Policy Agenda Of Government Research Articles

Examining the Barriers to Licensed Private Cannabis Retailers in Canada: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Canadian News Media Coverage

Background Since the Government of Canada legalized non-medicinal cannabis use/consumption on October 17, 2018, licensed private cannabis retailers have faced numerous challenges. These challenges negatively impacted retail operations and potentially undermined public health and safety. We aimed to identify these challenges to inform policy decisions. Methods We conducted a quantitative news media content analysis using Nexis Uni and Eureka databases to identify articles from Canada's highest-circulating newspapers and CBC News website from 2017 to 2022, referencing at least one barrier to private cannabis retailers. We screened and extracted data using Covidence and deductively coded the data using our newly developed comprehensive cannabis retail framework and inductively as new themes emerged. The barriers identified in the media were quantified through descriptive analyses. Results The search yielded 9,371 articles, of which 307 relevant articles were included. The main findings revealed that the barriers most commonly reported by the media were related to government regulations, supply chain, and competitors. The salience of these barriers also changed over time. These barriers were most frequently mentioned in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Toronto Star, and the National Post. Conclusion Our framework was suitable for describing the data and identifying several media-portrayed barriers to private cannabis retail operations in Canada and how they differed in salience over time. However, a more in-depth understanding of the barriers from retailers’ perspectives may further support the government's policy agenda of achieving public health and safety. The results from this study may also serve as a baseline measure to evaluate Canada's cannabis retail market and provide new insights into the growing body of literature about the cannabis retail market.

Conflict Resolution as A Game: The Government's Policy Agenda has Been Neglected Through Negotiation and Compensation

Purpose: This research examines how official actors play a role in resolving conflicts between the farming community and the cement company. Method: This qualitative research focuses on farmers in Puger District affected by PT Imasco Asiatic's irrigation canal closure, as well as community leaders. In-depth interviews will be conducted with participants, and data will be confirmed using GIS for accuracy. GIS is used to verify the accuracy of the information. Result and Discussion: Commodity factories in Indonesia have refused to implement the government's policy agenda and instead negotiated with the Water User Farmers Association (HIPPA) and provided compensation. Both official and unofficial parties, including community and religious leaders, tried to resolve the conflict, but HIPPA, without deliberation, agreed to accept compensation. The change in attitude of the Puger Kulon farming community made the government's struggle meaningful. The role of actors in the policy process is complex, with each actor competing to open policy windows and influence the agenda-setting stage. Implication of the Research: This research contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into conflict resolution between government companies and citizens. On the other hand, highlighting the role of actors in the policy process is complex, with each actor competing to open policy windows and influence the agenda-setting stage. Originality/Value: Official actors (government) dominate in policy making. However, the government has no coercive power since there is a non-official group (outside government) that has negotiated and changed the behavior of farmers.

Postponement of the 2024 Election: Failure to Create Policy Window from the Perspective of the Multiple Stream Framework

In late 2021, public attention was captivated by a contentious issue surrounding the potential postponement of the 2024 election. Prominent figures including Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, as well as leaders from the Golkar, PKB, and PAN parties, put forward proposals to delay the upcoming election. This study was undertaken to delve into the underlying factors contributing to the downfall of the discourse advocating the postponement of the 2024 election. Through the application of Kingdon's (2014) multi-stream framework (MSF) analysis, this research reveals that the notion of postponing the election lacked the necessary feasibility to transition into a viable policy agenda, as assessed from the perspectives of the problem stream, policy stream, and political stream. Examination of the problem stream reveals a lack of indicators supporting the idea of postponing the 2024 election from an economic standpoint. The prevalent positive economic growth and the optimistic sentiment of the populace toward national economic progress undermine any basis for endorsing the discourse. Moving to the policy stream, it becomes evident that most legislative members and community groups outright rejected the discourse. Additionally, the dearth of policy entrepreneurs emerged as a crucial factor contributing to the discourse's failure. Lastly, from the political stream perspective, the lack of widespread public support proved to be a pivotal factor in the discourse's demise. Political parties, the legislature, and various segments of society, including students, vehemently opposed the proposition. This landscape underscores the incongruence between the nation's sentiment and the notion of postponing the election. Consequently, the inability of the discourse to gain traction as a government policy agenda can be attributed to the prevailing economic conditions, the absence of substantial public support, and the lack of influential groups positioned as policy entrepreneurs advocating for the postponement of the 2024 election.

