Methodology For Policy Analysis Research Articles

Analysis of sports policy in Papua in the formation of the Papuan contingent at the XX National Sports Week (PON)

Analyzing sports policy in Papua in the formation of the XX PON contingent is something that must be done because the achievements of Papua Province at the national level at the national sports week (PON) event, which is held every 4 years, will be increasingly competitive. This study aims to analyze sports policy in Papua in the formation of the Papua contingent at the XX national sports week (PON). Using qualitative methods with data collection techniques interviews, observation and documentation. With the policy analysis methodology used in problem solving: problem formulation, forecasting, recommendations, monitoring, and evaluation. The participants were the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) Papua, the Papua Sports and Youth Office (DISORDA), the Papua Provincial Sports Branch Management, coaches and athletes totaling 22 people. The results of this analysis found that the policies taken by Papua Province in the formation of the XX PON contingent related to the recruitment of Papuan domiciled athletes, recruitment of athletes domiciled outside Papua (contract athletes) and training centers inside and outside Papua aim to determine the medal acquisition target, improve achievement and become a good host. The results of the study concluded that the province of Papua has a policy, namely the Papua Governor Regulation Number 29 of 2020 concerning the Description of Duties and Functions of the Papua Provincial Sports and Youth Office and in the stage of drafting a Special Regional Regulation (PERDASUS) of Sports and the use of athlete mutation regulations in the framework of PON contained in KONI Decree Number 56 of 2010 as an attitude of primordialism to achieve the successful achievement target of the host of the XX Papua PON. Through this research can provide positive input for the Papua provincial government to realize the Sports PERDASUS so that the selection of potential athletes in Papua is managed with a planned, systematic, measurable and sustainable sports coaching pattern. Keywords: Sports Policy, Papua Contingent, PON XX

Studying Problematizations: The Value of Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) Methodology for IR

Critical approaches to IR have often been criticized for lacking methodological rigour. Especially, authors informed by the works of Michel Foucault have faced challenges to justify their methodology, given that Foucault did not provide scholars with a methodological blueprint. This article argues that Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach provides a robust critical methodology for policy analysis. WPR is a method that facilitates the critical examination of public policies to analyse ‘how the “problem” is represented within them and to subject this problem representation to critical scrutiny’ (Bacchi, 2012b). This way of questioning differs from other forms of policy analysis in that it shifts the focus of analysis from policy as a ‘problem-solving’ exercise towards seeing policy as an act which is constructive of ‘problems’. Policies are therefore not analysed from a problem-solving perspective, but from a problem-questioning perspective. By making the ‘problem’ itself the focus of analysis, it becomes possible to uncover the political, epistemological and historical contexts which are constitutive of the problem representation. I demonstrate the value of this approach by subjecting the Cure Violence Global NGO to a WPR analysis.

Narratives of Crisis: How Framing Urban Shrinkage and Depopulation Shapes Policy and Planning Responses in Spain, Germany and The Netherlands

Academic research on urban shrinkage and depopulation has advanced significantly in recent years, mostly by attributing causality between the reasons and consequences of shrinkage in the positivist tradition of planning research. This paper critically analyzes shrinkage and depopulation as an issue of planning and policymaking in a broader institutional context. By applying a qualitative interpretive policy analysis methodology to planning and policy narratives from Spain, Germany and The Netherlands, this article highlights and scrutinizes how policymakers and planners have framed shrinkage, and how this framing has justified some of the selected planning and policy approaches. It is concluded that framing shrinkage in practice may only partially encompass the scientific definitions. It is also concluded that framing shrinkage and depopulation as a crisis may be determined by locally and temporally important issues as well as differences in planning cultures, which in practice may distance the understanding of the phenomenon from the scientific definitions. Debates on shrinkage conceptualization and the development of new planning concepts can become more applicable in practice by incorporating insights from qualitative investigations. This can bring them closer to planning practice and embed them in a wider planning system context, so as to produce more applicable and contextually sensitive proposals for addressing shrinkage.

Analysis of the policy process for the implementation of nutritional warning labels in Uruguay.

To analyse the process for the development and implementation of mandatory nutritional warning labels in Uruguay, in order to inform future nutrition policy making and strategic engagement by public health actors. The study design drew on policy analysis methodology and case study research methodology. Two main sources of information were selected and analysed for the current study: eighteen official documents from the Uruguayan government and 259 news reports, published between June 2017 and February 2021. Uruguay, Latin America. The Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health led a cross-sectoral working group composed of diverse governmental stakeholders, international organisations and the academia to develop the front-of-package nutrition labelling policy. A robust evidence-based approach, based on rigorous scientific knowledge generated in the country, was followed. However, changes in the systemic governing coalition as a consequence of a change in government led to a delay in the entry into force and changes in the regulation. The food industry was the main opponent to the warning label regulation and relied on widely reported corporate political activities to influence the policy process: information and messaging, legal action, policy substitution, opposition, fragmentation and destabilisation. Key insights to inform future policy action in Uruguay and other jurisdictions were derived. Results stressed the importance of an evidence-based approach for policy design and the early engagement with actors from all the political system.

