Policy Outputs Research Articles

Can Autocracy Handle Climate Change?

ABSTRACT Existing literature on climate politics predominantly concentrates on democracies. However, there is a pressing need to examine how authoritarian regimes respond to climate change, given their growing impact on global carbon emissions and their populations’ acute climate vulnerability. Extant research often assumes that authoritarian regimes have inherent advantages in addressing climate change, leading to overly optimistic perspectives on their capabilities. This study highlights the necessity of qualifying those assumptions and evaluates the comparative advantages and disadvantages of autocracies relative to democracies throughout the policy process: policy formulation (or outputs), implementation, and outcomes. I argue that whereas climate-conscious autocracies may efficiently produce policy outputs based on scientific evidence, they often face more challenges related to information about local enforcement during implementation. This may result in greater hurdles than democracies, even with adequate state capacity and monitoring infrastructure. Furthermore, this analysis contends that a country’s developmental stage, rather than its regime type, is related more directly to the effectiveness of translating implementation efforts into tangible policy outcomes. Therefore, this article posits that the political science discourse, which often juxtaposes democracies with autocracies, should expand its scope to better understand how a country’s developmental level influences the success of its climate strategies.

Using punctuated equilibrium theory to explain changes in policy outputs: The case of the United States Coast Guard

AbstractThis article explores the utility of punctuated equilibrium (PE) theory in explaining revolutionary organizational change in the public sector and its effects on policy implementation, with a focus on the United States Coast Guard. We illustrate our model using data from in‐depth interviews with current and former senior Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel, as well as secondary sources such as historical accounts and budget data. Through content analysis, we argue that PE theory begins with a change in the public sector organization's external environment, which then affects organizational strategy, structure, power distribution, and outputs. Punctuated equilibrium theory proves to be a valuable lens for understanding policy outputs in relation to organizational change.Related ArticlesKwon, Sung‐Wook, and Sylvia Gonzalez‐Gorman. 2019. “Influence of Local Political Institutions on Policy Punctuation in Three Policy Areas.” Politics & Policy 47(2): 300–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12295.Neill, Katharine A., and John C. Morris. 2012. “A Tangled Web of Principals and Agents: Examining the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through a Principal–Agent Lens.”Politics & Policy 40(4): 629–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00371.x.Peng, Peiwen, and Tangzhe Cao. 2023. “Attention, Institutional Friction, and Punctuated Equilibrium in China's Budget: Changes in Social Security and Employment Expenditure.” Politics & Policy 51(2): 256–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12523.

Measuring achievements: Can cohesion policy programmes effectively monitor their performance?

The paper investigates the ability of Cohesion Policy programmes to define accurate policy outputs and to reliably monitor their own performance through accurate indicators. Specifically, the analysis explores the extent to which indicators and output targets set by ERDF programmes for monitoring and evaluation purposes are revised over time, seeking to identify specific patterns related to different areas such as spending categories, typology of regions, etc. Our findings highlight significant challenges faced by programmes in establishing realistic targets, as frequent and substantial changes are introduced to a vast majority of them. However, we also observe that only a small proportion of indicators is modified over time, suggesting relative stability in the overall objectives of programmes. The paper provides useful evidence for the ongoing debate on whether adopting a fully-performance based model, where access to funds is contingent upon achieving results/outputs, would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Cohesion Policy.

Turn to the right, turn away from the green?—A nuanced analysis on how a populist radical right party affects environmental policy making in Sweden

AbstractPopulist radical right parties are on the rise all over Europe. Recent literature investigates their effects on environmental policy, however, often applying an overly broad perspective on the policy area and neglecting causal mechanisms. This article addresses both gaps in an in‐depth case study of partisan effects on Swedish environmental policy in the wake of increasing populist radical right influence. A novel data approach deriving party positions and policy output from the hard figures of budget proposals between 2001 and 2023, allows a nuanced analysis of environmental policy and its subsectors (e.g., nature conservation and climate mitigation). In summary, a traditional partisan effect is confirmed as a major explaining factor for environmental policy change, while the effect unfolds through altered coalition formation strategies leading to the exclusion of “green voices.” This brings to the fore interactive environmental policy effects of the populist radical right and center‐right parties in the context of changing party competition constellations more generally.