Design Thinking of Indonesia's Post-Jokowi Education Policy

Education during Jokowi's administration was rarely a topic of discussion. In the 2-year document Jokowi-JK Real Work shows that education is less of a major concern in the Jokowi administration's policy agenda. The three main focuses of the government's policy agenda emphasize infrastructure, human development, and economic deregulation policies. Education is only limited to the mention of increased access and infrastructure of education, and the education index which increased (0.82) from 2014 to 2015. A number of education policy products such as the smart Indonesia card, KIP Kuliah have become a legacy in the Jokowi administration from 2014 to 2024. However, a number of educational problems and challenges have not been fully answered during Jokowi's leadership. This happens because there is no adequate design thinking in overcoming education problems in Indonesia. The purpose of the research is to uncover and analyze the fundamental problems of education and propose the formulation of design thinking of Indonesian education policy after Jokowi. The method used in this study uses a qualitative approach. Data is obtained through literature studies of government policy documents in the field of education, books, scientific journal articles. Data analysis uses interpretive approaches, semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and design thinking. The results of this study show that if we look at post-reform education policy, design thinking education policy has not touched on the fundamental education system, the substance of education, and the culture and ecosystem of education. Therefore, the design thinking proposed after the Jokowi administration is directed to build and strengthen three aspects, namely regulation, governance, and education human resources.

Towards an historical sociology of global citizenship education policy in Australia

ABSTRACT ‘Global citizenship’ has gained traction as a policy objective across school systems in recent decades. It has been defined as education for the development of a sense of cosmopolitan moral virtue, planetary identification and ‘global competencies’. In this paper, I argue that historical sociology can help explain why this goal has gained prominence in citizenship education policy since the late twentieth century. Focussing on the Australian case, I propose an analytical model where changes in citizenship education policy for schools are articulated to concurrent transformations of nation-state citizenship within a shifting international conjuncture. This approach reveals that the rise of neoliberal statecraft and the diffusion of human rights discourses since the 1970s are pertinent analytical coordinates to make sense of the growing presence of global citizenship within government policy agendas for schools. The Australian case illustrates the relevance of historical sociology to make sense of contemporary education policy.

Nexus between Selected Macroeconomic Variables and Economic Growth in Kenya (1980-2019)

Economic growth challenges dominate government policy and research agendas in today's globalized world. The Kenya Vision 2030 is the country's development roadmap, with the overarching goal of becoming a middle-income nation that is not only globally competitive and successful but also provides a good quality of life for its residents and a middle-income earning economy. In Kenya, the relationship between macroeconomics and economic growth has received little attention. The specific objectives of this study were: 
 
 To establish the influence of external debt, 
 To examine the influence of domestic debt, 
 To determine the influence of inflation rate, and 
 To assess the influence of foreign exchange rate on economic growth in Kenya 
 
 Keynesian and classical theories guided this study. The study used an explanatory research design and adopted positivism philosophy, which is based on ontological principles and doctrines, implying that reality and truths are not only free but also independent of the observer. Annual data from 1980 to 2019 giving 40 observations were used. Vector Error Correction (VEC) Model was customized to analyze the long-run and short-run contribution of macroeconomic variables and gross domestic product in Kenya. From the VECM model, R-square value was 58.62, and Chi-square value was 26.913 (p > Chi2 = 0.0494), which showed that VECM was fit for parameter estimation. The coefficient of the exchange rate was , with a p-value of . Domestic debt reported a coefficient of , with a p-value of 0.019. The coefficient of inflation was , while external debt reported a coefficient of 0.0003 with a , which had a positive significant influence on economic growth. Based on the findings, the country may need to manage inflation since when inflation exceeds a particular threshold, economic growth is projected to halt. The study finds that domestic debt expansion in Kenya has a negative and significant influence on economic growth during the study period. As a result, this analysis suggests that the Kenyan government limits domestic borrowing. The government should favor macroeconomic policies that increase the stability of Kenya's exchange rate against the major international trade currencies if the foreign exchange rate has a beneficial effect on economic growth in Kenya.