Guidelines for Operationalizing Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) as a Methodology for the Design and Implementation of Sustainable Development Strategies

Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) is considered a pillar of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. It aims to promote whole of government approaches to sustainable development. Despite its prominence in development cooperation discussions, many national development professionals or stakeholders have not heard of PCD, indicating that its effectiveness is significantly limited. This article contends that the impact of PCD has not been maximized because it has been presented as a political objective or a policy tool by multilateral organizations and their member states. Instead, the article argues that PCD should be implemented as a methodology that can be adopted by domestic government and non-governmental actors alike, in order to understand trade-offs and co-benefits within and between policy sectors, thus promoting a participative approach. I-GAMMA is a research project in Mexico that examines data-driven public policy in order to promote PCD. It is based on in-depth reviews of policy documents and interviews with development actors. It is committed to open data, evidence-based policymaking, and collaborative dialogue between academics, government officials, and representatives of civil society organizations in sustainable development discussions. In the results section of this article, the project proposes participative PCD as a methodology for policy analysis through which a plurality of actors can identify mechanisms that either reinforce or undermine sustainable development strategies. This section then applies the methodology to the governance of protected natural areas in Mexico. The discussion section and the conclusions highlight the relevance of this approach for participative policymaking in sustainable development.

Educational aid, symbolic power and policy reform: The World Bank in Ethiopia

The World Bank uses a combination of financial and non-financial aid to influence educational reform in aid-recipient countries. Drawing on an interpretive policy analysis methodology and using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power as a 'thinking tool', this article aims to shed light on the Bank's non-financial pathways of policy influence in the Ethiopian higher education policy space. Specifically, it identifies knowledge-based policy regulatory instruments of the Bank, including sector reviews, advisory activities, analytical reports and learning events. The key argument is that in order to understand the full extent of donor power in national education policy fields in sub-Saharan Africa, it is imperative to problematize less visible discursive means of policy imposition.

Decision-making method for evaluating solar desalination options: the case of Saudi Arabia

Purpose Solar as an energy source has a massive potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in Gulf Countries (GC). One attractive application of solar energy is solar-powered desalination, which is a viable method to produce fresh water. The most significant factor determining the potential deployment of this application is economics. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the classical economic analysis model has been modified to assess the penetration of solar technology to power desalination plants at different periods during the project lifetime. Furthermore, the environmental and financial values were combined to assess the incentive of powering desalination plants with solar energy in Saudi Arabia. Three systems of solar technologies accompanied with water desalination based on technical applicability were modeled and economically analyzed to understand the impact of various design and operation parameters. Findings This study shows that PV-RO is currently more competitive at both market and administrated prices in Saudi Arabia, followed by the MED-CSP system and finally CSP-RO system. CSP-RO system starts to generate positive surplus after 11 years, while the base case shows no positive surplus at all during the entire lifetime. Moreover, the same trend continues to hold with MED-CSP and PV-RO systems. The MED-CSP generates positive surplus after six years and PV-RO after five years only. On average, it takes eight years for a project running based on solar (CAPEX and OPEX) and desalination OPEX to generate positive cash surplus. Originality/value This paper discusses the debate about incentives for renewable energy in GC and the impact of coupling water production and solar generation. Given that there is no analytical framework built earlier, this paper provides an alternative methodology for policy analysis to understand the role of economies of scope to incentivize solar generation. In other words, the authors are investigating options to reduce the total cost of solar production as a result of increasing the number of different goods produced.

Rational skivers or desperate strivers? The problematisation of fraud in the Irish social protection system

The Irish social protection system has taken an increasingly workfarist turn in the post-crisis era. Concurrently, ‘welfare fraud’ emerged as a contentious political issue, leading some commentators to argue certain groups of welfare claimants have been cast as ‘scapegoats’ for widely experienced financial hardship. This article brings these two points of inquiry together for the first time by critically engaging with two anti-fraud strategy policy documents, from 2011 and 2014 respectively, using a Foucauldian inspired policy analysis methodology called ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ We find the practices outlined in these documents predominantly problematise fraud as an act carried out by entrepreneurial ‘rational actors’ – silencing alternative problematisations of abuse and error. Furthermore, welfare claimants are constituted as subjects under constant surveillance, reinforcing the workfarist turn, but also potentially serving to undermine the legitimacy of the welfare system in the eyes of both claimants and wider society.

