students deemed at risk of radicalization to the Home Office. Semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with intermediaries in May 2021 (N = 19) are analyzed using crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results support the ARF’s core claims: in a politicized context of mandated, interpretive intermediation, the presence of multiple accountability dilemmas can trigger non-compliance, while their absence is related to compliance. Institutions can mitigate this intermediary non-compliance by providing training to intermediaries. Results additionally show that the mandated, politicized intermediaries may informally appropriate the regulator’s role of risk assessment. The ARF allows RIT scholars to understand intermediaries’ compliance as a problem of accountability.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"339 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145261589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Policy termination as a strategic practice: insights from the Flemish provinces 作为战略实践的政策终止：来自佛兰德省的启示

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-10-11 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf031

Inke Torfs, Ellen Wayenberg, Corneel De Vos

{"title":"Policy termination as a strategic practice: insights from the Flemish provinces","authors":"Inke Torfs, Ellen Wayenberg, Corneel De Vos","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf031","url":null,"abstract":"Deliberately terminating outdated, inefficient, or redundant policies has become increasingly important for governments operating under persistent challenges and constrained resources. Despite its growing relevance, policy termination remains undertheorized and empirically underexplored, particularly when considered as a strategic practice. As such, this research aims to advance a more comprehensive understanding of policy termination by explicitly examining its underlying strategy. It focuses on the five Flemish provinces, subregional entities in Belgium currently facing both withdrawal of competences and institutional pressure concerning their existence. The research design combines a document analysis of provincial council meeting reports with semistructured interviews conducted with provincial chairs and clerks. All data were systematically coded using established typologies of both policy termination and strategy. The findings show that while policy termination accounts for only a modest share of provincial decision-making, its occurrence across a wide range of policy domains suggests a degree of structural embeddedness rather than mere exceptionality. Furthermore, they reveal that policy termination is only occasionally pursued with strategic intent, yet a clear misalignment between aspirations and capabilities prevents it from functioning as a strategic governance practice at the provincial level. Theoretically, these findings reaffirm policy termination as a legitimate area of inquiry and establish connections between the fields of policy studies and strategic management. They also raise critical questions about the continued applicability of classical approaches to policy termination in today’s complex governance contexts. Practically, the findings offer actionable insides for provincial policymakers seeking to deploy a suitable strategy for policy termination.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145261588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

What needs to be (un)ambiguous to construct a coalition for policy change? Evidence from South Korea’s “childcare publicness” reforms 要构建一个政策变革的联盟，需要（不）模棱两可的是什么？来自韩国“儿童保育公共性”改革的证据

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-10-06 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf034

Sunwoo Ryu

引用次数: 0

Calibrations and compliance: the role of motivations in policy instrument design 校准和遵从：动机在政策工具设计中的作用

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-09-29 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf028

Panchali Guha, Ishani Mukherjee

引用次数: 0

Modes of involvement: citizen participation in the Norwegian health and planning sector 参与方式：公民参与挪威卫生和规划部门

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-09-23 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf026

Eva Krick

{"title":"Modes of involvement: citizen participation in the Norwegian health and planning sector","authors":"Eva Krick","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf026","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the varying patterns and dynamics of citizen engagement across policy fields and participation formats. It zooms in on the Norwegian context and focuses on those two fields where citizen involvement is most pronounced, that is the health sector and the planning field. Based on in-depth empirical analysis, it identifies three distinct modes of public involvement that differ in terms of key actors, influence channels, state–society relations, citizens’ roles, and the normative status of their claims. The study finds that the traditional corporatist mode is still prevalent in both health and planning, but complemented by the peer support worker-mode in health, and one-sided information exchange between civil servants and citizens in urban planning. It uncovers the underlying logics shaping the different participation patterns and examines the preconditions and interrelations between social diversity and policy impact in each mode, thereby addressing two of the most persistent shortcomings of citizen engagement. The empirical analysis draws on interviews with civil servants, stakeholders, and researchers, as well as documents like laws, policy guidelines, and committee reports. It builds on existing research on participatory governance, policy development, and knowledge-based policy-making, and it engages with and refines democratic theory with a focus on participation, representation, and inclusion.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145127717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Malignity in policy sciences: a theory and framework 政策科学中的恶性：理论与框架

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-08-20 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf016