Deciding on justice: environmental justice in city council agenda-setting

ABSTRACT Environmental Justice (EJ) is a major concern for low-income communities across the US, but government responses to these injustices remain inconsistent, often because EJ issues are overlooked or ignored in government decision-making. Despite this issue, little research examines the procedural elements influencing whether EJ is considered in government activities or the factors influencing whether EJ concerns are included on local government policy agendas. We use Qualitative Comparative Analysis with embedded comparative case studies to systematically examine 1784 city council meeting minutes from the 13 largest Texas cities between 2018 and 2020 to identify key social and government characteristics driving whether EJ issues are addressed on government agendas. Our findings reveal several key characteristics that are associated with high levels of EJ attention at the local government level including liberal politics, high levels of racial representation in government, and racial and gender diversity. Even within liberal cities, local governments that are not racially diverse, supported by female leadership, or highly representative of the populations they serve are unlikely to devote substantial attention to critical EJ issues on their policy agendas. The results demonstrate the critical role that procedural justice in the agenda-setting process has on social equity. Key policy highlights Local government composition drives whether EJ issues are considered on policy agendas. Liberal politics are a necessary condition for high EJ attention in government. Government representation, racial diversity, and female leadership are associated with higher EJ attention on policy agendas. Racial diversity and female leadership compensate for each other when determining EJ inclusion in issue setting.

There is no capitalist conspiracy and the rich are not all‐powerful

There is no capitalist conspiracy and the rich are not all‐powerful

The legislative agenda in Ireland, 1922–2021

ABSTRACT This article analyses the legislative agenda in Ireland since 1922 using new data coded within the Comparative Agendas Project framework. The data, generated using the codebook of the Irish Policy Agendas Project (http://irishpolicyagendas.eu/), show clear evidence of long-term changes in the complexity, issue focus, and Europeanisation of the legislative agenda in Ireland. The study uses the Irish case to test some existing arguments concerning the influence on the policy agenda of governments’ political capacity and pressures generated by policy problems. Its findings suggest that government capacity influences the agenda, but not in the way theorised: greater capacity leads, on average, to higher stability; more specifically, this effect is evident in the absence of government turnover, as governments maintain a focus on ‘their own’ issues as they continue in office. There is no evidence that the pressure to solve policy problems, in the form of weak or negative economic growth, influences the stability of the legislative agenda. The article contributes to the study of agenda stability, the analysis of Irish politics and public policy, and it provides a basis for coding comparable data across other policy agendas in Ireland.

Policy coordination and selective corruption control in China

AbstractIn autocracies facing widespread corruption, the allocation of the scant attention available for fighting corruption strongly affects corruption control. Although research has found that authoritarian regimes tend to fight corruption selectively, it is unknown whether and how autocracies allocate attention across different policy areas to combat corruption. We propose that single‐party authoritarian regimes can steer anticorruption attention to the policy domains prioritized by the central authority through the mechanism of cross‐organizational policy coordination. Using original datasets compiled from Chinese governmental and procuratorial policy papers from 1998 to 2016, we demonstrate that Chinese prosecutors direct anticorruption attention to the policy domains accentuated in the central government's major reforms. Our field interviews support this finding and reveal possible disruption of anticorruption efforts in policy domains falling off the central government's top list. Thus, we extend the research on political influence over anticorruption agencies and show that single‐party regimes can instrumentalize anticorruption to serve the government's policy agenda, driving the allocation of limited anticorruption attention across policy areas.

Commercialization of Fusion Power Plants

With the ITER project entering the second half of the construction phase and various national and international plans for fusion prototype power plants being in early to advanced stages, fusion has entered the delivery era. With the urgency of the climate crisis being at the forefront of government policy agendas, it is important to focus on the commercialization of fusion power plants to support decarbonization commitments. This work argues that the cost optimization of fusion as well as the development of a compelling value proposition enhances the contribution that fusion can bring to target energy markets. In particular, it focuses on how both aspects are being considered for the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) program (Wilson et al., 2020) which is currently developing both the conceptual design for a prototype power plant as well as a pathway to commercialization on its mission to “Deliver a U.K. prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and a path to commercial viability of fusion.”

Emergent regional collaborative governance in rural local food systems development

ABSTRACT This research analyzes the emergent collaborative governance of local food systems (LFS) development in a six-county region of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula, a post-industrial mining region with a long history of local food provisioning. We contribute to scholarship on rural food systems by framing LFS development as a social good, benefiting placemaking and long-term economic development. We use a community-based research case study and policy analysis to identify policy-related gaps, including LFS’ low legitimacy, goal divergence among different jurisdictions, and lack of regional leadership. LFS development may present ways for rural communities to foster placemaking and economic development; however, we find that LFS are less visible and not always on the policy agenda of local governments. In this study, collaborations among grassroots actors and organizations outside of local government are leading LFS development. We conclude that collaborative governance may have a better chance to succeed when LFS have a clear public identity and legitimacy as a social good, partners reach goal consensus, and appropriate leaderships are formed.

