Policy Feedback Theory Research Articles

Policy Feedback and the Politics of Childhood Vaccine Mandates: Conflict and Change in California, 2012–2019

Context: In 2012, California instituted a new requirement for parents to consult with a clinician before receiving a personal belief exemption (PBE) to its school entry vaccine mandate. In 2015, the state removed this exemption altogether. In 2019, legislators cracked down on medical exemptions to address their misuse by vaccine refusers and supportive clinicians. This article uses “policy feedback theory” to explore these political conflicts, arguing that PBEs informed the emergence and approaches of two coalitions whose conflict reshaped California's vaccination policies. Methods: The authors analyzed legal, policy, academic, and media documents; interviewed 10 key informants; and deductively analyzed transcripts using NVivo 20 transcription software. Findings: California's long-standing vaccination policy inadvertently disseminated two fundamentally incompatible social norms: vaccination is a choice, and vaccination is not a choice. Over time, the culture and number of vaccine refusers grew, at least in part because the state's policy sanctioned the norm of vaccine refusal. Conclusions: The long-term consequences of California's “mandate + PBE” policy—visible, public, and socially sanctioned vaccine refusal—undermined support for it over time, generating well-defined losses for a large group of people (the vaccinating public) and specifically for the provaccine parent activists whose experiences of personal grievance drove their mobilization for change.

When “symbolic” policy is anything but: Policy design and feedbacks from California's human right to water law

AbstractDespite the reality that advocates frequently expend significant resources to pass symbolic policies, this policy design has often been neglected by policy studies scholarship. We combine policy design and policy feedback theory to examine this oft overlooked policy design in practice using the case of California's human right to water law (Assembly Bill 685, or AB 685). Through semi‐structured interviews, archival research, and document analysis, we reveal how grassroots advocates deliberately and effectively pursued AB 685 to build power across the water justice movement and catalyze narrative change about drinking water access, while also building state responsiveness on the topic. These interpretive policy feedback effects then accelerated the policy's resource effects through formal policy changes in funding allocations, administrative structures, and regulatory systems. Collectively, feedbacks from AB 685 have transformed the sociopolitics of drinking water access. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, the policy's ambiguity proved key to building the broad coalition necessary to accomplish these changes, and it facilitated work across policy venues and governance scales through time, which is critical to enacting transformational change. Based on these findings, we argue that symbolic policies merit attention as a potentially advantageous policy design for social movements seeking social change and transformation.

Policy feedback and the politics of trade agreements

Why do interest groups mobilise to change the design of international institutions? The existing research on this topic expects moments when there is a peak in political action, but generally does not consider how such peaks might impact future mobilisations. To fill this gap, this article advances an analysis that draws on policy feedback theory. It shows that the greater the preference distances surrounding existing preferential trade agreements (PTA), the more likely it is for political activity to form around prospective trade deals that share certain key commonalities with those more contentious earlier agreements. The article tests the plausibility of that argument in the design of labour provisions in US and EU trade agreements. It shows that, in the US, NAFTA (ratified 1993) introduced a model of labour provisions that was seen over the years as ‘designed to fail’. As a result, it helped mobilise labour unions against prospective PTAs that bore a resemblance to NAFTA. However, the same did not happen in the EU during the 1990s and early 2000s. This article helps connect public policy research with the literature on the politics of trade agreements. It also serves as a cautionary note to policy makers regarding the long-term effects of PTA design on political activity and underscores the need for carefully projecting the political underpinnings of the enforcement of PTA provisions.

How does policy mix credibility affect citizen participation? Evidence from pilot of household waste sorting policy

ABSTRACT A burgeoning collaborative government-citizen public service delivery mode is hindered by insufficient policy mix credibility for boosting citizen participation. One reason is the unclear understanding of systematic pathways linking policy mix credibility and citizen participation. This article focuses on the relationship between policy mix credibility and citizen participation behavior based on the policy feedback theory. It also introduces citizen participation willingness as a mediator, and ICT tool functionality as moderators to further understand their boundary effects. Using a panel data from four follow-up surveys during the waste sorting policy pilot in Chongqing, China, and employing the difference-in-difference method, we found that policy mix credibility influences citizen participation behavior through citizen participation willingness. And the translation of willingness into actual participation action depends on policy resources represented by the ICT tool functionality. The findings solve the theoretical perplexity about the role of policy mix credibility in citizen participation in public service provision and provide new ideas for mobilizing it.

