Influence Policy Outcomes Research Articles

Discursive Struggle and Agency—Updating the Finnish Peatland Conservation Network

This paper explores the process of updating the peatland conservation network in Finland—the Supplemental Mire Conservation Programme, which was drafted from 2012 to 2015. This study employs discursive agency approach (DAA), to reveal how agents actively seek to gain legitimate speaker positions and influence policy outcomes as they rely on existing discourses. It also studies the role of discourse in the context of Finnish peatland conservation policy and evaluates the role of agents in the discursive process and how they influenced the outcome. The empirical data consists of expert interviews, newspaper articles and policy documents. The results indicate that the discourses of ‘maintenance of biodiversity’, ‘regulatory program’, ‘voluntary conservation’ and ‘participatory approach’ influence the peatland conservation policy. Additionally, discursive agency is achieved through hegemonic discourse and a consensus seeking argumentation strategy that rely on keywords, such voluntary and sustainability.

Fuzzy synthetic evaluation of contaminated site management policy from the perspective of stakeholders: A case study from China

Abstract Contaminated sites are receiving increasing policy attention internationally due to the significant threats they pose to eco-environmental and human health. In China, a range of policies for contaminated site management have been developed and implemented with the ambition of reaching “zero contaminated sites” – in particular using a policy-driven approach to remediate or manage site risk while delivering useful synergies between services and opportunities in site reuse. To examine the interaction between policy making, policy implementation, and policy outcome, we designed a three-dimensional conceptual model of policy evaluation, and established an indicator framework of stakeholder perceptions covering policy formulation, policy implementation and policy outcome, which was tested in five cities in China (Chengdu, Beijing, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai) through interviews with various stakeholders. A combined method of fuzzy synthetic evaluation and entropy weight was applied for the purpose of quantification and comparability of evaluation results at different levels. The results show that: (1) there is no inevitable causality between policy formulation, policy implementation and policy outcome. Policy formulation, which is the premise of policy implementation and may largely influence policy outcome, does not perform well in all tested cities. Policy implementation is the key step and contributes most to the performance of the whole policy process. (2) In general, Chongqing and Beijing have a less-than-ideal performance compared to the other three study cities in contaminated site management. Due to differences in regional context, the same measure may produce different policy outcomes in different cities, indicating a need to carry out specific, locally contextualized or calibrated policies, based on the local cultural and socioeconomic environment. (3) The fuzzy synthetic evaluation method proved feasible in the quantitative evaluation of environmental policy, and can help to (i) better understand the advantages and challenges of implementing contaminated site management policy in target cities, and (ii) provide evidence for further decision making.

Mega-Mergers on the Menu: Corporate Concentration and the Politics of Sustainability in the Global Food System

The agricultural input industry has become more concentrated in the wake of recently announced corporate mergers in the sector. This article examines the environmental implications of corporate concentration in the agricultural input sector and outlines the challenges of establishing effective international policy and governance on this issue. The article makes two arguments. First, corporate concentration matters for food system sustainability. Consolidation in the global seed and agro-chemical industries has been deeply entwined with the rise of industrial agriculture, which has been associated with a host of environmental problems including an increase in agro-chemical use and the loss of agricultural biodiversity. Second, although corporate concentration has important sustainability implications, there is little recognition of the potential connection between these issues in international governance measures. The article outlines a number of factors that discourage the development of policy and governance on these issues, including the lack of a clear scientific consensus on how best to promote sustainable agriculture; the weak and fragmented nature of regulatory frameworks and institutions that oversee competition policy and food system sustainability; the power of agribusiness firms to influence policy outcomes; and the complex and distanced nature of the underlying drivers of corporate concentration in the sector.

The EPA, NHTSA, and the Multiple Streams drive climate policy outcome

ABSTRACTAlthough United States environmental policy is frequently being decided in administrative agencies, it is unclear what factors influence policy outcomes. Some limited scholarship has explored whether the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) used for congressional policymaking can be used to explain rulemaking outcomes. This research explores the validity of the MSF via a case study of the controversial 2017 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards Rule (CAFE Standards Rule) jointly published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This research relies on original interviews with 30 agency staff and stakeholders to conclude that the model is helpful in understanding why these agencies produced the policy they did. However, the results here illustrate the importance of understanding the role and impact of the political stream on outcomes earlier in the process than ou...