Political Determinants of Health: Health Care Privatization and Population Health in Europe

Context: The extent to which health care reforms affect health remains understudied. Health care reforms result in policy outputs that determine provision of medical services, which have consequences for the health of the population. The authors scrutinize this relationship between health policy outputs and population health by focusing on legislative changes implying privatization of health care delivery and finance. They ask the following question: What is the relationship between reforms that privatize health care provision and population health in terms of health outcomes and inequalities? Methods: They answer this question by relying on fixed-effects time-series cross-section models. The authors use an original dataset of health care reforms passed in 36 European countries from 1989 to 2019. Health outcomes are operationalized with measures of subjective health status, unmet health needs, and resulting health inequalities. Findings: Their results show that privatization of health care is associated with higher rates of bad subjective health and unmet health needs several years after the passing of reforms. These effects are stronger for individuals in the lower tiers of income and education, resulting in greater socioeconomic inequalities. Conclusions: The article contributes to conceptualization of the political determinants of health as health policy outputs and a better understanding of the relationship between policy outputs and population health outcomes.

A Framework for Studying EU Health Policy through a Political Determinants of Health Lens: The Case of the European Health Union

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how the European Union (EU) impacts national health systems and people's health. In November 2020, the European Commission launched the European Health Union (EHU) to better coordinate and maximize EU member states’ abilities to deal with cross-border health threats. This article scrutinizes the early institutionalization of the EHU and its implications for EU health policy as a political determinant of health (PDoH). Methods: The article explores how EU health policy may be appreciated from a PDoH perspective. It draws from EU documents and existing research to analyze the early-stage institutionalization of the EHU. The study complements this policy output–focused perspective with an outcome-based exploratory assessment of EU health policy as a PDoH focusing on three examples: joint vaccine procurement, health reforms and investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and the development of a European Health Data Space. Findings: The article shows that the policy change triggered by the EHU and the potential impact on citizens’ health are not necessarily congruent. Modest change can have a potentially strong impact on health outcomes and vice versa. Conclusions: The article argues that the PDoH perspective provides a useful approach that is complementary to policy output–based perspectives, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of the EU's role in health.

Performance of Implementation Program Keluarga Harapan in Jember Regency

Public programs must be managed with the aim of achieving desired results. As a poverty alleviation program that has been running in Indonesia, the Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) has a policy direction not only to ensure that assistance is right on target but also to eradicate poverty with the target result being empowered and prosperous. A study of program implementation performance can describe the failure or success of implementing a policy. This research aims to analyze the performance of the implementation of the PKH in Jember Regency. Analysis using the performance measurement framework by Cole and Parston (2006) includes policy input, processes, policy output, and policy outcome policy. Then, assess the quality of policy output using policy output aspects from Randall B. Ripley including access, coverage, frequency, bias, timeliness of services, accountability, and suitability of programs to needs. The research method used is a descriptive qualitative approach. Data analysis uses interactive data analysis. The research results show that there are weaknesses in the dimensions processes which results in implementation not going well. Validation and Verification Activities for Prospective beneficiaries are carried out by system without going through field verification by facilitator. The beneficiaries Verification activity was not carried out due to the matching of social assistance data with population data and education data. The activity of updating beneficiaries data did not run optimally due to a poor coordination process between facilitator and the Village Government. However, an assessment of the quality of policy output shows high performance. Of the seven aspects reviewed, there were two aspects that showed they were ineffective, namely the bias aspect and the program coverage aspect. The validity of data on beneficiaries is not yet completely good because there are still beneficiaries who are not eligible to receive social assistance, resulting in bias. Program coverage is still minimal in terms of the number of beneficiaries, only around 20% of the existing poor families

The role of transport systems in housing insecurity: a mobility-based analysis

With trends of urbanisation on the rise, providing adequate housing to individuals remains a complex issue to be addressed. Often, the slow output of relevant housing policies, coupled with quickly increasing housing costs, leaves individuals with the burden of finding housing that is affordable and in a safe location. In this paper, we unveil how transit service to employment hubs, not just housing policies, can prevent individuals from improving their housing conditions. We approach this question in three steps, applying the workflow to 20 cities in the United States of America. First, we propose a comprehensive framework to quantify housing insecurity and assign a housing demographic to each neighbourhood. Second, we use transit-pedestrian networks and public transit timetables (GTFS feeds) to estimate the time it takes to travel between two neighbourhoods using public transportation. Third, we apply geospatial autocorrelation to identify employment hotspots for each housing demographic. Finally, we use stochastic modelling to highlight how commuting to areas associated with better housing conditions results in transit commute times of over an hour in 15 cities. Ultimately, we consider the compounded burdens that come with housing insecurity, by having poor transit access to employment areas. In doing so, we highlight the importance of understanding how negative outcomes of housing insecurity coincide with various urban mechanisms, particularly emphasising the role that public transportation plays in locking vulnerable demographics into a cycle of poverty.

