Review of Policy Research最新文献

{"title":"The role of policy learning in explaining <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 policy changes","authors":"Chan Wang","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12578","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The ongoing fight against the COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of adaptive policy change and the critical role of policy learning in responding to public health crises. This study utilizes policy change and policy learning theories to investigate how instrumental and political learning intertwined to explain the policy change decisions made by six U.S. states from May to December 2020. By employing a multi‐value Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study finds that the decision to impose stricter public gathering restrictions is primarily driven by instrumental learning, which is a response to the deteriorating pandemic situation. On the contrary, the decision to relax gathering restrictions is not only driven by the policymakers' perception of the improving pandemic situation but also influenced by the political motivations, such as the desire to suppress protests and address concerns for the decreased approval for the governor's handling of the crisis. The findings highlight the varied utilization of different policy learning types in response to different directions of policy change. Additionally, this study underscores the joint impact of instrumental and political learning in explaining changes in policy stringency. Overall, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of policy change through learning activities in a complex and rapidly evolving policy landscape.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"53 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136382023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Political regime, institutional capacity, and inefficient policy: Evidence from gasoline subsidies","authors":"Richard J. McAlexander, Joonseok Yang, Johannes Urpelainen","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12580","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why do some governments subsidize gasoline consumption, despite its very high economic and environmental costs? We answer this question by examining how a state's political regime and level of institutional capacity jointly determine its level of fossil fuel price distortion. We find that, without sufficient institutional capacity, democratic regimes do not necessarily provide less fuel subsidies, as those governments are unable to pursue other more efficient welfare policies. Using data on monthly domestic gasoline prices from 2003 to 2015, we demonstrate that democratic governments with high institutional capacity are less likely to control domestic gasoline prices. Democratic institutions and strong institutional capacity jointly mitigate the effect of the benchmark oil price increases on the domestic price. These results suggest that the combination of motive (democratic accountability) and means (institutional capacity) can help countries avoid inefficient subsidy policies.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135274029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Local lobbying in single‐party authoritarian systems: Do institutions matter?","authors":"Hua Wang, Jane Duckett","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12582","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Lobbying, and its role in the policy process, has been extensively studied in democratic states, but much less is known about similar practices in authoritarian political systems. Although a few studies have identified lobbying in China, most have focused on big businesses and national policy making, and some have argued that it is unaffected by differences in political institutions. Our paper challenges this portrayal of business lobbying in autocracies. Through a study of the lobbying activities of business associations based on documentary research and fieldwork in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin between 2011 and 2013, we show that although business associations have similar lobbying motivations to their counterparts in democracies, their specific practices are often shaped by authoritarian political institutions. While they are similar in seeking to build informal relationships with public officials, provide expertise to shape policies, and raise their profile through public relations activities and media engagement, they differ in focusing their relationship‐building efforts on helping officials with routine work, helping Communist Party organizations establish cells in businesses, and brokering between businesses and government. Rather than donating to political campaigns like their counterparts in democracies, they become legislators themselves, hire retired officials, and seek positions on advisory bodies. Rigged elections, an unreliable legal system, and restrictions on media and freedom of movement are key authoritarian institutions that shape these distinctive lobbying practices.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135778485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Judicial reasoning, individual cultural types, and support for COVID‐19 vaccine mandates","authors":"Christopher Brough, Li‐Yin Liu, Yao‐Yuan Yeh","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12579","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract With heated political and public debate over government vaccine mandates, COVID‐19 offers an opportunity to better understand the role of policy justifications on people's perceptions towards a policy. Through this study, we aim to move beyond the partisan and ideological arguments for and against vaccine mandates to illustrate how individuals' worldviews, based on Cultural Theory, can better explain why people have different perceptions towards vaccine mandates. Using the judiciary and judicial reasoning as the setting, and controlling for individuals' preexisting opinion on COVID‐19 vaccines, we hypothesize that people who prefer vaccine mandates will agree with judicial reasoning that appeals towards individualistic and hierarchical statements. Additionally, we hypothesize that those who have confidence in the judiciary will agree with individualistic and hierarchical statements. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a conjoint survey experiment through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results confirm the hypotheses.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136032757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Policy instruments attitudes and support for government responses against Covid‐19","authors":"Arnošt Veselý, Ivan Petrúšek, Petr Soukup","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12581","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract An individual's political attitudes have been documented as the most important predictor of acceptance of government measures against the COVID‐19 pandemic. Their effect, however, is somewhat unclear and cannot be reduced to one dimension. In this article, we test whether general attitudes toward policy instruments might, together with left–right orientation, authoritarianism, social liberalism, and attitudes to state intervention, explain attitudes to policy instruments used to combat COVID‐19. The predictiveness of models of attitudes toward three different types of policy instruments to address the COVID‐19 pandemic was tested using a study of Czech university students). We found that individuals' general attitudes toward policy instruments are best measured by posing direct survey questions. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the independent effects of general attitudes toward three different types of policy instruments on attitudes toward specific policy instruments for combating COVID‐19. We found that an individuals' general tendency to prefer an information, regulatory, or economic instrument significantly affects their attitude toward specific policy solutions, even after controlling for political orientation. These results provide novel empirical evidence for the autonomy of policy instruments attitudes (APIA) theory. The general attitudes toward policy instrument types are reflected in individuals' attitudes toward specific policy instruments, such as those used to combat COVID‐19.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135992883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tackling climate change on the local level: A growing research agenda","authors":"Melanie Nagel, Marlene Kammerer","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12577","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change, as one of the most pressing problems of our time, affects different levels of governance. At the international level, countries negotiate to find common ground on various topics related to climate change, but most importantly on how to share the burden of mitigating global warming and its effects on humankind. At the national level, national governments formulate greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets, set out climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, and formulate respective framework policies. But when it comes to the implementation of these targets, strategies, or policies, the protagonists are most often local governments or administrations. This is particularly the case for adaption measures, but also in the traffic, energy, or building sector, i.e., such sectors that concern infrastructural matters. In these areas, local communities have a high problem-solving capacity due to local knowledge and experience and should therefore engage actively in climate protection or adaptation endeavors (Domorenok & Zito, 2021; van der Heijden, 2021). This special issue on “Local Climate Governance” brings together 11 research teams that engage with a wide diversity of topics related to local climate policy, as well as different theoretical and methodological approaches. In this editorial, we summarize the most important findings of this special issue, link it to the most recent research on local climate policy, and make some suggestions for further research. Overall, it can be stated that the findings of this special issue speak well to the recent literature on the drivers of local climate policy. In a nutshell, this literature finds several factors that drive the adoption of climate policies at the local level, such as the wealth and the size of a municipality, as more populated and richer local communities are usually better equipped with financial resources and have higher institutional and staff capacity at their disposal (see for example, Hui et al., 2019; Rhodes et al., 2021). Hence, a city's or municipality's climate protection ambition depends on a beneficial combination of socio-demographic and socio-economic conditions (Haupt & Kern, 2022). Furthermore, researchers link the adoption of mitigation policies with a green, left, or liberal political ideology in the respective municipality, the engagement in transnational city networks, but also geographical proximity to forerunning local communities or the existence of regional leaders (e.g., Abel, 2021; An et al., 2023; Kammerer et al., 2023; Kern et al., 2023). For adaptation policy, the most important drivers seem to be the perceived need to respond, in other words, climate change vulnerability (for example Bausch & Koziol, 2020; Kammerer et al., 2023), but also the possibility of citizens participating (Cattino & Reckien, 2021; Haupt et al., 2022). The findings in this issue show that local communities are actively involved in climate change mitigation under certain ci","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135537265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Communicating in diverse local cultures: Analyzing Chinese government communication programs around nuclear power