Cultural Diplomacy and Nation Branding in Modern Competitive International Environment

This study has as its main objective to highlight the importance of the existence of a structured cultural policy by modern states and the importance of having a structured policy in order to improve their international image. In recent decades, despite the fact that international relations continue to focus on issues of balancing military and economic power, they have been forced to simultaneously appreciate the importance of cultural and religious factors, which have acquired a transnational dimension that transcends the territorial boundaries of nation-states. Throughout history, culture has been used by organized societies to present themselves, to assert their power, but also to understand others. Culture has always been present on the foreign policy agenda of governments and has been active in defining relations between states since the two World Wars of the 20th century. At the same time, states became intensely concerned with the strategy of managing their national identity and shaping their image. This study attempts to highlight the role of the cultural element in state diplomacy and the role of cultural diplomacy in promoting mutual understanding between nations. Also, the aim of this study is to highlight the efforts of states to reshape their image abroad in order to access development and to have a stable and competitive position in the international environment. In this context, an analysis of the place of culture in the context of state diplomacy and the evolution of cultural diplomacy is presented. What are the specific characteristics of this new diplomatic discipline and what are its objectives? It also presents an analysis of the theory surrounding the formation of the "image of the country" and presents the elements that determine it and are ultimately a necessary condition for stimulating the country's competitiveness at the international level.

Cultural pluralism in the (liberal-communalist) debate between recognition and criticism

The concept of cultural pluralism is one of the important concepts in mod-ern society, which includes culturally diverse groups, which poses prob-lems about unity in the context of diversity and harmony in the context of respect for difference. Multiculturalism, as a term that is etymologically distinct from the adjective multicultural in a society that consists of diverse cultural groups, has gained wide popularity in many countries, and has be-come a major part of the government policy agenda in managing ethnic pluralism within national politics. In this context, the emergence of the term has been strongly associated with a growing awareness of the unin-tended social and cultural consequences of large-scale migration. This frantic use of cultural pluralism, formulated by the Royal Canadian Com-mission in 1965, has widespread support, as its proponent endorsed it both as a progressive political order and as an official clause of faith, a term associated in principle with the values of equality, tolerance and openness to immigrants from ethnically disparate backgrounds. Its sup-porters believe that it guarantees all citizens that they retain their identi-ties and feel a good sense of belonging. Typically, cultural pluralism repre-sents a social doctrine that distinguishes itself as a positive alternative to the politics of inclusion, committed to the policy of recognizing the rights of citizens and the cultural identities of ethnic minority groups, and in a more general way, and proving and recognizing the value of cultural diver-sity. On the other hand, critics of cultural pluralism believe that its recogni-tion encourages separatism and constitutes a threat to national unity and social cohesion.

Political Governance and Citizen Rights

The concept of cultural pluralism is one of the important concepts in mod-ern society, which includes culturally diverse groups, which poses prob-lems about unity in the context of diversity and harmony in the context of respect for difference. Multiculturalism, as a term that is etymologically distinct from the adjective multicultural in a society that consists of diverse cultural groups, has gained wide popularity in many countries, and has be-come a major part of the government policy agenda in managing ethnic pluralism within national politics. In this context, the emergence of the term has been strongly associated with a growing awareness of the unin-tended social and cultural consequences of large-scale migration. This frantic use of cultural pluralism, formulated by the Royal Canadian Com-mission in 1965, has widespread support, as its proponent endorsed it both as a progressive political order and as an official clause of faith, a term associated in principle with the values of equality, tolerance and openness to immigrants from ethnically disparate backgrounds. Its sup-porters believe that it guarantees all citizens that they retain their identi-ties and feel a good sense of belonging. Typically, cultural pluralism repre-sents a social doctrine that distinguishes itself as a positive alternative to the politics of inclusion, committed to the policy of recognizing the rights of citizens and the cultural identities of ethnic minority groups, and in a more general way, and proving and recognizing the value of cultural diver-sity. On the other hand, critics of cultural pluralism believe that its recogni-tion encourages separatism and constitutes a threat to national unity and social cohesion.