Policy processes in China: a systematic review of the multiple streams framework

The multiple stream framework (MSF) helps explain why policy makers address some issues but not others. Although the framework was originally developed in the USA, scholars argue that it has universal explanatory power across political systems and have called for applications to authoritarian settings. In response, we conduct a systematic review of China-focused MSF research, including 22 English-language articles and 156 Chinese-language articles. We show an increase in publications and identify education and social policy as the two most studied areas. Based on the reviewed articles, we highlight four key themes pertaining to China’s policy process: the dominance of the political stream, the limited role of the national mood, managerial issues in the problem stream, and stream dependence. In addition to a need to conceptualise and test how these aspects shape policy outputs and outcomes, we argue that, if the framework is to contribute to a better understanding of China’s policy process, future MSF research should not only venture into unexplored policy areas but also ought to be more explicit and transparent in terms of operationalisation and focus more on analysing causal relationships. Other research priorities include comparative and critical analysis of MSF hypotheses in other non-democracies.

The forest policy outputs of regional regimes: a qualitative comparative analysis on the effects of formalization, hegemony and issue-focus around the globe

International regimes, defined as sets of norms and rules around which members’ expectations converge, are providing structures for facilitating cooperation in a given issue area. Two main lines of environmental regime scholarship prevailed thus far: one on structural design aspects of international institutions and one on their effects and effectiveness. However, questions on how such effects are achieved in detail largely remain unanswered. Against this background, this study aims to analyze the institutional design conditions under which regional regimes produce strong or weak policies. We do so by qualitatively comparing, using a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), nine regional regimes across the world towards their ability of producing regime forest policies as an illustrative issue area. Three structural conditions were identified as being influential on regime policy: (i) The degree of formalization (ii) The existence of hegemonic/powerful member state(s) and (iii) Scope or issue specificity bearing the identity of a regime. Our results showed that no one condition on its own was necessary to produce either strong or weak regime forest policy. However, all three conditions, through three different configurations, created a robust pathway for producing strong regime policy. In addition, the combination that showed the presence of all three conditions was related to weak regime policy. These results open several prospects for future research on the relationship between regimes´ structures and regime policy.

Public finance instruments and output growth in Nigeria

This study investigates the empirical relationship between the aggregated and disaggregated components of fiscal policy variables and output growth in Nigeria using the vector error correction mechanism for the period of 1981 to 2021. This formulation was an improvement over previous empirical studies of the impact of public finance instruments on output growth in Nigeria. Our findings suggest that fiscal policy instruments (total expenditure, capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure, total revenue, primary fiscal balance, domestic debt, external debt, oil tax revenue, and non-oil tax revenue) exert significant impacts on output growth and most of the empirical results obtained support the hypothesised relationships between public finance instruments and output growth in Nigeria. However, aggregate federal government expenditure exerts a significant negative impact on output growth, while on the disaggregated scale, capital expenditure exerts a significant positive influence on output growth whereas recurrent expenditure exerts a significant negative impact on output growth. Given these findings, we recommend that the government of Nigeria, through its fiscal authorities, should adopt growth-enhancing fiscal policies that would engender macroeconomic stability and will be potent in refocusing recurrent expenditure towards ensuring productivity growth.

The decline of incrementalism in U.S. lawmaking

AbstractPunctuated equilibrium theory (PET) posits that policy change is incremental for long periods of time with occasional shifts in problem definition and governing authority that produce large changes. Incrementalism results from shared norms and standard operating procedures within policy subsystems. The U.S. Congress experienced a series of institutional changes in the 1990s that both introduced more partisanship into subsystem interactions and made it easier for majority party leaders to enact their agenda. These changes have disrupted many of the processes that produce incrementalism. Using data from 1949 to 2022, I find that U.S. policy outputs, measured through public laws, have experienced fewer incremental changes from one term to the next and more moderate and very large changes since 1995. The shift in outputs has been driven primarily by increased partisan conflict within congressional committees. This study highlights the utility of using the stochastic process approach to compare distributions of outputs across time and not only across countries or institutions.

