Policy Problems Research Articles

New Public Service Bargain: Time for Paradigm Shift in Turbulent Times?

Europe and North America are facing demographic changes with an aging population and declining birth rates. This has implications for the labor market and the workforce of the future. An existential crisis for public institutions is that the public sector is no longer the employer of choice. The public sector is already facing challenges in recruitment, filling vacancies with competent and talented personnel, and retaining public servants. The paradigm shifts in the state from public administration to new public management and new public governance in part underlies this declining interest in public service with the introduction of neo-liberal public sector reforms over the decades, downsizing of the state, relatively lower pay, and various austerity measures. The article revisits these paradigm shifts of the state, providing a review and discussing the impact of these shifts. Furthermore, the article argues for a new paradigm shift. A New Public Service Bargain, which recognizes and values public service because it is the human resource capacity of the state that is key to addressing crises, wicked policy problems and turbulent times.

Community Engagement in Urban Experiments: Joint Effort for Sustainable Urban Transformation

The increasing complexity of urban regeneration issues has recently made multi-stakeholder collaboration an important part to solve policy problems. While residents form an important part in a variety of collaborative governance processes, approaches used are often criticized as too formal, and lacking more inclusive participation. Therefore, new informal mechanisms of collaboration are sought, to ensure a more effective engagement and representation of population groups. Although community-led participation is the approach that leads to a more effective collaborative process, issues of power and inequality are a challenge in many places in planning practice [13]. Ways of civic empowerment, communication, and negotiation provide participants with transformative learning opportunities so that not only their arguments change but also the participants of the participation process themselves [6]. In order to test urban development ideas, the notion of "urban experiment" has been developed in recent years as a recognized and effective approach. The urban environment is viewed as a creative laboratory for testing the implementation of diverse initiatives and innovations [8]. The inner-city neighbourhoods in many cities are struggling to ensure vitality and liveability, thus these areas often represent a widespread location of urban experiments. In addition to these questions, the problem of community representation manifests itself in many inner cities. The potential to transform city centre streets and vacant areas into user-friendly urban spaces and the impact of those transformations on the city’s livability were recently tested by Riga municipality. Urban experiments varied in scale and form, resulting in street pedestrianization, urban gardens, and other temporary initiatives, which allowed more space for walking and cycling, street sales, social events and other activities. Thus, the aim of this article is to explore processes of testbed planning with regard to the role of community participation in the designing, implementing, and analysing phases of the experiment. After presenting the findings, the article concludes with a discussion on factors that influence public participation in collaborative governance including communication, the balance of interests, and the degree of resident involvement in decision-making.

Developing an Ontology for Public Policy Problems in Ethiopia: A Comprehensive Review, Evaluation, And Future Directions

This literature review focuses on the development of an ontology for public policy problems in Ethiopia. The study aims to provide a structured representation of concepts, relationships, and knowledge specific to the Ethiopian policy context. The research follows a systematic ontology development process that incorporates domain-specific knowledge and stakeholder involvement. The review begins by describing the steps involved in the ontology development process, including problem identification and scoping, requirement analysis, ontology modeling, and stakeholder involvement. It emphasizes the importance of engaging policymakers, subject matter experts, and researchers throughout the process to validate the ontology and ensure its relevance and effectiveness in addressing Ethiopian policy problems. The application of the developed ontology to specific policy problems is then discussed. Examples include agricultural policy analysis, healthcare policy evaluation, and education policy planning. The review highlights how the ontology can support policy analysis, decision-making, and evaluation by capturing relevant concepts, simulating policy scenarios, and assessing policy impacts. Furthermore, the review identifies potential challenges and limitations in the ontology development process, such as data availability, expert knowledge engagement, and the evolving policy landscape. These challenges need to be addressed to ensure the ontology's accuracy and usability in addressing Ethiopian policy problems. Finally, the review provides suggestions for further research and improvement, such as integrating the ontology with data sources, fostering collaborative ontology development, exploring semantic reasoning and inferencing techniques, and promoting interoperability and standardization. These suggestions aim to enhance the ontology's capabilities and its contribution to the field of ontology development for public policy problems. In conclusion, the development of an ontology for public policy problems in Ethiopia offers a valuable tool for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders to understand, analyze, and address complex policy challenges. The ontology's relevance and applicability to the Ethiopian context, stakeholder involvement, and support for policy analysis make it a significant contribution to the field of ontology development for public policy.

The political economy of monetary-fiscal coordination: central bank losses and the specter of central bankruptcy in Europe and Japan

Central banks and finance ministries have been faced with growing calls for better monetary-fiscal coordination in recent years as the solution to an array of macroeconomic policy problems, promoted by an ever-wider range of stakeholders. Yet, how can the silver-bullet solution of coordination be expected to play out across very different political-economic contexts? This paper sheds light on this question by introducing a novel typology of monetary-fiscal coordination that can help us make sense of formal and informal coordination efforts in the post-2008 era. It zooms in on a peculiar but key aspect which monetary and fiscal authorities have sought to achieve coordination on: The fiscal backing of central banks’ balance sheets to insure monetary policy against losses and ‘insolvency’. To understand central bankers’ aversion towards loss-making despite their ability to create currency, the paper develops a political economy account which emphasizes policy-makers’ interpretations of their own independence and their desire for fiscal protection, in contrast to traditional accounts of delegation that treat independent agents as discretion-seekers and power-maximizers. The typology is illustrated with case studies of the European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan between 2008 and 2023, each representing a different type of monetary-fiscal coordination post-crisis.

