A Regime Approach to Gendering Implementation

This Paper assesses the implementation of domestic violence policies in Bulgaria and Croatia using the lens of policy regimes. We propose that the concept of policy regimes offers an expanded notion of policy implementation that theorizes how governing arrangements evolve over time and the constellation of political and institutional forces behind it. In emphasizing the interplay of ideas, institutional arrangements and interest alignments it is particularly well suited to analyze discursive power dynamics. It allows us to look both at substantive elements captured by the content and framing of implementation documents, institutions and practices, as well as procedural elements captured by the standing given to women’s rights advocates in policy processes and their institutional access and position. Our empirical material illustrates how framing brought in through this integrated approach to implementation helps to understand the extent to which policy implementation processes in the field of domestic violence align with gender equality objectives or are diverted from those. The paper will look at the implementation of domestic violence laws and national strategies in these two countries. These laws and policies, while not explicit on the link between gender equality and domestic violence, are nevertheless resonant with gender equality objectives. Our analysis demonstrates how policies that appear to be silent on gender equality aspects of the problem engage nevertheless with it in their implementation processes. We will point to contestation around gender at this level of the policy process and the role that standing of women’s rights advocates have in keeping gender equality as a component of addressing domestic violence.