Analysis of Government Policies on Rice Production in Thailand: A Policy Evaluation Study

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the analysis of government policies on rice production in Thailand: a policy evaluation study. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The analysis of government policies on rice production in Thailand revealed that while price support policies have effectively stabilized farmers' incomes in the short term, they have also increased dependency on government subsidies, potentially stifling innovation in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, the study found that water management and technological adoption policies were beneficial in improving yields and sustainability, but their implementation was uneven across different regions. Recommendations from the study emphasized the need for a more balanced approach that reduces dependency on subsidies, enhances farmers' access to markets, and promotes sustainable agricultural practices. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Public Choice Theory, Policy Feedback Theory & Institutionalism may be used to anchor future studies on analysis of government policies on rice production in Thailand: a policy evaluation study. By implementing these practices, stakeholders can achieve more sustainable, productive, and economically viable outcomes for rice farmers and the broader agricultural community. The policy contributions of these recommendations are aimed at creating a more robust, effective, and sustainable framework for rice production in Thailand.

The interactive effects of policies: Insights for policy feedback theory from a qualitative study on homelessness

AbstractThe policy feedback literature has long argued that policies influence politics. Several scholars have examined the interpretive and resource effects of policies on political participation. However, how different policy design characteristics – say their generosity and their delivery – interact to influence political engagement requires further attention. This article demonstrates that policy characteristics within and between policies interact and can have counteracting or complementary effects on engagement. Through a comparative study of homelessness in Melbourne, Australia and Toronto, Canada, and drawing on over 100 interviews with individuals experiencing homelessness, service providers, and policymakers, this article demonstrates the complex effects of policies. Qualitative interview data reveal that different characteristics of policy interact to influence the venue and form of participation, as well as the experiences associated. Anatomizing policies provides nuance to our understanding of effects and interactions with important contributions and areas of future research for policy feedback theory.

Does administrative burden create racialized policy feedback? How losing access to public benefits impacts beliefs about government

Abstract Public trust and civic predisposition are cornerstones of well-functioning democratic societies, and burdensome citizen-state encounters may undermine positive views of government, especially for racially minoritized clientele. Leveraging insights from policy feedback theory, we argue that administrative burden has the potential to undermine trust in government and civic predisposition through two mechanisms: (1) interpretive effects: burdensome experiences that induce negative emotional responses and (2) resource effects: experiences of losing access to public benefits. In our OLS regression analysis of survey data from applicants for a means-tested public benefit program in the US (n = 2,250), we find that clients who lost access to benefits were significantly less likely to trust government, and these findings were driven by racially minoritized clients rather than White clients. Our findings demonstrate that experiences of administrative burden that result in the loss of public benefits may result in racialized policy feedback, by disproportionately reducing trust in government and civic predisposition for racially minoritized clientele.

The policy feedback effects of preemption

AbstractScholars have charted a dramatic rise in the use of preemption both at the federal and state levels since the 1970s, with courts and politicians from both parties enacting preemptions across a range of contentious issues. Thus, preemption is a critical feature of American policymaking—one that almost certainly shapes the political choices of policymakers, organized interests, and voters across levels of government. Despite its significance to the politics of policymaking, scholars have yet to systematically consider the political consequences of preemption. We apply the logic of policy feedback theory to create a framework for analyzing the political consequences of preemption. Specifically, we detail how the use of both federal‐state and state‐local preemption might produce unique resource and interpretive effects that shape the subsequent political behaviors of policymakers, organized interests, and the public. We then consider two illustrative cases—federal preemption of state consumer financial protections and state preemption of local gender identity anti‐discrimination statutes—to demonstrate our framework's application. The article addresses a gap in the preemption literature and provides a critical extension of policy feedback theory, proposing a research agenda for future work to help better understand the politics of a widely used policy tool.

Cultural Resistance to Policy Change: Welfare Privatization, Policy Feedback, and the Moral Economy of Welfare

Abstract Social policy research posits that people adapt to policy change by aligning their preferences and institutional expectations through habituation. At face value, this policy feedback theory conflicts with theories of moral economy, which suggests that people share durable cultural repertoires regarding the meaning of the good life and good society. Deploying a large number of qualitative interviews, this study analyzes whether and how people resist or adapt to welfare privatization polices in Sweden and Denmark. The analysis identifies and compares cultural repertoires incompatible across the state–market boundary in the contexts of health care and education. Equality and efficiency are identified as key values in the moral economy of welfare, whereas profit and selectivity are market values that interviewees resist and reject in the context of welfare. In contrast, many justify the individual right to buy welfare in the market. The findings suggest that policy changes that cross sectorial boundaries become legitimate only if multiple notions of cultural worth are involved. Attempts to justify privatization policies take place as cultural reconfiguration and interpretation, rather than changed preferences and expectations.

