Policy Deadlock Research Articles

Mini-publics in dental public health policymaking.

What are mini-publics and under what circumstances could they be applied to public health dentistry? This question is explored with reference to water fluoridation in England, a policy intervention characterised by a visceral politics that has embedded a systemic preference for non-decision-making. Mini-publics can nevertheless inform decision-making by inviting a representative sample of the affected citizenry to consider the available evidence and come to a set of conclusions and/or recommendations that if all parties cannot agree, none can reasonably object. In doing so, mini-publics have the potential to break the policy deadlock by adding an additional layer of legitimacy to the decision-making process, albeit this is dependent upon decision-makers granting value to their findings.

Secondary Green Crime: Bangkok’s PM2.5 Pollution and Policy Corruption

Air pollution has been widely studied as a primary green crime, but its relationship with secondary green crime has not been well investigated in Thailand. This article explores the link between particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) pollution in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area and policy corruption, treating it as a secondary green crime. The study conducted documentary research, in-depth interviews, focus groups and a qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that certain human activities could subsequently enable air pollution to occur and that corruption between the government and corporations seeking economic gain under favourable policies is a significant contributing factor. Business elites also play a role in environmental policy deadlock. Four sectors (i.e., vehicles and traffic congestion, construction, industrial factories and power plants, and agricultural burning) were identified as sources of PM2.5 pollution related to policy corruption. This suggests that addressing policy corruption is a necessary part of preventing PM2.5 pollution.

Болевые точки Пекина – 3 (Смена экономической модели и внешнеполитические риски)

The consequences of COVID 19, both inside and outside China, especially in the countries – major importers of Chinese products, have negatively impacted the Chinese economy. These negative socio-economic consequences forced Beijing to accelerate the transition to a relatively new economic development model, which was marked in the early 2000s. The main component of this model is the expansion of domestic consumption and, accordingly, a further increase of the contribution of this indicator to the Chinese GDP itself and of its growth rate. However, this does not mean that China will abandon economic expansion and the implementation of its foreign economic and initiatives. Their importance as structural parts of the new economic model will continue and even grow. The acceleration of the transition to the dominance of domestic consumption in economic development is additionally conditioned by the foreign policy deadlock in which China found itself at the end of 2020. Despite the world’s fastest economic recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic, China has been unable to take advantage of this advantage effectively. Chinese “mask” diplomacy did not bring the desired results for Beijing – the PRC was not able to raise the leader’s torch temporarily lost by the United States. On the contrary, under the influence of Western propaganda, the contradiction in the perception of China as “our own” in the market sphere and “an alien” in the sphere of ideology has intensified. At the same time, due to increased competition in high-tech markets, in particular, 5G communication technologies, the ideological “alienation” of China is beginning to be used by Western countries in market wars in their favor. The forecast of economic development both by international and Chinese experts assumes the growth rate of China’s GDP in 2021 will be in the range of 6–8%. In our opinion, this is an overly optimistic estimate, and the corresponding figure will probably be 5–6%. The PRC is entering the 14th Five-Year Plan amid greater uncertainty: the prospects for the recovery of the world economy as a whole and, in particular, of the main Chinese trading partners, are not clear; limited instability is possible due to the accelerated change in the model of economic development; the volume of Chinese GDP has reached more than 15 trillion USD, therefore, each percent of its growth has become significantly “heavier” and more difficult to achieve. At the same time, the primacy in economic recovery and the continued potential for the expansion of the Chinese middle class bring positive contribution to the economic prospects of the PRC.

AGVs Collision and Deadlock Handling Based on Structural Online Control Policy: A Case Study in a Square Topology

Based on the novel structural online control policy (SOCP) deadlock handling method presented in our previous work, we have shown that for a specific group of use cases it is possible to relax the requirements of the method, providing an improvement in its performance. In the present work, a new type of deadlock-free zone was introduced which enabled the method to improve its efficiency for both bidirectional as well as unidirectional and mixed path systems. For bidirectional systems, a beneficial outcome was obtained by approaching the global problem solution using sequentially solved local problems. For unidirectional and mixed systems, on the other hand, this paper introduces a condition that allows verification of the feasibility of performing process reservations in a staged manner. The fulfillment of this condition means that there is a possibility of obtaining higher efficiency of the transportation system. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches has been verified by simulations. Their results were compared with the results of the original method resulting in a significant improvement.