Tim Legrand, M Jae Moon

引用次数: 0

Management and quality: third-generation research into policy advisory systems 管理与质量：政策咨询系统的第三代研究

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-08-18 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf023

Michael Howlett, Maria Tullia Galanti, Andrea Migone, Giulia Vicentini

引用次数: 0

Malignity in decentralization of natural resource governance in India 印度自然资源管理权力下放的弊端

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-08-18 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf022

Satyajit Singh

{"title":"Malignity in decentralization of natural resource governance in India","authors":"Satyajit Singh","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf022","url":null,"abstract":"Many perspectives have been offered on what induces policy failures, which have been numerously called malignity, policy volatility, ill-intentioned policy behavior, abuse of public authority, prioritizing the interests of specific influential or identity interests, subverting policy goals and targets, and rent-seeking. Such a dark side of policy design is seen in India’s rollout of decentralization for natural resources. A discussion on malignant policy designs across states and sectors highlights the importance of understanding the political economy of institutional designs. This article points out that failing to account for the political economy of policy design for decentralization results in malignant designs. It also provides insights into developing policy designs to mitigate the influences of the erstwhile beneficiaries of centralization. The article brings insights from decentralization designs within a political economy framework and discusses mechanisms to mitigate malignant decentralization designs. It points to key policy design and implementation moments that create malignant behavior. It shares comparative instances where policies have been adapted to curb such behavior and strengthen devolutionary decentralization. It details how well-intended national policies towards devolutionary decentralization are intertwined with state and sub-state-level micro-politics of institutional design and decentralization.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144898401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Change is inevitable, quality is optional, and context matters: dynamics influencing the development of an optimal policy advisory system 变化是不可避免的，质量是可选的，环境是重要的：影响最优政策咨询系统发展的动力

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-08-12 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf017

Bernadette Connaughton

{"title":"Change is inevitable, quality is optional, and context matters: dynamics influencing the development of an optimal policy advisory system","authors":"Bernadette Connaughton","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf017","url":null,"abstract":"Developments in the policy advisory systems (PAS) literature demonstrate how the traditional models designating key roles for internal public service actors have given way to include a greater diversity of external nongovernmental actors in advice provision. This is reflected in how sustained politicization and externalization trends impact PAS organization and actors’ influence, resulting in a more complex national PAS architecture and functioning. This pronounced hybridity of PAS, both in structure and logic, presents challenges for ensuring relevant and quality advisory content and managing its supply and dissemination effectively. In this article, Craft and Howlett’s model on features of policy advice content and the types of actors supplying it is used to observe the implications of PAS adaptation and change dynamics across different political-administrative contexts. The presence of different types of advice under the conditions of short-term/reactive (e.g., purely political or crisis advice) and long-term/anticipatory (e.g., protocol and routine steering, evidence-based advice) is a useful rubric for surveying how good governance standards and openness have been applied in developing quality policy advice content in both Westminster and non-Westminster contexts.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144898411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

An instrument constituency of data science—the case of Data for Good initiatives in the UK nonprofit sector 数据科学的工具选区——英国非营利部门的数据为善倡议案例

IF 9.3 1区社会学

Policy and Society Pub Date : 2025-07-31 DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puaf019

Ville Aula

{"title":"An instrument constituency of data science—the case of Data for Good initiatives in the UK nonprofit sector","authors":"Ville Aula","doi":"10.1093/polsoc/puaf019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf019","url":null,"abstract":"Data science is a new link in the long chain of quantitative measurement in public policy. The article analyses the promotion of data science as a tool of public policy by operationalizing the instrument constituency framework. The article expands research on instrument constituencies to two new areas: measurement instruments and the nonprofit sector. The empirical analysis focuses on “Data for Good” initiatives in the UK nonprofit sector and is based on 37 interviews with nonprofit data professionals participating I the initiatives. The analysis focuses on actors, instruments, and promises. The findings show that the innovative potential of digital data and data science is central to the initiatives, but the actual practices promoted by the participants are much more varied. The analysis shows blurred boundaries between different promotional coalitions and underscores the collaboration and competition between initiatives. The article confirms that the instrument constituency framework is applicable to the analysis of measurement techniques in the nonprofit sector. It invites further empirical and conceptual work on the unique elements of instrument constituencies that focus on promoting measurement techniques.","PeriodicalId":47383,"journal":{"name":"Policy and Society","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0