Inmigración en el estado postwestfaliano: un enfoque de políticas públicas

El trabajo desde un enfoque socio-politológico sobre el fenómeno migratorio hacia Europa como destino y en un contexto de globalización pone en evidencia las contradicciones de los valores de la Unión Europea. Diversos factores ponen en entredicho el valor de la solidaridad de nuestras democracias europeas.
 El fenómeno migratorio tal y como se presenta es muy complejo y muy permeable a lecturas negativas debido a serio factores que operan como fuertes restricciones. El objetivo es tratar de encontrar soluciones u oportunidades para soslayar estas restricciones, a cuyos propósitos se utiliza una metodología de análisis de políticas y las subsidiarias de las Ciencias de Políticas para la toma de decisiones públicas.
 Los principales resultados es que las carencias demográficas en el medio rural español se presentan como oportunidad para una lectura positiva de una inmigración selectiva, factibilidad que precisa hoy de argumentación por los actores favorables a esta lectura.

Divergence in Community Participation Policy: Analysing Localism and Community Empowerment Using a Theory of Change Approach

The last two decades have witnessed a significant turn towards community participation in public policy around the globe, raising concerns that states are resorting to ‘government through community’, shifting responsibilities onto communities. In order to unpack the ambiguous rhetoric of policy statements, this article employs ideas from evaluation methodology to develop a generic theory of change for community participation policy. The model is then utilised to analyse and compare the UK Coalition Government’s Big Society/Localism agenda and the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment approach, demonstrating the ways in which these represent a clear example of policy divergence, and potentially significant alternatives to state–community relations in the context of austerity. The article also demonstrates the potential wider applicability of ‘theories of change’ methodology for policy analysis.

Qualitative Methods in Higher Education Policy Analysis: Using Interviews and Document Analysis

This article is the second of a short series of works designed to articulate the results and research approach I utilized in my study Analysis of Background Check Policy in Higher Education. This second article focuses on the research development, design, and overall approach I utilized in addressing my research question which aimed to examine the history and experiences of Georgia Institute of Technology’s adoption of background check policy. This was achieved through interviewing relevant constituents and analyzing all available/related official policy documents associated with Georgia Tech’s Pre-employment Background Check Policy and Program. In my research approach, my conceptual framework consisted of considering four important policy dimensions, including the normative, structural, constituentive, and technical dimensions. This framework served as a basis and focus, shaping my research process, informing the methodological design, and influencing the selection of data-collection instruments. Using four very specific research design questions, I conducted my research through the lens of the social constructivist adopting an interpretivist approach utilizing a qualitative policy analysis methodology which included the use of interviews and document analysis to address my research question.

Feminist Policy Analysis: Expanding Traditional Social Work Methods

In an effort to move the methodology of policy analysis beyond the traditional and artificial position of being objective and value-free, this article is a call to those working and teaching in social work to consider a feminist policy analysis lens. A review of standard policy analysis models is presented alongside feminist models. Such a comparison should help practitioners and educators work and train students to advance understandings of society beyond the androcentric norms. Of significance is how the inclusion of feminist policy analysis in social work curricula can assist with program accreditation.

Impact of HIPAA provisions on the stock market value of healthcare institutions, and information security and other information technology firms

Title 1 of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted to improve the portability of healthcare insurance coverage and Title II was intended to alleviate fraud and abuse. The development of a health information system was suggested in Title II of HIPAA as a means of promoting standardization to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system and ensure that electronic healthcare information is transferred securely and kept private. Since the legislation places the onus of providing the described improvements on healthcare institutions and part of these requirements relate to information technology (IT) and information security (IS), the process of complying with the legislation will necessitate acquiring products and services from IT/IS firms. From the viewpoint of stock market analysts, this increase in demand for IT/IS products and services has the potential to boost the profitability of public IT/IS firms, in turn positively enhancing their stock market valuation. Following the same logic, the legislation's compliance burdens shared by healthcare firms are expected to require hefty costs, thus potentially reducing the profitability of healthcare firms and reflecting negatively on their stock price. The intent of this paper is to evaluate the stock market reaction to the introduction of HIPAA legislation by evaluating the abnormal movement in the price of the stock of public healthcare institutions, IT, and IS firms. We conduct event-study analyses around the announcement dates of the various provisions of HIPAA. An event study is a standard statistical methodology used to determine whether the occurrence of a specific event or events results in a statistically significant reaction in financial markets. The advantage of the event study methodology for policy analysis is that it provides an anchor for determining value, which eliminates reliance on ad hoc judgments about the impact of specific events or policies on stock prices. While event studies have been conducted that examine the market effect of security and privacy breaches on firms, none has attempted to determine the impact, in terms of resulting market reaction, of the HIPAA legislation itself. The results of the study confirm the logic above, while also providing insight into specific stages of the legislative path of HIPAA.

