Abstract
Thinking about policy mixes is at the forefront of current research work in the policy sciences and raises many significant questions with respect to policy tools and instruments, processes of policy formulation, and the evolution of tool choices over time. Not least among these is how to assess the potential for multiple policy tools to achieve policy goals in an efficient and effective way. Previous conceptual work on policy mixes has highlighted evaluative criteria such as "consistency" (the ability of multiple policy tools to reinforce rather than undermine each other in the pursuit of individual policy goals), "coherence" (or the ability of multiple policy goals to co-exist with each other in a logical fashion), and "congruence" (or the ability of multiple goals and instruments to work together in a uni-directional or mutually supportive fashion) as important design principles and measures of optimality in policy mixes. And previous empirical work on the evolution of existing policy mixes has highlighted how these three criteria are often lacking in mixes which have evolved over time as well as those which have otherwise been consciously designed. This article revisits this early design work in order to more clearly assess the reasons why many existing policy mixes are sub-optimal and the consequences this has for thinking about policy formulation processes and the practices of policy design.
Highlights
Policy Portfolios and Policy Design Policy design is an activity which unfolds in the policy process as policy actors deliberate and interact over the construction of both the means or mechanisms through which policy goals are given effect and the goals of policy themselves
Public policies are comprised of complex arrangements of policy goals and policy means which can be packaged in a more, or a less, systematic fashion
Like 'planning', policy design theory has its roots in the 'rational' tradition of policy studies, one aimed at improving policy outcomes through the application of policy-relevant knowledge to the crafting of alternative possible courses of action intended to address specific policy problems [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Summary
Policy Portfolios and Policy Design Policy design is an activity which unfolds in the policy process as policy actors deliberate and interact over the construction of both the means or mechanisms through which policy goals are given effect and the goals of policy themselves. Preferring "self-regulation", for example, governments might first attempt to influence overall target group performance through exhortation and education efforts and add instruments to this mix only as required in order to compel recalcitrant societal actors to abide by their wishes, eventually culminating, if necessary, in regulation or the public provision of goods and services This maxim was based on both observations of the actual design practices followed by many governments which were used to develop and inform a set of principles informing 'proper' or appropriate overall tool preferences. Goals What General Types of Ideas Govern Policy Development? (e.g. environmental protection, economic development)
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