Explaining policy deadlock: the case of Sarkozy’s integration policy

What processes account for the deadlock in a given policy? While causes and mechanisms of policy change have been extensively researched, this paper sheds light on how formal institutional change can lead to policy deadlock. This paper examines two cases that demonstrate the absence of progress on integration policy during Sarkozy’s time in office (as a Minister of the Interior and as a president). Drawing on elite interviews, the paper points out how institutional change can lead to departmental competition within new or combined structures, leading to policy deadlock, as new layered actors do not always have the capacity to push old ones out, resulting in further institutional change.

Standing in a Crowded Room: Exploring the Relation between Interest Group System Density and Access to Policymakers

The numerous presence of interest groups may be a recipe for policy deadlock or, more optimistically, indicate the vibrancy of a political community. Population-ecology theory suggests that the number of interest groups active in a policy domain is relevant for strategies and political outcomes, such as policy access, and interest group density is expected to reduce access for individual organizations. Competitive pressures in dense domains necessitate groups to specialize to gain access to the policy access. We empirically assess this argument and indeed find lower levels of access in denser policy fields, moderated by specialization of organizations in lobbying. Furthermore, we identify important differences between mature (the Netherlands and Belgium) and young (Slovenia and Lithuania) interest group systems. These findings address theoretical concerns about the lack of linkages between micro- and macro-studies on interest representation.

Employer and employer association matters in Australia in 2016

Employers and their associations were hopeful that the double dissolution election in 2016 would end continuing policy deadlock, which had hitherto stalled progress on their desired industrial relations reforms. But the coalition’s less than convincing victory at the polls dashed any hope that such progress would be swift and comprehensive. Towards the end of the year, the government was finally able to secure the passage of the contentious Australian Building and Construction Commission and Registered Organisations bills that triggered the election. But action on other fronts, like implementing the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s 2015 Inquiry, had been slow. The Fair Work Commission’s much anticipated deliberation on Sunday penalty rates is also delayed, creating more uncertainties for award-reliant employers at the end of 2016. To aggravate matters further, unions are continuously trying to chip away various key features of casual working arrangements, through Fair Work Commission test cases and by pushing strongly in favour of the inclusion of casual deeming provisions in modern awards.

The Significance of Business Interest Associations in Economic Policy Reform: The Case of Australian Taxation Policy

Taxation reform has dominated Australian politics over the past twenty-five years. Despite this prominence on the political agenda, until recently Australian governments have lacked the capacity to consolidate key elements of this tax reform agenda. While the problematic nature of Australian tax reform can be explained in part by macro-level variables, this protracted policy deadlock has also influenced historical patterns of business-government intermediation. The article argues that the evolution of the Australian tax policy network over the study period was prompted by both associational and state actors reassessing their strategies in the context of the political failure of tax reform proposals. These developments provide empirical insights into the ongoing debate relating to the factors which lead to the formation and evolution of sectoral level policy networks. The article concludes that while the increasing levels of business mobilization experienced over the study period enhanced the electoral via...

Unpleasant Monetarist Arithmetic: Macroprudential Edition

The 2008 crisis highlighted the linkages between the financial sector and the real economy, as well as between the corresponding stabilization policies: macroprudential and monetary (MM arguably the case of Sweden, Norway and other countries post-2010. To allow for richer strategic interactions, we postulate the concept of Stochastic leadership, which generalizes Stackelberg leadership and simultaneous move game by allowing for Calvo-type probabilistic revisions of policy actions. We show that the most likely outcomes are Policy Deadlock, Regime Switching and Macroprudential Dominance, but all three are socially undesirable. This is not only because of excessive financial and economic cycles, but also because monetary policy coerced into leaning against the wind loses full control over price inflation. The separation setup of M&Ms is thus subject to a macroprudential version of unpleasant monetarist arithmetic.

