Public Policy Domain Research Articles

A morphological analysis of energy policy analysis research—emerging issues and concerns

Abstract Morphological analysis (MA) is a reliable technique for identifying research opportunities in policy analysis. This article presents a MA of the energy policy analysis literature of over four decades of research to enable structured understanding of the field. A three-stage research method has been adopted to identify and review journal articles and research publications. The MA affirms that energy policy analysis research literature points to energy–economy–sustainability–policy interactions. These interactions are studied from the issues and concerns perspective. The MA framework (MAF) representation of energy policy issues and concerns comprises 4 dimensions, 11 sub-dimensions and 50 variants. This MAF representation of the energy policy analysis literature can be useful for researchers to systematically study the domain and identify significant research opportunities, emerging themes and priorities in energy policy analysis research. The article also suggests immediate and promising research opportunities in the domain using the MAF. MA is also a reliable method for researchers who study other public policy domains.

Sphere Of Influences In Public Policy Domain During EmergencyTo Combat COVID-19

The spreading of Covid19 as a global pandemic has tested countries around the world at many levels. From mental strength to economic resiliency and far stretching to include legality of issues. A year later, the world is still not in a better place. Malaysia, like others are fighting the thirds waves of the pandemic, believed to be more fatal than before. From March 2020 until to date, Malaysians have been placed under complete lockdown before that order was relaxed and tighten again when the numbers of infected patients and deaths skyrocketed. Now Malaysia is placed under emergency order and law. Strangely the emergency order is issued while the complete and conditional Movement Control Orders (MCO) are still in effect. Since an emergency is a situation where the country could not be managed under regular administrative system, it is important to know which parties that are majorly involved in currently running the country to fight Covid19 has the overriding power over the others, what are their rights or limitations. Between the emergency order, complete MCO and conditional MCO, which one should be prioritized and how long would Malaysia remain under emergency? The answer could be found by studying the sphere of influences in the public policy domain. The article is qualitative in nature; data is collected from legal documents, judicial precedents and article writings. The sphere of influences during emergency time is more complex than usual. The legislative and executive powers are concentrated to one or two party(s) with enormous authorities and expansive jurisdictions.

The role of social innovation policy in social service sector reform: Evidence from Hong Kong

AbstractThis article illustrates how the term “social innovation” is used in the public policy domain in Hong Kong in relation to the new public management (NPM) reform of the social service sector, which originated in the early 2000s. Through document reviews and interviews, the role that social innovation policy has played in instigating changes in the contemporary social service field in the post-NPM era is identified. This includes facilitating emergence of “new” forms of social entrepreneurial activities to fill unmet social needs, empowering new actors in entering the social service sector, and reinforcing the government’s position in the NPM reform. Adopting historical institutionalism as the analytical framework, multiple path-dependent characteristics arising from the historical legacies of the incumbent social service environment – such as the longstanding partnership between the state and non-profits – are highlighted. These historical factors have weakened the efficacy of the policy efforts aimed at enacting institutional change. Overall, this article demonstrates how historical context matters in the emergence and framing of social innovation policy. It contributes to the theorisation of the role of social innovation in social service sector development in East Asia.

Judicial Activism and Its Implications for Good Governance: A Case for Judicial Reforms in Pakistan

Judicial activism plays an important role in shaping various countries' political contexts with different political systems and regime types. Academic literature and debates are divided among various groups in favour and against judicial activism. This work reviews range of available data to probe case of judicial activism in Pakistan from 2005 to 2013. Judicial activism in Pakistan seemed to be short-lived and selective in nature. The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) exercised activism without limits in cases against representative parliamentarians who were already constrained in many matters by other unconstitutional powers. No doubt, it reviewed various malpractices of the executive in the domain of public policy and governance, which enhanced its legitimacy and popularity. A vibrant media further contributed to the Court's popularity. But the transgression of institutional boundaries by the apex court for 'pious' objectives failed to introduce judicial reforms and eradication of corruption in the lower judiciary. Selectivity in the SCP activism was visible in its limitation to implement some of its verdicts against ex-military officers. This paper discusses these contradictions within the activism by the higher judiciary in Pakistan, and suggests various recommendations in the latter part of the paper.

Uncertainty, risk and the use of algorithms in policy decisions: a case study on criminal justice in the USA

Algorithms are increasingly used in different domains of public policy. They help humans to profile unemployed, support administrations to detect tax fraud and give recidivism risk scores that judges or criminal justice managers take into account when they make bail decisions. In recent years, critics have increasingly pointed to ethical challenges of these tools and emphasized problems of discrimination, opaqueness or accountability, and computer scientists have proposed technical solutions to these issues. In contrast to these important debates, the literature on how these tools are implemented in the actual everyday decision-making process has remained cursory. This is problematic because the consequences of ADM systems are at least as dependent on the implementation in an actual decision-making context as on their technical features. In this study, we show how the introduction of risk assessment tools in the criminal justice sector on the local level in the USA has deeply transformed the decision-making process. We argue that this is mainly due to the fact that the evidence generated by the algorithm introduces a notion of statistical prediction to a situation which was dominated by fundamental uncertainty about the outcome before. While this expectation is supported by the case study evidence, the possibility to shift blame to the algorithm does seem much less important to the criminal justice actors.