Economic Policy Uncertainty and Lobbying Initiation Decision

Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) raises firms’ incentive to lobby policymakers to access policy information and influence policy outcomes. Surprisingly, we find that non-lobbying firms are less likely to initiate lobbying during heightened EPU periods. The evidence is consistent with our time-varying barriers hypothesis that lobbying entry barriers increase with EPU. We verify that the negative effect of EPU on lobbying initiation arises through the channels of lobbying entry expenses and returns to experience. Furthermore, lobbying entry expenses are not large, implying that returns to experience is likely a more serious barrier that prevents non-lobbying firms from initiating lobbying, especially during heightened EPU periods.

The influence of social movements on policies that constrain fossil fuel supply

ABSTRACTMounting evidence suggests that a large portion of the world's fossil fuel reserves will have to remain in the ground to prevent dangerous climate change. Yet, the fossil fuel industry continues to invest in new infrastructure to expand fuel supply. There appears to be a prevailing logic that extraction is inevitable, in spite of growing climate change concerns. Few political leaders seem to be willing to challenge this logic. The absence of adequate political action on climate change has sparked a burgeoning social movement focused on constraining fossil fuel supply. This article describes this movement, and explores the role that social mobilization may play in enabling policies that limit fossil fuel extraction. Drawing from literature on social mobilization and political change, this work: (1) discusses some of the social and political barriers to mobilization focused on restricting fossil fuel supply; (2) describes the pathways through which mobilization efforts may influence climate policy; and (3) highlights insights from studies of successful social movements that have relevance for the issue of fossil fuel extraction. The article concludes with directions for future research on social mobilization focused on supply-side climate policy.Key policy insightsEnacting policies to limit fossil fuel supply has proven challenging in many contexts.There is renewed interest in the role social movements may play in shifting the political landscape, to make it more likely that policies to restrict fossil fuel extraction may succeed.Effective social mobilization requires a combination factors aligning at the right time to influence policy outcomes, such as windows of political opportunity opening, and compelling framing that calls citizens to action.Critical examination of the factors that lead to movement success is necessary to understand the circumstances where social mobilization may influence supply-side climate policies.

Determinants of Firm’s Nonmarket Strategy: Ownership and Lobbying in Emerging Economies

This article investigates how firm ownership influences nonmarket strategies in emerging economies. This study demonstrates that institutional constraints on “foreignness” shapes a firm’s lobbying efforts, a popular nonmarket instrument. This study also explores how foreign firms’ lobbying decisions are affected by a political structure of a country. In so doing this study deepens our understanding of the determinants of nonmarket strategy. Using a novel cross-country data set and nonparametric matching method this study finds that foreign firms are more likely to lobby compared to domestic firms as lobbying is a legal instrument to influence policy outcomes. The results also suggest that political constraints discourage firm’s to get involved in lobbying efforts.

Everyday proper politics: rereading the post‐political through mobilities of drug policy activism

This paper explores the connections between activism for drug policy reform and the post‐political conditioning of urban politics. The emergent literature on policy mobilities is brought into conversation with post‐political analyses on the constitution of the properly political, arguing that there has been much focus on moments of rupture in the seemingly post‐political condition while ignoring ongoing political resistances, what I call ‘everyday proper politics’. Resultant analyses of urban politics are therefore often incomplete. This paper moves to address the gap between rupture and resistance through a global examination of harm reduction; a policy, practice and philosophy that embodies contemporary (post‐) political contradictions. It is an evidence‐based public health policy often enacted through medicalised practices across state, public and private space, yet its history and philosophy are rooted in radical understandings of participatory democracy. Exploring activism for harm‐reduction policies and the ways they are made manifest in cities globally begins to unravel the paradox of radical care practice and liberalised notions of self‐care that harm reduction embodies. Harm reduction, as it is mobilised across cities with divergent histories, localities and political contexts, demonstrates that its post‐political framing does not foreclose a radical politics of public health but rather can enable it. This paper demonstrates that public health and post‐politics intersect at the important points of health, wellbeing and urban development. In a post‐political condition, public health agencies assume the role of technical experts under the auspices of advanced neoliberalisation. Yet when questions arise regarding the management of drug use, drug users’ right to health and resources that engage and facilitate these activities, it becomes apparent that there indeed remain properly political battles to fight, battles that attract extra‐local audiences and coalitions from both sides of the debate that to attempt to influence policy outcomes in places far away.