Macro Meets Micro: Stochastic (Calvo) Revisions in Games

AbstractThe timing of moves in conventional games is deterministic. To better capture the uncertainty of many real world situations, we postulate a stochastic timing framework. The players get a revision opportunity at a pre-specified time (common to them) with some known probability (different across them). The probabilistic revisions resemble the Calvo (1983) timing widely used in macroeconomics, and by nesting the standard simultaneous move game and Stackelberg leadership they can serve as a “dynamic commitment” device. The analysis shows how the revision time and probabilities affect the outcomes in games with multiple and/or inefficient equilibria. Unsurprisingly, we show in the Battle of the sexes that commitment – low revision probability relative to the opponent – improves the player’s chances to uniquely achieve his preferred outcome (i.e. to dominate). What may, however, seem surprising is that the less committed (higher revision probability) player may dominate the game under some circumstances (for which we derive the necessary and sufficient conditions). This is in contrast to the intuition of Stackelberg leadership where the more committed player (leader) always does so. The paper then applies the framework to the strategic interaction between monetary and fiscal policies in the aftermath of the Global financial crisis. It is modelled as the Game of chicken in which a double-dip recession and deflation can occur when both policies postpone stimulatory measures – attempting to induce the other policy to carry them out. In order to link our theoretic results to the real world, we develop new indices of monetary and fiscal policy leadership (pre-commitment) and quantify them using institutional characteristics of high-income countries. This exercise shows that the danger of the undesirable deflationary scenario caused by a monetary–fiscal policy deadlock may be high in some major economies.

Too difficult to govern? An assessment of the governability of transport biofuels in the EU

Transport biofuels are currently the subject of heated debate in the EU. In the past decade the deployment of these technologies has been justified by claims of attractive environmental, geopolitical and rural development benefits. However, expectations have rapidly turned into deep criticism regarding the sustainability of these technologies and the desirability of pursuing the biofuel path. This situation has generated an on-going controversy and policy deadlock at EU level. This study explores these issues from a governance perspective. Employing the concept of system governability, derived from interactive governance theory, it attempts to shed some light on the problems facing the governance of biofuels and on how the quality of the governance system could be improved. The analysis showed that the governability of the system decreased substantially in the period 2003–2012 due to increasing governing needs and decreasing governing capacity. The quality of the governance system can be improved by (i) improving governing capacity by reducing conflicts among governing actors, advancing consistency among institutions and creating capacity at international and global level; and (ii) promoting advanced technologies and adjusting societal ambitions and expectations regarding biofuels.

Veto Players, Fickle Institutions and Low-Quality Policies: The Policymaking Process in Ecuador

This paper seeks to understand why political actors, institutions and legal reforms have systematically failed to produce cooperation in the Ecuadorian policymaking process. From a comparative and historical standpoint, Ecuador has been trapped in a cycle of low-quality public policies that fail to adjust to environmental conditions, that fluctuate according to political whims and that tend to favor well-organized lobbies rather than pursuing optimal social outcomes. The paper identifies two alternative policymaking paths leading to poor policy outcomes. In the first one, the executive agenda is eclipsed by the short-term clientelistic demands of multiple veto players in the legislature, thus contributing to policy deadlock or rigidity. In the second, executive power is delegated to a decisive, often technical bureaucracy isolated from political pressures, but the lack of institutional stability of such bodies leads to a pattern of policy volatility. Lastly, the paper discusses the formal and informal roles of last-ditch veto players to stall or revert unwanted policies. The paper also features two case studies on fiscal and monetary policies, and derives empirical implications to improve the formation of durable intertemporal agreements in the legislature and ensure stable policy implementation and enforcement through a technical bureaucracy and independent judiciary.

Coalition Erosion and Presidential Instability in Ecuador

AbstractThis article advances the idea that coalition formation and maintenance in highly fragmented presidential regimes is not only crucial to overcoming policy deadlock, but in some cases, critical to ensuring government survival. To advance this argument, the article looks at the formation and demise of legislative coalitions in Ecuador between 1979 and 2006. The empirical data suggest that paradoxically, government coalitions became more difficult to sustain after the adoption of institutional reforms intended to strengthen the president's legislative powers. The adoption of those reforms, it is argued, undermined the legislative incentives to cooperate with the government and helped to accelerate coalition erosion. Not only did the reforms fail significantly to avoid policy deadlock, but in some cases they contributed to the early termination of presidential mandates. This article contributes to the study of coalition survival and how it is linked to policymaking.