Preventing Littering: It’s Not All about Sticks!

ABSTRACT Littering is an important issue in the public policy domain and contributes significantly to environmental problems. Identifying and understanding the factors that influence littering behavior is therefore critical for designing effective interventions for reducing littering. Littering is not only a concern for Western-developed societies, but also for developing societies such as the Middle East. This research examined individual littering behaviors using the Motivation, Opportunity, Ability and Behavior (MOAB) framework. This study provides actionable insights for public sector marketers to assist in reducing littering behavior. A total of 25 qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted, drawing on a purposeful sample of adults aged 20–40 years from Saudi Arabia. Findings revealed that at the individual level a lack of knowledge influences littering behavior. Contextually, social norms and the built environment were also found to influence littering behavior. Implementing a combination of individual and contextual level strategies will assist public sector marketers and policymakers to achieve reduced littering in public spaces.

How others drive our sense of understanding of policies

AbstractFive experiments are reported to compare models of attitude formation about hot-button policy issues like climate change. In broad strokes, the deficit model states that incorrect opinions are a result of a lack of information, while the cultural cognition model states that opinions are formed to maximize congruence with the group that one affiliates with. The community of knowledge hypothesis takes an integrative position. It states that opinions are based on perceived knowledge, but that perceptions are partly determined by the knowledge that sits in the heads of others in the community. We use the fact that people's sense of understanding is affected by knowledge of others’ understanding to arbitrate among these views in the domain of public policy. In all experiments (N = 1767), we find that the contagious sense of understanding is nonpartisan and robust to experimental manipulations intended to eliminate it. While ideology clearly affects people's attitudes, sense of understanding does as well, but level of actual knowledge does not. And the extent to which people overestimate their own knowledge partly determines the extremity of their position. The pattern of results is most consistent with the community of knowledge hypothesis. Implications for climate policy are considered.

Leadership, credibility and persuasion

Abstract This short paper makes a tentative attempt to capture the most salient of persuasion strategies engaged in the construction of leadership in three different yet apparently interrelated domains of public life and public policy, political communication, management/business discourse, and academic communication. It explores the cognitive underpinnings, as well as linguistic realizations, of such concepts/phenomena/mechanisms as consistency-building, source-tagging, forced conceptualizations by metaphor, and discursive neutralization of the cheater detection module in the discourse addressee. A preliminary conclusion from the analysis of these mechanisms is that the three discourses under investigation reveal striking conceptual similarities with regard to the main strategies of credibility-building and enactment of leadership. At the same time, they reveal differences at the linguistic level, i.e. regarding the types of lexical choices applied to realize a given strategy.

The nexus between public administration and disaster management : a case of Covid-19 in South Africa

Any legitimate government must keep the public safe from natural and man-made disasters. Governments in a functional state are a part of the executive branch (Venter 2011: 83), which is contextually responsible for public policy. The legislature, executive and judiciary branches of the state exist with relative independence for the separation of powers in policymaking and implementation and evaluation. According to Pyper (2015:14), public administration is an organisational seting of government. Simply put, public administration is the domain of public policy. Hence, the pertinent public institutions in collaboration with relevant stakeholders facilitate and implement public policies on disaster management. The health outbreak caused by the coronavirus necessitated policy readiness and institutional responses to manage its impact. This article analyses the South African policy response to COVID-19, as a disaster with a particular focus on the role of public administration. In so doing, the role of public administration is chronicled through relevant policies on disaster management. Essentially, this article will follow a three-fold approach to navigate this nexus of public administration and disaster management. First, the initial sections conceptualise COVID-19. Second, the concepts of public administration (discipline) and public administration (practice) are explained in the context of theories and the function of disaster management. Third, the sections are dedicated to analysis of institutional arrangements on COVID-19 at international and national levels, resulting in the conclusion and recommendations.

Social Dimensions of Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

Resilience is generally considered the capacity to tolerate, absorb, cope with, and adjust to changing social or environmental conditions while retaining key elements of structure, function, and identity. The social dimensions of resilience are vital to understanding the impacts of environmental changes, such as climate change, on social-ecological systems. In this Primer, we introduce key social factors that provide resilience in linked social-ecological systems, including (1) assets, (2) flexibility, (3) social organization, (4) learning, (5) socio-cognitive constructs, and (6) agency. Emerging frontiers of resilience include applying social-ecological network approaches, investigating power relations, and exploring how transformative versus adaptive changes can promote resilience. A further understanding of the social dimensions of social-ecological systems can provide valuable information on how these systems may respond to change and equip us with the knowledge to support or build resilience in vulnerable systems.

