New Approaches to Political Science and Public Policy

Public Policy benefits from being unusually interdisciplinary. Political Science is only one of several programmes in which public policy is taught. Others include Law, Economics, Sociology, European Studies, Social Policy, and Public Health. The purpose of this section is to see whether we can identify a distinctive role for political science concepts within the study of public policy. If so, are those concepts new or do they benefit from longevity and accumulated knowledge? The section contains a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches, combining panels which consider traditional influences on public policy (such as ideas, interests, and institutions), established concepts (policy diffusion, punctuated equilibrium, subsystems) and panels which explore the value of new concepts. If papers identify new approaches, they should go beyond the simple statement of novelty, by identifying the limitations of existing approaches and setting out, in a convincing way, how their approach improves our understanding of policymaking (and how it relates to more established concepts). Proposed topics may include new methodological approaches (including complexity theory and temporality), older approaches applied to new substantive areas (such as regulation theory applied to state recognition of organized religion), rarely discussed topics in a policy studies framework (corruption), and under-explored relationships between institutions and policy (electoral systems). Multiple levels of government may be involved (EU cohesion policy). Or, papers can simply argue that well-established theories have stood the test of time for good reason.