Challenges and trade‐offs in corporate innovation for climate change

AbstractThe international debate on addressing global climate change increasingly points to the role that companies can play by using their innovative capacity. However, up till now companies have been rather cautious in taking decisive steps in facilitating an innovation‐based transition towards a low‐carbon economy. This paper conceptually explores some key challenges related to innovating for climate change, in the broader context of technological change, complementary capability development and sociotechnical systems, to point to trade‐offs to be made by companies. We adopt a firm‐level perspective to discuss (a) how companies strike a balance between further development and deployment of emissions‐reducing technologies, in view of the fact that there is no ‘silver bullet’ solution for climate change yet, (b) how and in what way low‐carbon solutions are brought to the market, by targeting consumers in either mainstream markets or niche markets, and (c) to what extent the success or failure of climate change innovations depends on companies' bargaining power and willingness to cooperate with others. The paper shows how several industry‐ and firm‐specific factors – technological dynamism, complementarity between new technologies and existing assets, and ownership of specialized assets for commercialization – influence how companies strike a balance between the different trade‐offs and deal with the uncertainty created by the current ‘climate policy deadlock’. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Federalism at the 'Cathedral': Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability Rules in Tenth Amendment Infrastructure

As the climate crisis, war in the Middle East, and the price of oil focus American determination to move beyond fossil fuels, nuclear power has resurfaced as a possible alternative. But heady plans for energy reform may be stalled by an unlikely policy deadlock stemming from a structural technicality in an aging Supreme Court decision: New York v. United States, which set forth the Tenth Amendment anti-commandeering rule in 1992. The same dry technicality has also threatened the effective management of storm water pollution, contributed to the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, and poses ongoing regulatory obstacles in such critical interjurisdictional contexts as national security and counter-terrorism efforts. Such is the enormous power hidden in the infrastructure of legal rules, parts of which we know better as property, liability, and inalienability remedy rules. Federalism at the Cathedral explores the consequences for good governance of poorly constructed legal infrastructure in the Tenth Amendment context, and recommends a simple jurisprudential fix: exchanging a property rule for the inalienability remedy rule that the Court used to protect the anti-commandeering entitlement. Grounded in a values-based theory of American federalism, it shows how the New York inalienability rule unnecessarily removes tools for resolving interjurisdictional quagmires - exemplified by the radioactive waste capacity problem at the heart of the New York litigation - by prohibiting novel forms of state-federal bargaining. In New York, the Court held that Congress lacked the authority to bind a state's participation in a regulatory scheme even if state officials had effectively waived Tenth Amendment-based objections during consensual negotiations with the federal government. In so doing, the Court articulated a reasonable entitlement to federal noninterference protected by an unreasonable inalienability rule. It is an inalienability rule, because any number of collective action problems would prevent the negotiated transfer of the entitlement except through elected representation. It is unreasonable, because the intergovernmental partnerships thus thwarted would help resolve pressing interjurisdictional problems without offending the constitution. Indeed, underlying values of federalism that give meaning to the Tenth Amendment would be better served by allowing a state to decide for itself whether to hold or trade its entitlement. Focusing on the facts and legacy of the New York decision, the Article concludes that although its inalienability rule is defensible in exclusively state or federal jurisdictional contexts, it is dubious in contexts that require regulatory attention at both the local and national level. A property rule that would enable states to bargain with their anti-commandeering entitlement would not offend the touchstone of Tenth Amendment jurisprudence, which has always been the prevention of federal coercion of the states. A pro-bargaining property rule would be more consistent with the rest of the Court's federalism jurisprudence, more faithful to the full panoply of values that under gird American federalism, and better for state and federal governance in difficult interjurisdictional contexts.

Pathologies or Progress? Evaluating the effects of Divided Government and Party Volatility

A vast body of literature emphasizes that successful political development relies on stable and united political parties that underpin clear and responsive policymaking. By this perspective, divided government and party volatility represent pathologies that imperil political accountability and development. Indeed, studies contend that divided government – where different parties control the executive and legislative branches of government – lead to policy deadlock while party volatility – characterized by frequent party splits, solo switches, mergers, dissolutions or the establishment of new parties – confounds representation and accountability. Clearly, each on its own is seen as a considerable threat to political performance and democratic development; the confluence of the two points virtually to an inevitable political doom.