Are Carbon Taxes Regressive in India? Evidence from NSSO Data

Carbon tax, being less costly in achieving a given abatement target, has been highly recommended by economists and international organisations. However, distributional concerns against the carbon tax has been a matter of concern in the domain of public policy. This article tries to analyse the distributional impact of Carbon tax in India by using National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data. The results of the study indicate that carbon pricing seems to hit the lower-expenditure households by a greater proportion than the rich elites. The severity was found to be greater for the rural households than the urban households. Strong regressivity was found in the energy use for cooking and lighting. However, for transportation, the results indicate mild progressivity. Among the various energy fuels, households using coal, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, firewood and dung cake for cooking and lighting were found to be hit hard by carbon pricing. In contrast, electricity consumption was found to be distributionally neutral. Petrol and diesel use for transportation were found to be progressive. The study advocates that regressivity of carbon tax should be taken into account by way of targeted revenue recycling measures like lump-sum transfers among poor households and cut in other distortionary taxes.

Why are Narratives that Place the Blame for Deforestation on the Rural Poor so Pervasive and so Persistent?

Deforestation is a prominent issue in the call for global environmental sustainability whose status transcends the realm of environmental studies and extends to the broader domains of public policy and popular concern. Deforestation issues are complex, and narratives provide the simple explanations needed by policymakers and the public. One of the most common narratives explaining deforestation places the blame on the rural poor. These narratives make facile connections between the poor who depend on the forests for their livelihood and the environmental degradation which is taking place in their immediate vicinity. They unite two major problems in a neat hermeneutic circle: the rural poor are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation, where they are both the victims and the perpetrators. While rural poverty and deforestation are closely connected, the relationship is a complex one - contrary to what such simple narratives lead us to believe - and the causes of deforestation remain unclear. This article discusses the causes that explain why are narratives that place the blame for deforestation on the rural poor so pervasive and so persistent?

Introduction to the Special Section: The Domain and Intersection of Anticonsumption, Marketing, and Public Policy

Introduction to the Special Section: The Domain and Intersection of Anticonsumption, Marketing, and Public Policy

Implementing a theory of change approach to research sport participation programmes targeting ‘hard to reach’ groups

ABSTRACTA theory of change approach uses logic models to articulate how a programme is intended to operate and to test empirically whether and if so how it achieves its stated objectives. Theories of change have been used in evaluation research across a range of disciplines and public policy domains. This article considers their application to research on sport and physical activity programmes. Applying a theory of change approach to the ‘Calls for Action’ programme, which seeks to increase participation among traditionally ‘hard to reach’ groups, the article explores the strengths and limitations of the method. It argues that a theory of change approach offers a rigorous and systematic way of framing and conducting research on interventions designed to encourage engagement in sport and other forms of physical activity. The article demonstrates how the approach can link project outcomes to wider programme and policy objectives. It also shows the value of making explicit and testing the assumptions which underpin interventions at both programme and project levels. By developing a theory of change approach, policymakers and practitioners can clarify what they are seeking to achieve and promote a better understanding among partner organisations which have different priorities for and perspectives on an intervention. Future research could usefully focus on ways of extending the theory of change methods described in this article to test for causality and analyse the links between sport participation and wider policy goals, particularly health outcomes and improvements in well-being.

"First, Do No Harm": Have the Health Impacts of Government Bills on Tax Legislation Been Assessed in Finland?

As taxation is one of the key public policy domains influencing population health, and as there is a legal, strategic, and programmatic basis for health impact assessment (HIA) in Finland, we analyzed all 235 government bills on tax legislation over the years 2007–2014 to see whether the health impacts of the tax bills had been assessed. We found that health impacts had been assessed for 13 bills, bills dealing with tobacco, alcohol, confectionery, and energy legislation and that four of these impact assessments included impacts on health inequalities between social classes. Based on our theoretical classification, the health impacts of 40 other tax bills should have been evaluated.

Biological/Genetic Regulation of Physical Activity Level: Consensus from GenBioPAC.

Physical activity unquestionably maintains and improves health; however, physical activity levels globally are low and not rising despite all the resources devoted to this goal. Attention in both the research literature and the public policy domain has focused on social-behavioral factors; however, a growing body of literature suggests that biological determinants play a significant role in regulating physical activity levels. For instance, physical activity level, measured in various manners, has a genetic component in both humans and nonhuman animal models. This consensus article, developed as a result of an American College of Sports Medicine-sponsored round table, provides a brief review of the theoretical concepts and existing literature that supports a significant role of genetic and other biological factors in the regulation of physical activity. Future research on physical activity regulation should incorporate genetics and other biological determinants of physical activity instead of a sole reliance on social and other environmental determinants.