Civic Participation in a Hybrid Regime: Limited Pluralism in Policymaking and Delivery in Contemporary Russia

This article asks why the Russian government has developed new avenues for public participation in policymaking and delivery and assesses the extent to which these avenues introduce pluralism into these processes. Drawing on 50 interviews with individuals and citizens’ groups involved in either public consultative bodies or socially oriented NGOs, the article demonstrates the government’s desire to harness the knowledge and abilities of citizens and civic groups in place of state departments perceived to be bureaucratic and inefficient, while controlling and curtailing their participation. Arguing that these countervailing tendencies can be conceptualized as limited pluralism, a category elaborated by Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, we show that citizens and civic groups are able to influence policy outcomes to varying extents using these mechanisms.

Rethinking Collective Action: The Co-Evolution of the State and Institutional Entrepreneurs in Emerging Economies

Why do groups form to influence policy outcomes? Classic notions of collective action tell us that a small number of homogeneous individuals are more likely to organize and thus achieve their preferred policy outcomes. Yet, this is not always reflected in the empirical record as external factors, such as the state, influence the costs of organizing. Instead, the traditional collective action literature largely assumes a purely rational or passive state. While the institutional entrepreneurship literature highlights the key role these actors can play in shaping institutions and, at times, organizational fields, it does not seek to explain why change agents appear in some instances and not others. This article seeks to fill this theoretical gap by drawing on the co-evolution literature, which helps explain the variation in group formation by underscoring how the state and institutional entrepreneurs shape one another. Utilizing rich qualitative data from the microfinance industry in Brazil and Mexico, this research asserts that the formation of microfinance associations is a function of actors’ ability to access the state, which results in distinct processes: co-evolution by isolation or co-optation. This process has subsequent implications for institutional change, policy outcomes, and, ultimately, the distribution of power and prospects of development within emerging economies.

Assessing the Merits of Decentralization: A Framework for Identifying the Causal Mechanisms Influencing Policy Outcomes

Decentralization is a structural change designed to influence policy outcomes by changing the policy‐making process. Critical to assessing the merits of decentralization is an articulation of the causal mechanisms through which it alters the motivations and behavior of officials which, in turn, influence policy decisions. This article offers a new theoretical framework that explicates these causal mechanisms. It yields two sets of hypotheses. The first posits causal relationships between decentralization and the mix of resources and constraints that a government faces when addressing a policy problem. The second set of hypotheses explores how these resources and constraints influences decisions makers’ preferences, incentives, and capacity. This framework captures the potential ways through which decentralization could alter policy outcomes, pointing to a new research agenda that will allow scholars to empirically sort through the mixed and inconclusive findings on decentralization's impact.Related ArticlesDebrah,Emmanuel.2016. “.”Politics & Policy44():135–164.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12146/abstractMeza,Oliver.2015. “.”Politics & Policy43():723–753.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12131/abstractWaheduzzaman,Wahed, andSharifAs‐Saber.2015. “.”Politics & Policy43():474–501.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12121/abstractRelated MediaDecentralization and Development: Making Local Governance Deliver.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = P0NsYY2nK_A&index = 9&list = PLWa1aGn9LnaIpr767I7rHC1evmsnC6tw7Federalism and Decentralization MOOC, Leiden University.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = cWrSladgwxsWorld Bank's Decentralization page.http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/decentralization/what.htm

Between national soft regulations and strong economic incentives: local climate and energy strategies in Sweden

This paper contributes to the current discussion on whether ‘soft’ regulation actually influences policy outcomes by examining the effects of national policy instruments on municipal climate and energy planning. Sweden has experienced shifts in the incentive context over the last decades complementing soft planning regulations with stringent conditions for getting national economic support to local energy and climate action. We hypothesize that when soft regulations are surrounded by detailed conditions for getting state support, there will be higher degrees of local institutionalization of climate and energy strategies. The importance of economic support as part of national policy is confirmed by evidence from local energy and climate strategies and from interviews with local decision-makers. We also find that specific municipal features such as earlier municipal engagement in national support programs and relevant inter-municipal networks function as drivers for the institutionalization of local action.