Governing universal health insurance in Korea and Taiwan

This article examines policy responses to the rising costs of healthcare in the Republic of Korea and Taiwan from a governance perspective. It tries to answer why the two countries responded differently to a similar set of challenges facing their National Health Insurance (NHI). While Taiwan – in an attempt to contain costs – introduced a global budgeting system, Korea failed to do so. Governments in both countries attempted to establish a new mode of governance, bringing multiple stakeholders to health policy making in order to build social consensus. But the Korean government, as this article shows, could not resolve its policy deadlock because of a loss of trust between the government and the medical profession, caused by the separation reform of 2001. Even though Taiwan was better able than Korea to address the financial challenges of its NHI, the new mode of health governance is still on shaky ground. This article argues that because neither government now enjoys the exclusive power over health policy that they once did under the developmental state, it is essential to find a way in which different stakeholders can make the necessary compromises that will enable the NHI to run on a sustainable path for the future.

Srebrenica—The War Crimes Legacy: International Arguments, Intervention and Memory

The Srebrenica massacre has been seen as the turning point in American policy over Bosnia. However, the response to a major war crime was not the single most important element. The Clinton Administration was set on restoring the American leadership image through a pro‐active leadership policy. The Administration extricated itself from policy deadlock by taking risks and sharing responsibilities with its allies in Bosnia, which made effective leadership possible, accommodating the allies’ expectations. American policy was about this important business of image and power, not the fate of Srebrenica and Bosnia and the need to address the war crimes there. The real legacy of the war crimes at Srebrenica was that the response to it restored international leadership from Washington.

Stalemate: causes and consequences of legislative gridlock

Gridlock is not a modern legislative condition. Although the term is said to have entered the American political lexicon after the 1980 elections, Alexander Hamilton complained about it more than two hundred years ago. In many ways, stalemate seems endemic to American politics. Constitutional skeptics even suggest that the framers intentionally designed the Constitution to guarantee gridlock. In Stalemate , Sarah Binder examines the causes and consequences of gridlock, focusing on the ability of Congress to broach and secure policy compromise on significant national issues. Reviewing more than fifty years of legislative history, Binder measures the frequency of deadlock during that time and offers concrete advice for policymakers interested in improving the institutional capacity of Congress. Binder begins by revisiting the notion of framers' intent, investigating whether gridlock was the preferred outcome of those who designed the American system of separated powers. Her research suggests that frequent policy gridlock might instead be an unintended consequence of constitutional design. Next, she explores the ways in which elections and institutions together shape the capacity of Congress and the president to make public law. She examines two facets of its institutional evolution: the emergence of the Senate as a coequal legislative partner of the House and the insertion of political parties into a legislative arena originally devoid of parties. Finally, she offers a new empirical approach for testing accounts of policy stalemate during the decades since World War II. These measurements reveal patterns in legislative performance during the second half of the twentieth century, showing the frequency of policy deadlock and the legislative stages at which it has most often emerged in the postwar period. Binder uses the new measure of stalemate to explain empirical patterns in the frequency of gridlock. The results weave together the effects of institutions and elections and place in perspective the impact of divided government on legislative performance. The conclusion addresses the consequences of legislative stalemate, assessing whether and to what degree deadlock might affect electoral fortunes, political ambitions, and institutional reputations of legislators and presidents. The results suggest that recurring episodes of stalemate pose a dilemma for legislators and others who care about the institutional standing and capacity of Congress. Binder encourages scholars, political observers, and lawmakers to consider modest reforms that could have strong and salutary effects on the institutional standing and legitimacy of Congress and the president.

The Significance of Business Interest Associations in Economic Policy Reform: The Case of Australian Taxation Policy

Taxation reform has dominated Australian politics over the past twenty-five years. Despite this prominence on the political agenda, until recently Australian governments have lacked the capacity to consolidate key elements of this tax reform agenda. While the problematic nature of Australian tax reform can be explained in part by macro-level variables, this protracted policy deadlock has also influenced historical patterns of business-government intermediation. The article argues that the evolution of the Australian tax policy network over the study period was prompted by both associational and state actors reassessing their strategies in the context of the political failure of tax reform proposals. These developments provide empirical insights into the ongoing debate relating to the factors which lead to the formation and evolution of sectoral level policy networks. The article concludes that while the increasing levels of business mobilization experienced over the study period enhanced the electoral viability of reform proposals, these new patterns of sectoral business politics should be regarded as a consequence of the policy deadlock relating to tax reform rather than primary cause of policy change.