Approximate efficiency and strategy-proofness for moneyless mechanisms on single-dipped policy domain

The single-dipped domain can be used to model any allocation problem where a single output must be chosen in an interval with the assumption that agents’ preferences have a single most loathful point (the dip) in the interval, and the preferences are increasing as one moves away from that dip. Practical domains like this appear in political voting system where each voter has his most-hated candidate and alternative candidates are evaluated by their proximity to this candidate or in obnoxious location problem, where each agent prefers to have the obnoxious location to be distant from his own location, among others. We first characterize deterministic and anonymous strategy-proof and group strategy-proof mechanisms on single-dipped public policy domain, complementing the well-known results on single-peaked policy domain first investigated by Moulin (Pub. Choice 35:437–455, 1980). Then we consider the tradeoff between strategy-proofness and efficiency by applying our characterization. As concrete applications of our results, we extend existing models and results, and resolve several open questions related to the obnoxious facility location game from the algorithmic mechanism design literature.

Predictive analytics and disused railways requalification: Insights from a Post Factum Analysis perspective

Strategic decision making problems in the public policy domain typically involve the comparison of competing options by different stakeholders. This paper considers a real case study dealing with potential actions to be ranked for the regeneration of disused railways in Italy. The study involves multiple conflicting criteria such as an expected duration of construction works, costs, number of potential users, and new green areas. Within this context, we demonstrate that Post Factum Analysis (PFA) coupled with Decision Aiding supports the development of robust recommendations. The role of PFA is to highlight how the actions' performances need to be modified so that the recommendation is changed in a desired way. In particular, it highlights the minimal improvements that would warrant the feasibility of a currently impossible outcome (e.g., achieving a better position in the ranking) or the maximal deteriorations that alternatives can afford to maintain a target result (e.g., not losing their advantage over some other options). The use of a focus group with both experts and participants in the decision making process provided insights on how PFA can support: (i) the creation of arguments in favour or against the respective options under analysis, (ii) understanding of the results' sensitivity with respect to possible changes in the performances assigned to actions on different criteria, (iii) a better informed discussion about the results among the participants in the process, and (iv) the development of new/better alternatives.

Perceptions on Healthy Eating, Nutrition and Obesity among Select Groups of the Population in Trinidad

This paper examined local self-reported perceptions on healthy eating, nutrition and obesity among select groups of the population and how these varied with gender, age, socioeconomic status/professional/educational training, and ethnicity. 97% of participant volunteers believed that what you eat is one of the most important factors for maintaining health, there were a number of attitudinal and perceived environmental barriers to healthy eating and increasing physical activity. Results showed that while 85.8% of participant volunteers declared that they would like to get in better shape 65.8% reported that they are currently trying to improve their weight and 48.3% confessed to having poor or only ok eating habits. Busy schedule, cost of healthy foods and lack of convenience to eat or shop healthy were found to be the main barriers to healthy eating. There are significant differences in these barriers for the different age categories. The lack of motivation to do physical activity, insufficient support from friends, and lack of time to do physical activity were the main barriers to physical activity. The difference between the different age categories were significant for several of the barriers while the difference between males and females was only significant for one barrier. Finally it was found that the perceived barriers to healthy eating and physical activity did not vary by socio-economic status or overweight status. A limitation of this study was that the barriers were not assessed objectively, but rather through self-reports. It can be concluded that more efficient measure to reduce obesity might require a shift away from the traditional focus on individual behavior change towards strategies which deal with the environment in which such behaviors occur. The successful challenge to obesity therefore lies not in interventions at the individual level but in the public policy domain.

Unaccompanied Latino Minors, Immigration, and Mental Health: An Opportunity for Advocacy

Child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs) have a duty to be patient advocates in multiple ways. Indeed, the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Milestone Project’s inclusion of advocacy within the systems-based practice competency recognizes this role as a core element of practice. However, while training programs focus on teaching advocacy for individual patients’ needs, such as securing insurance coverage for medical treatment or obtaining school accommodations, preparedness in public policy and social justice domains is often limited. Accordingly, the current president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), Dr. Gregory Fritz, has highlighted advocacy as one of four areas that his presidential initiative on integrated care will tackle.1 The main goals of this article are to discuss the role of CAPs in advocacy efforts as they apply to the vulnerable population of unaccompanied children from Central America, to discuss ways in which CAP training programs can promote the special interests and advocacy efforts of their trainees, and to encourage all CAPs to consider ways to amplify their voices and roles as children’s advocates.