A Regional Perspective on Social Exclusion in European Regions: Context, Trends and Policy Implications

Social exclusion has become a popular topic in the policy agendas of European governments, especially after the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 hit the continent as hard as it could. The existing literature highlights the presence of spatial patterns in social exclusion, although previous contributions consist of local or national level studies, lacking a broader continental perspective. This work resorts to regional data covering 20 EU countries and aims to characterise the nature of spatial patterns, distinguishing between spatial heterogeneity and pure spatial autocorrelation. Using the Spatial Markov Chain Matrix, we find that the strong clusterisation process unfolded by previous studies tends to become less intense if the role of socio-economic covariates is taken into account. Socio-economic factors represent in other words a containment cage that reduces the extent of neighbour influence. Net of the covariates, we identify clusters of regions in Southern Europe where high levels of social exclusion constitute a structural problem, calling for long-term public intervention. The policy implications of our findings are then outlined.

Study of Public Policy in the Development of the Kemaro Island of Palembang

The Palembang City Government has an agenda to develop Kemaro Island as a tourist attraction. However, the Palembang city government's agenda has not yet received a positive reaction from the community, especially those involved with the development of Kemaro Island. This study aims to analyze the development of Kemaro Island, Palembang City in the tourism sector through analysis of the Palembang City Government's policy agenda and public perceptions of the Palembang City Government's policy agenda in relation to the development of Kemaro Island as one of the tourism objects in Palembang City.

Uptake of residential energy efficiency measures and renewable energy: Do spatial factors matter?

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are key pillars of the energy transition, which is high on the policy agenda of governments and organizations around the world in the face of the climate crisis. The Netherlands is underperforming in emissions reduction goals. In this paper, we empirically assess factors to support policy for enhancing the uptake of carbon emissions reduction measures (ERMs) using data from the 2018 release of the Dutch Housing Survey. A distinction is made between owners and tenants, as well as by specific ERMs in the econometric analyses. Besides building features, socioeconomic characteristics and motives, we explicitly address the role of spatial factors. This has received much less attention in the related literature. Local and regional governmental and political conditions can result in spatial variation of uptake in ERMs. Also, differences across the urban-rural gradient, related to the built environment and motivations, can impact uptake. We find that spatial differences matter in the uptake of ERMs, even after controlling for a wide range of individual and building characteristics, which calls for more place-sensitive policies. Insights from this paper are pertinent not only for the Netherlands, but more widely as spatial factors can also be pivotal to take on board in energy policy frameworks in other countries.

Punctuated equilibrium in multilevel contexts: How federal and state level forces feedback into shaping the local policy agenda in Mexico

AbstractThe article uses the punctuated equilibrium theory to explain changes in the local policy agenda of municipal governments. It focuses on feedback (negative and positive) as a key concept that associates intergovernmental institutions in a federalist system of governance and the budgetary punctuations and change in the municipal policy agenda. I analyze a 17‐year period of decentralization process along a generalized structural equation multinomial model. Findings show that decentralized resources, from state and federal governments, affect the municipal's local policy agenda. Such effects are conditional to an overall institutional setting, thus, providing additional insights into the contingency of institutional friction shaping feedback and policy change.

Making sense of high value manufacturing: relating policy and theory

Government policy agendas in high-cost economies focus on manufacturing competitiveness promoting what they term High Value Manufacturing (HVM). HVM is seen as the solution to the problem of manufacturers in high-cost economies being outcompeted by those in low-cost economies. Despite the ubiquity of the term HVM, there is little academic engagement with it leaving HVM an under-theorized, emerging phenomenon lacking in academic legitimization. Our purpose is therefore to gain a ‘theoretical foothold’ to allow the phenomenon of HVM to be characterized. Policy documents from the UK and German governments and the European Commission are empirically analysed to determine the themes within their arguments. A literature consultation is conducted to reveal the underlying theoretical strands informing these arguments. A synthesis follows that relates the themes within the policy documents to the identified theoretical strands. We find that policy uses a plurality of multi-disciplinary, randomly drawn elements. However, despite this, some patterns can be identified with elements drawn from operations strategy, supply chain management and innovation. By defining these elements, this article makes sense of the policy rhetoric and builds a clearer understating of HVM so facilitating sharper and more structured research into its nature and its contribution to contemporary manufacturing competitiveness.