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Acknowledging the Role of Institutions in the Policy Process

Governance
Policy Analysis
Methods
Causality
Domestic Politics
Policy Change
S04
Vilém Novotný
Charles University
Andreas Thiel
University of Kassel
Stéphane Moyson
Université catholique de Louvain


Abstract

Most policy process frameworks award an important role to institutions in explaining policy outputs and outcomes. At the same time, despite theoretical advances, many issues around the study of institutions, their change and performance remain unclear. Thus, the 2020 ECPR Section on policy process research will be devoted to institutions: their variable understanding across frameworks and their role in policy processes. Elements such as timing and sequencing of events, power, culture and identity, learning, discourse or underlying, constitutional norms structuring policy processes will be scrutinized in order to address the following questions: • Do policy process frameworks provide the conceptual tools to capture the complexity of policy processes across levels of governance and policy fields? • What is the role of institutions in particular policy process theories, especially in structuring the outputs or outcomes of policy processes? Inversely, do policy processes theories help us to understand institutional change? • What are the appropriate methods for the analysis of institutions in policy processes? In particular, how do the multifactorial, often contingent conjectures of policy process theories verify causality and what role do institutions play? • What are the implicit, cultural, legal, context-related biases within particular policy process theories? Section The attention paid by political/policy scientists to policy process research has been demonstrated by the success of the 2016-2019 ECPR Sections devoted to this issue (total audience 2019 = 267). The Section provides a platform for critical and ongoing dialogue for scholars working with various policy process frameworks (Multiple Streams, Advocacy Coalitions, Institutional Analysis and Development, Narrative Policy, etc.). At the General Conference 2019, roundtable participants suggested that the role of institutions in policy processes should be investigated more thoroughly in 2020. In addition, a group of 10 representative policy scholars met and agreed that a Standing Group project should be submitted to the ECPR before the General Conference 2020. Contributors and Target Population The Section involves a healthy mix of established and junior scholars and advanced graduate students from Europe and other continents, with Papers contributing to the development of policy process research based on a single or a meaningful combination of frameworks. We are interested in works that employ diverse methodological orientations, are pitched at sub-national, national, comparative or international settings, and address any functional policy domain or policy process element. Transversal Panels Roundtable: Considering institutions and their role in the policy process Chairs: Vilém Novotný & Andreas Thiel Our societies live in shaky times with many policy changes happening. But the repertoire of changes is constrained by institutions. The representatives of leading policy process frameworks will reflect on the influence of formal institutions and informal institutions in contemporary policy processes. Between general and particular: Applying policy process frameworks in new institutional settings Chairs: Vilem Novotny & Paul Cairney (University of Stirling, United Kingdom) Challenges related to the empirical foundations (Northern democracies) of policy process frameworks as well as to the gap between their general claims and the need for contextualized amendments are involved by their application to other geographical areas and to other political regimes. This Panel welcomes Papers that address these challenges. Conceptualizing and theorizing the content of public policies Chair: Florence Metz (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) Discussant: Stéphane Moyson Public policies are formal institutions that structure human behaviour. However, the field struggles with categorizing policy content and mixes. Another challenge is the lack of theories that link the composition of public policies to various inputs or outputs in the policy process. Papers from any policy framework that address these challenges are welcome. Methods in policy process analysis: Relational approaches Chairs: Melf-Hinrich Ehlers (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) Christian Kimmich (Masaryk University, Czech Republic) Policy process research places much stronger attention on theory than on methods. This Panel explores the suitability of relational methods and underlying network ontologies, such as social, multi-level and situation-centered network analysis in specific policy process theories and applications. Framework-specific Panels Political Institutions and the Multiple Streams Framework Chair: Reimut Zohlnhöfer (Universität Heidelberg, Germany) Discussants: Nikolaos Zahariadis (Rhodes College, US) & Nicole Herweg (Universität Heidelberg) Institutions structure policy processes and policy outputs under conditions of ambiguity. Do particular institutional configurations alter, confirm, or refute the elements, logic or hypotheses of the MSF? Papers applying the MSF are welcome in this Panel, especially if they address this question. Institutions, policy learning, coalitions dynamic & policy change in the advocacy coalition framework Chair: Chris Weible (University of Colorado Denver, US) Discussants: Karin Ingold (University of Bern, Switzerland) & Daniel Nohrstedt (Uppsala University, Sweden) In the ACF, the role of institutions remains underexplored. In particular, there is a need for research designs comparing the dynamic of policy learning, collective action (coalitions) and policy change across institutional settings. Papers applying the ACF are welcome in this Panel, especially if they address this challenge. Institutional change and policy processes with the institutional analysis and development framework Chairs: Edella Schlager (University of Arizona, US) & Andreas Thiel Discussants Tanya Heikkila (University of Colorado Denver, US) & Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) This Panel welcomes Papers that focus on policy processes from an IADF perspective. Suitable topics include, among other things, constitutions and their evolution, institutional fit within social-ecological systems, or how institutional arrangements enable the emergence and evolution of self-governing arrangements. The interplay between narratives and institutions in the narrative policy framework Chair: Johanna Kuenzler (University of Bern, Switzerland) & Johanna Kuhlmann (University of Bremen, Germany) Discussant: Jonathan Pierce (University of Colorado Denver, US) Do policy narratives differ depending on the institutional context? Do narratives themselves influence institutions? Papers applying the NPF are welcome in this Panel, especially if they address these questions. Programmatic action, social identities, and actor networks in policy process research Chairs: Patrick Hassenteufel (Université de Versailles, France) & Johanna Hornung (TU Braunschweig, Germany) Discussants: Nils C. Bandelow (TU Braunschweig) & Colette S. Vogeler (TU Braunschweig) Joint action of policy actors results from group processes driven by an individual’s social identification. This can rest on programmatic (e.g. policies), organizational (e.g. parties) or sectoral (e.g. subsystems), demographic or biographic characteristics. Papers looking at this assumption are especially welcome.
Code Title Details
P028 Between General and Particular: Applying Policy Process Frameworks in New Institutional Settings View Panel Details
P067 Conceptualizing and Theorizing the Policy Process Research View Panel Details
P181 Institutional Change and Policy Processes with the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework View Panel Details
P183 Institutions, Policy Learning, Coalitions Dynamic & Policy Change in the Advocacy Coalition Framework View Panel Details
P230 Methods in Policy Process Analysis: Relational Approaches View Panel Details
P282 Political Institutions and the Multiple Streams Framework View Panel Details
P319 Programmatic Action, Social Identities, and Actor Networks in Policy Process Research View Panel Details
P402 The Interplay Between Narratives and Institutions in the Narrative Policy Framework View Panel Details