On Policy Patching as Policy Design

Abstract

Understanding how policy change can be brought about by the conscious manipulation of the policy sequences described by neo-institutionalist scholars – layering, conversion and drift – requires careful attention to the micro-processes and mechanisms that underpin these sequences and reproduce them over time. Emerging literatures on “patching” complex policy mixes in an effort to join up poorly coordinated elements without engaging in politically challenging redesign or on the creation of “policy palimpsests” by implementers struggling to make sense of ambiguous and contradictory policy designs suggest some of the strategies that may be at work here. This panel invites both theoretical and empirical papers on these micro-processes at a variety of levels, from local implementation networks to global governance frameworks. Is it possible to isolate a small number of such processes connected with distinctive policy sequences, for example, patching with layering, or are there many such processes with success determined by contextual factors? Are these processes entirely new or are they connected with older concepts such as mutual adjustment? Also welcome are papers that explore the normative dimensions of processes such as patching: do they make space for new forms of networked and participatory policy making or do they simply perpetuate sub-optimal policy designs that benefit entrenched interests?

Title	Details
Mechanisms of Metagovernance: Patched Layering in the Development of Biofuels Policies in Canada and the United Kingdom	View Paper Details
Radical Policy Changes in Germany: Causes, Courses and Consequences	View Paper Details
Policy Design, Implementation Style and Differentiate Learning in Optimal Policy Mixes	View Paper Details