Performance without legitimacy? Examining the performance-legitimacy dilemma of China’s authoritarian environmentalism model through Hebei’s ‘ban on coal furnace’ project

ABSTRACT Mainstream environmental politics tends to measure the success of a policy through its quantitative environmental performance. Under Xi's rule, China's model of ‘Authoritarian Environmentalism’ is often assessed for its effectiveness; however, the facets of policy legitimacy have largely been overlooked. This research explores the policy legitimacy deficit of China's authoritarian environmentalism by examining the case of ‘Ban on Coal Furnace’ (BCF) project in Hebei province. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and policy discourse analysis, this article suggests that while the BCF project succeeded in environmental performance, both in policy outputs and outcomes, it failed in maintaining policy legitimacy essential for sustaining these policy outcomes over the long term. Integrating the three distinctive aspects of policy outputs, outcomes and legitimacy, this study highlights an inherent Performance-Legitimacy dilemma within China's Authoritarian Environmentalism: on the one hand, the top leader's strong political will is crucial for achieving effective performance. On the other hand, however, policy legitimacy may suffer when local officials adopt an excessively coercive campaign-style implementation approach that overlooks local needs and interests.

İżnik Town and Its Rural Landscape: Decision Making, Socio-Demographic Profiling and Conservation Policy Development

ABSTRACT In light of recent advances in landscape conservation, this study introduces a profiling model that provides context-sensitive heritage conservation strategies. The model is adaptable and focuses on socio-demographic profiling of a rural landscape. It uses İznik (ancient Nicaea) town, a UNESCO World Heritage candidate, and the surrounding rural landscape as a case study area. The model captures the intricate interplay between the socio-demographic conditions of agriculture-based local communities and rural heritage, offering policy options to enhance community well-being and conserve rural heritage. Based on the complementary use of Cluster and Multiple Correspondence Analysis, the model employs multi-layered analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The model identifies six distinct clusters, revealing the vulnerability and resilience of rural settlements around İznik town, and the priority sites where rural heritage and local populations face immediate threat. Fostering a symbiotic relationship between data-driven insights and locally informed policies, this model generates evidence-based, people-centred policy outputs for heritage conservation, which may be applicable in a variety of contexts.

Analysis of Unemployment Policy Program in Bonebolango District

This study aims to analyze the unemployment policy program by the Regional Government of Bone Bolango Regency. The research method used is a descriptive qualitative approach. Data collection techniques include in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with experts and practitioners. The results illustrate that unemployment policy programs implemented by the local government of Bone Bolango Regency, including the WUB (New Entrepreneur), TKM (Millennial Workforce), and KUP (Productive Business Group) programs, have not been fully implemented optimally. In the process of implementing the unemployment policy program by the local government of Bone Bolango Regency, several stages of policy program implementation have not been optimally carried out including the relevance of the policy program, consideration of policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy outputs and outcomes.
 Keywords: policy program, unemployment

Climate change policy instruments in agriculture sector: From policy to adaptation practice at local level in Nepal

The current study explores synergies between climate change policy instruments and agriculture sector, reviews identified gaps and understands the translation of policy instruments at local level in five sample municipalities of three ecological regions. Understanding the adaptation actions and knowledge on implementation practices at household level is as the objective of this study. It adopted qualitative research approach using both primary (KII, FGD and household survey) and secondary data (review of existing policy documents) based on qualitative document analysis, (QDA). The study found that, policy and programs formulation at national and sub-national level in different period, are designed within the same setting from national to local level but there is divergence in programs formulation and implementation methods. Capacity and understanding of policy instruments has resulted different policy output which implicate farmers’ response to implementation practices. It is found that municipal authorities are implementing climate friendly agriculture programs without explicitly declaring climate action. The farmers are practicing autonomous adaption in agriculture with limited understanding and technical knowledge of long term climate change effect on farming. This has resulted maladaptive practices, which has contested planned climate change adaptation plan and programs. It devaluates the effort and resources spent by national and international institutions on CC policy instrument formulation and implementation. The need of field based demonstrative understanding and awareness campaigns for smallholder farmers is anticipated. It concludes that, flexibility of policy instruments through regular improvements and modification aids context-specific localization provide custom solutions. The custom solution match the traditional and existing adaptation practices assuring ownership at ground level.

