Stable Institutions and Policy Change

Abstract

This panel examines the issue of understanding policy change in the context of institutional stability. This is an issue that political science has long grappled with - trying to account for policy change where many of the theories and frameworks we utilize to understand institutions - particularly the new institutionalisms - were incapable of, or found it very difficult to, explain change. Thus, the choices made when a policy was initiated were seen to have a persistence influence over that policy. A consequence was that crises and exogenous shocks were utilised to explain changes to policy that the theories could neither predict nor understand. The result was that policy change tended to be divided into period of normalcy and critical junctures when major change was possible. This punctuated equilibrium approach resulted in an over emphasis on the importance of crises to policy change - when crises are relatively rare occurrences while policies can change with great frequency and on account of a range of other issues. The papers presented in this panel, employing veto group analysis, constructivist and institutional policy theory, ostensive-performative routines paradigm and governance architectures show how policies can vary over time, within and across countries, despite institutions being held constant and in the absence of exogenous shocks.

Title	Details
Harmonising Europe's Education Policy	View Paper Details
Institutions and Morality Policy Change	View Paper Details
The Fragile Wings of Concord: The Role of Ambiguity in Redefining Contemporary French Prostitution Policy	View Paper Details
Explaining Judicial Impact on Policy Change Using Critical Framing Analysis	View Paper Details