Abstract
ABSTRACT Proponents of policy instruments often have to justify them to shifting political masters. This article explores the evolution of social investment, both as a policy solution and a set of policy instruments, during a period characterized by political turbulence. Discourse analysis of texts produced by an instrument constituency shows how a constant set of policy instruments are framed as a changing solution to different political problems. This helps us develop the concept of dynamic persistence, which elaborates how the instrument constituency was able to maintain support for their policy instruments by realigning them to different ideological principles.
Highlights
Towards the end of the twentieth century, dramatic shifts were occurring in welfare state policy
We treat the reports produced by the Social Investment Task Force (SITF) as one way in which ideas are communicated upwards to policymakers. Considering these texts within the wider political context in which they were produced shows that the ways in which social investment policy instruments were framed as a policy solution has changed over time, in line with changing political frames of reference have been adapted over time
This paper set out to explore how a set of policy instruments perpetuated across a substantial change in the political landscape and adapted to a new policy agenda
Summary
Towards the end of the twentieth century, dramatic shifts were occurring in welfare state policy. It is notable that even if the meaning of social investment had changed, consistent with the shifting nature of the problems to which it was meant to address, Cameron’s coalition government remained faithful to the specific social investment policy instruments created by New Labour. We treat the reports produced by the SITF as one way in which ideas are communicated upwards to policymakers Considering these texts within the wider political context in which they were produced shows that the ways in which social investment policy instruments were framed as a policy solution has changed over time, in line with changing political frames of reference have been adapted over time. Analysing such texts within the context of wider political conditions helps us understand how an
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