The role of policy in improving diets: experiences from the Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities food policy project

There is global interest in using multisectoral policy approaches to improve diets, and reduce obesity and non-communicable disease. However, there has been ad hoc implementation, which in some sectors such as the economic sector has been very limited, because of the lack of quality evidence on potential costs and impacts, and the inherent challenges associated with cross-sectoral policy development and implementation. The Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities food policy project aimed to inform relevant policy development and implementation in Pacific Island countries. The project developed an innovative participatory approach to identifying and assessing potential policy options in terms of their effectiveness and feasibility. It also used policy analysis methodology to assess three policy initiatives to reduce fatty meat availability and four soft drink taxes in the region, in order to identify strategies for supporting effective policy implementation.

A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life

This paper proposes a methodology to resolve the problems that result from using a combination of objective and subjective information in evaluating urban quality of life. The paper further suggests techniques to identify and rank issues of potential importance for urban dwellers. In order to combine objective and subjective information in a coherent manner and focus on the most relevant dimensions of the quality of life in a city or neighborhood, the paper attempts to exploit the complementary nature of two approaches: the “hedonic” approach, which employs market prices for housing, and the “life satisfaction” approach, which addresses subjective well-being. Results using both approaches in selected Latin American cities are discussed and compared. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential uses of the two-pronged methodology for policy analysis.

From ‘Hume's Law’ to Problem- and Policy-Analysis for Human Development. Sen after Dewey, Myrdal, Streeten, Stretton and Haq

Much of Amartya Sen's work has been policy-related, but his methodology of policy analysis has not been explained in detail. Action-related social science involves value-imbued procedures that guide choices. This theme was explored by Streeten and Stretton, and earlier by Dewey and Myrdal. Assisted by Jean Drèze, Sen has evolved a form of policy analysis guided by humanist values rather than those of mainstream economics. Features of this methodology include the following: (1) a wider range of values employed in valuation, with central attention on: how do and can people live?; (2) conceptual investigation of the wider range of values; (3) use of the wider range of values to guide choice of topics and boundaries of analysis; (4) a focus on human realities, not an arbitrary slice of reality selected according to commercial significance and convenience for measurement; (5) using a wider range of values to guide other decisions in analysis; thus, there is a focus on the socio-economic significance of the result; and (6) a matching focus on a wide range of potential policy means. This paper characterizes Sen's policy analysis methodology, its roots in earlier work, and its relations to the UNDP Human Development approach and kindred approaches.

The Integration of Environment into Agricultural Policies for Rural Greece

This paper uses a novel methodology of policy analysis to determine the social and environmental implications of various agricultural policies for characteristic communities of rural Greece. The analysis shows that the reformed Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is not appropriate to the needs of rural Greece and will impose social, economic and environmental costs on many communities. Policies to promote bio-fuels and low input agriculture are also assessed; their effects are shown to vary widely according to the social, environmental and agricultural context. Targeted packages of policies recognising the diversity of social and environmental situations need to be developed. The methodology described can be used for this purpose.

Constitutional and Distributional Conflict in British Medical Politics: The Case of General Practice, 1911–1991

This paper explores the theoretical confusion in explanations of health policies. It does so by distinguishing between the politics of constitutional conflict and the politics of distributional conflict, and analysing their development over time. The first type is epitomized by the collisions between the state and the medical profession in 1911, 1945 and 1989 on the issue of general practice. The second is characterized by a corporatist-style, institutionalized relationship between the state and the profession between and subsequent to these events. Conclusions are drawn about the limitations of corporatist and other theories and about the methodology of policy analysis.

Quantifying the competitive effects of production joint ventures

A joint venture among competitors to produce output alters the parents' competitive incentives. Any joint venture involves both joint financial interest and control over the production levels of the venture entity and the parent firms. The competitive incentives of the parents and rival firms depend on the exact financial interest and control arrangements made. This paper analyzes a number of alternative arrangements within the standard non-cooperative oligopoly model and devises a Modified Herfindahl-Hirshman Index ( MHHI) to quantify their relative competitive incentives. Independent entry by a single parent and a full merger of the parents may be viewed as particular financial interest and control arrangements. The use of this methodology for policy analysis of proposed ventures is illustrated with the facts of the recent GM-Toyota joint venture.

The role of constraints in policy analysis

The new discipline of policy analysis applies the specialized knowledge of economics, sociology, organization theory, and all the other social sciences to the task of designing and implementing viable socio-economics programs. This paper is a contribution to the methodology of policy analysis.