정책피드백이론(Policy Feedback Theory)을 통한 BK21 사업 변동과정 분석

The purpose of this study is to analyzes the formation and changes in the BK21 project using policy feedback theory, which assumes that policies at earlier stages influence policies at subsequent stages. The analysis revealed that the BK21 project concentrates resources on leading universities in the metropolitan area, science and technology specialized universities, and regional hub universities. This focus is determined through a quantitative assessment centered on the social construction of a “research-oriented university.” Furthermore, the study interprets this persistence as a result of reinforcing vested interests through the enhanced educational and research capabilities (resource effects) and increased self-efficacy among the selected universities in subsequent projects and policy decision-making processes (interpretive effects), leading to path dependence. The significance of this study lies in its expanded application of policy feedback theory from individual to organizational behavioral levels, confirming its usefulness in analyzing domestic education policies.

Policy feedback and the enforcement of international wildlife treaties in Germany

AbstractLaws are only as good as their enforcement. International treaties are no exception. We investigate how Germany implements international wildlife protection treaties, namely the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Bern Convention. We find that Germany's federal system allows for uneven enforcement of national legislation across the 16 federal states. We utilize Policy Feedback Theory as a theoretical lens to examine how federalism (re‐)produces different enforcement regimes. We rely on qualitative analysis of interviews of German street‐level bureaucrats, government officials, and NGO representatives. We find that macrolevel context impacts how institutions enforce wildlife protection policies. Particularly, Germany's federal structure permits either centralized, decentralized, or cooperative arrangements that result in differences in resources, affecting the ways bureaucrats view their roles and responsibilities. These resource and interpretive effects further feedback into the contextual structure of the federal enforcement system.

Behavioural knowledge for policy design: The connection between time use Behaviours and (or) desires and support for policy alternatives

AbstractThe study explored how understanding people's behaviours and desires can inform policy design and contribute to policy feedback theory. We focused on uses of time that are affected by diverse policies. Given the growing interest in promoting well‐being and the connection between the use of time and well‐being, we examined behaviours and desires regarding uses of time. In this exploratory study, we employed a quantitative research method. We surveyed 671 Israeli adults on their time use, desires for time use, and support for policy alternatives in three policy fields: work, education, and welfare. In five out of 11 policy alternatives, we found a connection between behavioural variables and support for policy alternatives. While exploratory, our findings contribute innovative insights into the connection between behavioural variables and support for policy alternatives related to time use. Theoretically, the article highlights the importance of incorporating behavioural ‘signalling knowledge’ as an essential input at the policy design stage and contributes to the policy feedback literature on multidisciplinary policies.

Tax principles, policy feedback and self-interest: cross-national experimental evidence on wealth tax preferences

Abstract Rising wealth inequality and squeezed public budgets has brought wealth tax back into policy discussions. A net wealth tax might help to boost state revenue and reduce wealth inequality. Yet little is known about citizens’ attitudes towards the design of a net wealth tax (i.e. the tax unit, exemption and rate). Using a novel multifactorial survey experiment, we examine citizens’ endorsement of fundamental principles of taxation. Building on policy feedback theory, we examine if preferences differ in three policy arenas (USA, Germany and UK) and whether individuals’ reasoning is dependent on self-interest. While a clear majority in all three countries generally endorses a wealth tax, our findings show that citizens care more about the amount exempted than the tax unit or rate. We do not identify a preference for any specific tax unit. Furthermore, tax preferences seem to be strikingly similar among citizens of all three countries. Yet we show that individuals are mostly concerned about not being personally affected by such a tax, which is reflected in their preference for substantial exemptions. We discuss our findings with regard to our understanding of wealth inequality, tax equity and the potential implications for policymakers.

Policy Feedback & Research Methods: How Qualitative Research Designs With Marginalized Groups Inform Theory

As a body of literature that informs and analyzes the effects of policy, policy feedback research will benefit from more qualitative research designs with marginalized populations. Qualitative research designs allow for theoretical and conceptual development, as well as ensure multiple perspectives are fully captured. This article argues that qualitative methods with different populations will expand applications of policy feedback theory and lead to critical insights for its development. Three examples of potential areas of theory development are outlined including informing the variable of participation, examining more nuanced effects of specific policy elements, and understanding the interactions of multiple policies. The article concludes with the suggestion of more mixed-method designs utilizing qualitative approaches involving participants to test existing hypotheses and inform new relationships. Policy feedback theory raises vital questions of democratic legitimacy and policy effectiveness that benefit from research conducted with, and informed by, marginalized populations.

Administrative Burden as Intermediate Negative Policy Feedback: Explaining Low-Income Migrant Exodus amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

This article describes the social mechanisms that condition the negative policy feedback effects among powerless social groups. It uses the policy feedback theory to explain the role of the administrative burden as the intermediate negative policy feedback that can lead to end negative policy feedback effects. The article elaborates upon the unequal treatment of low-income migrants in cities during pre-pandemic times and how that has led to alienation and civil disobedience during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It highlights the essential role of democratic mechanisms like media and the judiciary in mitigating the inequality exacerbating effects of public service encounters. The article makes a case for promoting an understanding of the concept of the administrative burden that converges its experience-distant and experience-near meanings.

