Transformative policy mix or policy pandemonium? Insights from the Climate Smart Agriculture policy mix in Costa Rica

Abstract

Transformative innovation policies are gaining currency worldwide, but have been mainly studied in a Global North context and in the energy sector. This paper focuses empirically on Costa Rica's Climate Smart Agriculture policy mix. It addresses key knowledge gaps on the dynamics of transformative policy development in the agrifood sector in a Global South policy context. Results show Costa Rica's policy mix's transformative potential was inhibited by weak implementation capacity and internal and external incoherence between sectors and governance levels, leading to tensions resulting from policy-element interactions such as conflicting goals and interventions with overlapping purposes. The broader implication for theory and practice is that successful transformative policy mixes require close scrutiny of both the balance of the mix and how to fundamentally transform the mix. This includes paying more attention to the phasing out of legacy policy instruments and to how countries’ particular institutional contexts and policy cultures influence transformative policymaking and implementation.