Examining participatory governance in a devolving UK: Insights from national parks policy development in Northern Ireland

This paper provides a contemporary examination of policy making and participatory practice in the context of devolving governance in the UK. The paper takes Northern Ireland as its focus and is particularly timely considering the context of devolved governance, the ongoing transition from conflict to relative peace and the potential for rejuvenating democracy through participatory governance. The paper concentrates on one particular policy process, namely the attempted designation of a national park in the Mournes Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A thematic analysis of qualitative data is drawn upon to analyse the structural factors that framed the policy-making process, in particular the role of power in determining how consultation processes were initiated, designed and undertaken. Using Lukes’ model as an analytical framework, power is shown to manifest at multiple levels within the policy-making process to influence policy outcomes. The paper reveals how the persistence of a top-down approach to policy development combined with a highly parochial political outlook undermined attempts to designate a Mourne National Park. The paper concludes that, given the immaturity of recently devolved government in Northern Ireland, in this instance, the democratising intentions of devolved governance have not been met. This has implications for Northern Ireland’s recent reform of public administration which devolves certain planning powers to local authority level and the management of the internationally significant Mournes landscape.

Sustainable mobility as Swiss cheese? – Exploring influences on urban transport strategy in Basel

This paper explores the development and implementation of strategies for sustainable mobility in Basel, Switzerland. Basel (Bâle, Basilea, Basle) has been identified as a ‘relatively successful’ practitioner of sustainable mobility, with an urban form that is not only conducive to walking and cycling, but also has an extensive public transport system and high levels of commuting using these sustainable modes of transport. With a low share of journeys by motor vehicles compared to many other European cities – combined with a legally‐binding objective to reduce vehicle traffic by a further 10% from 2010 to 2020 – Basel appears to be a forerunner with regard to sustainable mobility policy and practice. Five years after this objective was passed into law – following a public vote, as Basel is part of the Swiss confederation and practices direct democracy – this study aims to assess the extent of policy implementation and reflect on challenges and opportunities for the future. The paper presents findings from a series of interviews with stakeholders in Basel on the theme of sustainable mobility. Key questions include: is it possible to develop coherent strategies and policies to further reduce the role of motor vehicles and in doing so, achieve a modal shift? How does participation in a direct democracy influence strategy and policy development and outcomes? Do compromises and trade‐offs mean strategies and policies promoting sustainable mobility are, like Swiss cheese, riddled with holes? By illustrating challenges and opportunities when advancing sustainable mobility in a participative culture, the study provides insights for policymakers and researchers in other contexts. Among the conclusions is an emphasis on the importance of committed individuals capable of expanding the ‘strategy space’ of processes. Participation provides one such opportunity, yet may also generate divergent or contradictory trends causing incrementalism. A rapid transition to sustainable mobility is thus likely to require increased politicisation of the topic by both politicians and civil servants.

Presence, Representation, and Impact: How Minority MPs Affect Policy Outcomes

Many ethnic minorities demand (adequate) descriptive representation in parliament because they expect it to affect the responsiveness of governments towards their demands. However, the mechanism of how minority representatives affect policy outcomes remains unclear. I argue that descriptive representation mainly has an effect if representatives possess additional leverage to influence policy outcomes. The argument is tested with hierarchical time‐series models from 88 minority groups in 47 countries multiethnic democracies. The analysis shows that descriptive representatives are most successful in influencing policy outcomes if they are included in the government, the legislature is powerful, and a group is comparatively large.

Whither Are We Bound? New Insights on American Economic Policymaking

This article reviews recent scholarship in American economic policymaking. It focuses on scholarly work from 2012 to 2015 and considers three main streams of research. The first concerns how, amidst the lingering effects of the Great Recession, monetary and fiscal policy variables interplay to affect policy outcomes such as employment and income. The second stream relates to the politics of regulation and spans several aspects of regulatory governance such as enforcement and compliance, regulatory arbitrage in financial markets, and the role of U.S. regulatory regime structures as standards of best practice in global contexts. The third stream of research focuses on the dynamics of institutional relationships in the policy process and explores how policy narratives influence policy outcomes, how the media engages and alters political attention, and how interest groups and lobbyists shape policy decisions. The final section provides directions for future research and assesses the extent to which these frontier issues in economic research could shape American economic policymaking going forward.