The Conundrum of Policy Stability: The Case of Afghanistan’s Centralized Planning and Budgeting Policies

This paper explores why Afghanistan’s centralized planning and budgeting policies, despite consistent failure to improve local participation and allocative efficiency, remained stable. Based on policy feedback theory, there are two explanations. First, policy actors, given their interests, often tend to keep the status quo unchanged; and second, policymaking processes play a facilitative role for policy actors. This paper explains how centralized policymaking processes enable policy actors to bypass specific constraints of institutional environment such as agenda setting, principalagent dynamics, information symmetry, and credible commitment to keep certain policies unchanged. With the recent collapse of Afghan state, the Taliban would most likely continue the centralized planning and budgeting policies given their past governance approach and their recent performance.

Does Receiving Government Assistance Shape Political Attitudes? Evidence from Agricultural Producers

When individuals receive benefits from government programs, does it affect their attitudes toward those programs or toward government generally? A growing literature blends policy feedback theory and political behavior research to explore these questions, but so far it has focused almost exclusively on social policies such as the Affordable Care Act. In this article, we focus on a very different set of government programs that reach a more conservative, rural population: agricultural assistance. Our study ties administrative records on participation in USDA farm aid programs to an original, first-of-its-kind survey measuring agricultural producers’ political attitudes. We find that receiving agricultural assistance is sometimes related to producers’ views of the program delivering the benefits, but it depends on the divisiveness of the program and—for highly partisan programs—recipients’ ideology. However, receiving federal agricultural assistance is not associated with more positive views of government.

Research on the Impact of Canceling Medicinemarkups on the Price Change of Medical Services

A new round of medical system reform in China since 2009 aims to solve the problems of "difficult to see doctors" and "expensive medical treatment". In the past few years, the cancellation of drug markups has been promoted to the whole country by local pilot projects as an important measure of medical reform. In this context, the price of medical services, as an important part of medical charges, will become the focus and difficulty of the future reform, which deserves the attention of the academic circles and practitioners. In this study, based on the policy feedback theory, this paper analyzes the interaction and mechanism between the two major medical reform policies: the cancellation of drug markups and the price adjustment of medical services, and puts forward suggestions for further reform and policy coordination in the future from the two dimensions of resource effect and interpretation effect.

A long-brewing crisis: The historical antecedents of major alcohol policy change in Ireland.

The Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 in Ireland has been hailed as a world-leading package of alcohol policy reforms. Existing studies have identified the events that led to alcohol emerging onto the high-level policy agenda in Ireland, particularly after 2009. Using policy feedback theory, this study specifically investigates the political consequences of accumulating alcohol-related health and social harms for processes of policy change prior to 2009. The study traces the development of alcohol policy in Ireland over the past three decades. It draws on primary documents, secondary literature and interviews with public health advocates, medical doctors, public health experts and key decision-makers. The study documents a decades-long struggle to have alcohol recognised as a public health issue in Ireland. We identify 2008/2009 as the key turning point, where policy conditions decisively shifted in a public health direction. We show how insufficient institutional authority and the accumulation of the effects of earlier policy failures helped foster this dynamic. These two factors elevated the visibility of alcohol-related harm for key stakeholders, helping spur greater demand for major policy change. Not acting on the population health harms caused by alcohol can produce significant societal costs, particularly when consumption is rising, and entail subsequent political consequences. Understanding of innovations in alcohol policy decision making requires an appreciation of the historical context, including earlier policy failures.

Empirical evidence on factors influencing farmers' administrative burden: A structural equation modeling approach.

Direct payments represent a large share of Swiss farmers' total household income but compliance with related requirements often entails a high administrative burden. This causes individuals to experience policy implementation as onerous. Based on a framework for administrative burden in citizen-state interactions, we test whether farmers' individual knowledge, psychological costs and compliance costs help to explain their perception of administrative burden related to direct payments. We refine this framework by testing different specifications of interrelations between psychological costs and perceived administrative burden based on findings from policy feedback theory and education research. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to data collected from a representative sample of 808 Swiss farmers by postal questionnaire in 2019. We find that compliance costs and psychological costs contribute significantly to the perceived administrative burden. In contrast, farmers' knowledge level contributes to this perception not directly but indirectly, with higher knowledge reducing psychological costs. Our results support policy feedback theory, in that a high level of administrative burden increases psychological costs. Furthermore, well-educated and well-informed farmers show a more positive attitude toward agricultural policy and thus perceive administrative tasks as less onerous. Policy-makers should invest in the reduction of administrative requirements to reduce compliance costs.