projects","authors":"Yue Guo, Linsheng He","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12576","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of sociocultural context in the process of government communication, but few studies have elaborated on the underlying mechanisms. By comparing government communication strategies under diverse sociocultural factors, this study aims to explore the role of local culture as a contextual factor in the design of government communication. Drawing on evidence from China's government communication on nuclear power projects, we explore how the central government constructed communication strategies based on different local cultures to enhance public acceptance of nuclear power projects. A comparison of this case in two cities reveals that the government can design communication strategies based on their understanding of local citizens – using local culture as the basis of audience segmentation to create different communication strategies for different citizens.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136060480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Information asymmetry and vertical collective action dilemma: The case of targeted poverty alleviation in China","authors":"Lili Liu, Ge Xin, Hongtao Yi","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12575","url":null,"abstract":"Information asymmetry is prevalent in the vertical bureaucratic structures of unitary systems. Drawing upon the institutional collective action (ICA) framework and the literature on information politics, this paper investigates the formation of the vertical ICA dilemma and the motivations underlying the collaborative mechanisms to address information asymmetry within the hierarchical bureaucratic structures of the Chinese government. Taking the Targeted Poverty Alleviation campaign as a case, we find a mixture of collective solutions, including informal networks, intergovernmental contracts, delegation, and imposed authority, as alternatives to alleviate the information asymmetry between vertical governments. Our case studies contribute to the literature on central–local relations, information politics, and the development of the vertical ICA framework, which notably incorporates the extent of lower level government autonomy into the determinants of integration mechanisms. In the conclusion, we connect this research to the broader ICA research agenda and studies of the cross‐level policy process, with implications for multi‐level governance in unitary systems like China.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42526357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence","authors":"Inga Ulnicane, Tero Erkkilä","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12574","url":null,"abstract":"While recent discussions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of the most powerful technologies of our times tend to portray it as a predominantly technical issue, it also has major social, political and cultural implications. So far these have been mostly studied from ethical, legal and economic perspectives, while politics and policy have received less attention. To address this gap, this special issue brings together nine research articles to advance the studies of politics and policy of AI by identifying emerging themes and setting out future research agenda. Diverse but complementary contributions in this special issue speak to five overarching themes: understanding the AI as co‐shaped by technology and politics; highlighting the role of ideas in AI politics and policy; examining the distribution of power; interrogating the relationship between novel technology and continuity in politics and policy; and exploring interactions among developments at local, national, regional and global levels. This special issue demonstrates that AI policy is not an apolitical field that can be dealt with just by relying on knowledge and expertise but requires an open debate among alternative views, ideas, values and interests.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48345668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating diffusion in policy designs: A study of net metering policies in the United States","authors":"Myriam Gregoire‐Zawilski, Saba Siddiki","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12572","url":null,"abstract":"In the United States, some of the most important environmental policy innovations of the past decades have occurred at the state level. Net metering policy is one kind of policy that states have widely adopted in support of decarbonization goals. The widespread adoption of net metering policies varying in policy design, defined here as policy content, offers an opportunity to investigate to what extent policies that diffuse widely bear comparable designs, and furthermore, what factors influence diffusion in policy designs. Availing these opportunities, in this paper, we investigate (1) how (dis‐)similar the designs of American states' original net metering policies were; and (2) what factors explain the diffusion of policies that share similar design elements. To support our investigation, we model using event history analysis in a directed dyad setting, the factors that explain differential duration to adoption of net metering legislation containing specific elements of design by policy receiver states. We find that bipartisan legislatures are more likely to adopt the majority of design elements. This suggests that net metering appeals to policy makers across the political spectrum and that the latter compromise in integrating elements of policy design that benefit or burden different constituents. We also find that over time, states become less likely to emulate policy designs from jurisdictions whose citizenry embraces dissimilar values, suggesting that policy makers learn to tailor incentives to their local policy targets.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42746920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}