A network modeling approach to policy implementation in natural resource management agencies

Natural resource agencies are responsible for managing specific aspects of the environment through the development and implementation of policies. Computational advances have emerged in recent years that provide opportunities for simulating the influence that agency structure has on policy outcomes, particularly those stemming from the area of network theory and analysis. However, there remains a need for methods that can measure and visualize the confounding effects that multiple agency characteristics may impose on policy implementation. The complex interactions among these factors require an approach that can evaluate these factors in relation to one another and provide a way to abstract meaningful findings that can be useful for both scientists and agencies to consider for future policy development. In this study, we present a network simulation modeling approach that (1) builds upon existing conceptualizations of bureaucrat decision-making within agency networks, (2) uses network theory to construct idealized natural resource agency networks that can be used to evaluate how agency structure influences policy implementation, and (3) visualizes simulation results to better understand how bureaucrat behaviors and relationships in concert with agency structure influence policy outcomes. Using this approach, we demonstrate how different aspects of decision-making by bureaucrats interact with the spatial constraints of institutional networks to influence policy outcomes. The network modeling and visualization methods presented here offer an alternative approach in the policy science toolbox that can help generate new assumptions and questions about the ways in which natural resources are governed.

Ideas as coalition magnets: coalition building, policy entrepreneurs, and power relations

ABSTRACTOne of the most common ways by which ideas influence policy outcomes is by facilitating the construction of a political coalition. The ideas that have this capacity we call coalition magnets, and this contribution explains how coalition magnets open a path for policy reform. The key components of a coalition magnet are the ambiguous or polysemic character of the idea that makes it attractive to groups that might otherwise have different interests, and the power of policy entrepreneurs who employ the idea in their coalition-building efforts. We illustrate the utility of the concept with an examination of three ideas that were creatively employed to construct new policy coalitions: sustainability; social inclusion; and solidarity.

Logics of Violence in Criminal War

What kind of war is Mexico’s drug war? The prominent “criminal insurgency” approach helpfully focuses attention on cartel–state conflict, but unnecessarily redefines insurgency as “state-weakening,” eliding critical differences in rebels’ and cartels’ aims. Whereas rebels fight states, and cartels fight with one another, to conquer mutually prized territory and resources, cartels fight states “merely” to constrain their behavior and influence policy outcomes. This distinction yields a typology with theoretical consequences: decisive victory plays an important role in most models of civil war but is impossible or undesirable in wars of constraint. Theories of criminal war must therefore explain how ongoing coercive violence can be preferable to pacific strategies. I distinguish two such coercive logics of cartel–state conflict: violent lobbying and violent corruption. Lobbyings' more universalistic benefits elicit free riding, so turf war among cartels should make it rarer than violent corruption. This prediction accords with qualitative and quantitative evidence from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.

Factors of political power — The example of forest owners associations in Slovakia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential of forest owners associations (FOAs) to influence forest policymaking using power theory. Firstly, the paper examines the concept of power and the political power of interest groups. Interest groups seek to be able to use their power through influencing policy outcomes and framing the underlying dimensions that define policy issues. In the next step the paper defines factors of dispositional political power: formal, informal, internal, and external. Formal factors are primarily based constitutionally or legislatively and are ensured through the right to associate and form associations to advocate common interests. Informal factors represent the abilities of interest groups to operate in the political process. Internal factors represent the ability of interest groups to work within the group and external factors represent the behaviour towards other associations, government, non-governmental organisations, etc. Semi-structured questionnaires to former and present FOAs officials were used containing questions about the basic role of FOAs as they can be found in the scientific literature. The crucial internal factor limiting the dispositional power of FOAs is the lack of financial resources for providing services or necessary apparatus, which might strongly hinder the fulfilment and achievement of set goals in policymaking. The disinterest of the state bureaucracy towards non-state forests also limits FOAs' dispositional power. The most important external factor from the officials' perspective is the disinterest of the state bureaucracy towards non-state forests at the sectoral and cross-sectoral level. There is a common agreement between FOA officials that current strategies and tactics in the form of dialogue are inefficient. FOAs are considered as a partner in policy formulation, but their actual political power is low, due to the disunity among FOA leaders and ineffective strategies and tactics.