Book Review of Lidén, Gustav and Nyhlén, Jon 2022. Local Migration Policy: Governance Structures and Policy Output in Swedish Municipalities. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 320 pp.

Book Review of Lidén, Gustav and Nyhlén, Jon 2022. Local Migration Policy: Governance Structures and Policy Output in Swedish Municipalities. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 320 pp.

Dimensionless Policies Based on the Buckingham π Theorem: Is This a Good Way to Generalize Numerical Results?

The answer to the question posed in the title is yes if the context (the list of variables defining the motion control problem) is dimensionally similar. This article explores the use of the Buckingham π theorem as a tool to encode the control policies of physical systems into a more generic form of knowledge that can be reused in various situations. This approach can be interpreted as enforcing invariance to the scaling of the fundamental units in an algorithm learning a control policy. First, we show, by restating the solution to a motion control problem using dimensionless variables, that (1) the policy mapping involves a reduced number of parameters and (2) control policies generated numerically for a specific system can be transferred exactly to a subset of dimensionally similar systems by scaling the input and output variables appropriately. Those two generic theoretical results are then demonstrated, with numerically generated optimal controllers, for the classic motion control problem of swinging up a torque-limited inverted pendulum and positioning a vehicle in slippery conditions. We also discuss the concept of regime, a region in the space of context variables, that can help to relax the similarity condition. Furthermore, we discuss how applying dimensional scaling of the input and output of a context-specific black-box policy is equivalent to substituting new system parameters in an analytical equation under some conditions, using a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and a computed torque controller as examples. It remains to be seen how practical this approach can be to generalize policies for more complex high-dimensional problems, but the early results show that it is a promising transfer learning tool for numerical approaches like dynamic programming and reinforcement learning.

The everyday life of a security project: the “Security Union” in the EU’s “engine room”

ABSTRACT Since 2015, the European Commission has sought to highlight the EU’s promise of protection by introducing the idea of a “Security Union”. This article examines how officials and bureaucrats within the European Commission make sense of this project. So far, the few explicit studies on the Security Union focus on its historical genesis and formal policy outputs and tend to view it as a symbolic and diffuse initiative that lacks coherent implementation and potentially undermines fundamental rights. The article goes beyond that by analysing how officials and bureaucrats in the EU’s “engine room” perceive and deal with the Security Union. Drawing on research on the everyday dimensions of European integration and administrative bureaucracy, the article explores officials’ views and self-understandings as well as their routines and interactions in their daily work. For this purpose, it uses novel empirical data from personal interviews with administrative officials in Brussels. On this basis, the study highlights the importance of skilled individuals and personal interactions that can have lasting impact even when formal institutional structures erode. Moreover, it shows how everyday exchanges and experiences within the Security Union context can change officials’ self-understandings as security actors based on a broad security narrative.

‘Stand by me’: competitive subnational regimes and the politics of retaining immigrants

ABSTRACT This article examines the pivotal role of immigration for subnational units, focusing on their efforts to retain immigrants. In the global competition for ‘wanted’ immigrants, subnational governments have developed innovative immigration-related programmes tailored to their demographic, economic, and linguistic needs. While previous research has mainly focused on the selection of international immigrants, this study delves into subnational efforts to keeping immigrants ‘in’. Using Canadian provinces as a case study, and through a qualitative content analysis of policy documents and immigration schemes, this article asks: To what extent do Canadian provinces compete to retain immigrants? The analysis reveals ‘subnational competitive immigration regimes’, wherein subnational units take policy actions to not only attract immigrants but influence or hinder their internal mobility. Downstream, provinces employ settlement and integration services to encourage retention. Upstream, provinces fine-tune their selection streams to choose migrants who are deemed more likely to stay. Policy outputs reveal how ‘wanted immigrants’ are conceptualized at the subnational level: those who can demonstrate a commitment to staying, rather than solely those who fulfil economic and demographic needs. The results shed light on the interplay between international immigration policies and immigrants’ internal mobility, and emphasize the significance of subnational policy in retaining immigrants.