Getting citizens to conserve water: A comparison of crisis responses in Bogota and Mexico City

How can global megacities respond to increased threats from natural hazards? Looking at hazard events that produced drinking water crises in Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City, Mexico, we compare these cities’ efforts to decrease potable water consumption. We ask how and why the socioeconomic and biophysical contexts shape city policymakers’ responses to water crises and consider the immediate and lasting impacts of technical and behavioral interventions. Leveraging our 2 case studies in Latin America, we identify how the unique policy contexts affected the interventions used and helped determine their outcomes. Four factors are identified as particularly relevant as follows: the differential roles of scientific and technical perspectives in each context, the role of ideology, the complexity of the environmental policy problems in each setting, and the varied roles of policy entrepreneurs in Bogota and Mexico City.

Why Digitalization is NOT on the Local Political Agenda: Findings From Danish Local Governments

Digitalization is at the very centre of recent development of local government processes, services to citizens, and even democracy. Nevertheless, digitalization is almost absent from the local political agenda in the most likely case of Danish local governments, which constitutes a democratic problem because important priorities are then taken outside of the local political system. Existing quantitative research on setting policy agendas fail to explain why digitalization is not on the local political agenda. A qualitative approach is applied and exclusive insights from interviewed mayors and CEOs are presented. Four main barriers are identified blocking digitalization from the local political agenda: Political role perception, lack of interest, lack of insight, and risks. Further the need of policy entrepreneurs and problem recognition are suggested as additional explanations to why digitalization is not on the local political agenda.

Uses and abuses of farmers’ emotional well-being: Policy story-lines and the politics of the rural

Using the concept of policy story-lines, this paper analyses the use of accounts of farmers’ emotional well-being in policy disputes about the management of animal disease. Recent research on the emotional well-being of farmers in the face of climate change, market uncertainty and animal disease has sought to objectively assess its scale and extent. Studies of the policy process, however, suggest that discourses of farmer well-being can be put to use in policy argumentation by establishing story-lines that disrupt and challenge dominant policy perspectives. Using a case study from the United Kingdom, this paper analyses the use of a social impacts of animal disease story-line, the evidence used to construct the story-line, and its use in coupling policy problems and solutions. To do this, the paper analyses 24 years of elected politicians’ speeches in two different government administrations. Firstly, the paper describes how the story-line was used in response to a competing story-line of ‘sound science’, and defines its core rhetorical components as: universal devastation, emotional trauma, helplessness, shared suffering, and regulative stress. Secondly, the paper shows how the story-line relies on spatially situated anecdote and ‘proximate experience’ – direct experience or the visiting and listening to farmers – rather than formal research. Thirdly, the paper shows how the story-line was used strategically to couple specific policy solutions to the problem of farmer well-being but was also captured to justify other solutions. The paper concludes by considering the wider implications of this story-line for the politics of the rural, farmer identity and the role of social research

Vaccine Mandates and Cultural Safety.

The issues and problems of mandatory vaccination policy and roll out in First Nations communities are unique and do not concern the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. These issues are also independent of more specific arguments of mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers as a condition of employment. As important as these issues are, they do not consider the complex politics of ongoing settler colonialism and First Nations community relations. In this paper, we also set aside the very real problems of disinformation, hesitancy, scientific and health illiteracy, and other concerns that drive vaccine hesitancy and refusal. These affect all communities, including First Nations communities. We, instead describe the dominant arguments in favour of mandatory vaccination and critique them in terms of the disputed legitimacy of Settler-Colonial decision-making as it impacts First Nations communities. We contend cultural responsiveness and safety-not state compulsion-must remain the first principles of any engagement-including vaccination-with First Nations Peoples, families, and communities.

Public intervention in informal settlements. New scenarios, new challenges

Informal urban settlements are part of the urban landscape in Latin America. To address this public policy problem, states have implemented diverse strategies that have transitioned between housing settlement and eradication, assuming that the former has significant advantages over the latter. The Chilean case is no different. To discuss these ideas, two Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning projects in the province of Concepción, Chile, are analyzed. The discussion is based on the results of a quantitative study, with a probabilistic design and simple random sampling, with a sample of 1,130 families. The results indicate that, regardless of the project’s operation strategy, families are highly satisfied with their homes. However, they express a negative evaluation of neighbors and a perception of heterogeneity, resulting in social distancing regarding social relations within the neighborhood space. The results open new questions regarding social integration in social housing complexes.

Accessible and Affordable Housing for Urban MigrantWorkers: A Policy Perspective

Migrant workers face hardships in accessing better living conditions such as housing, water supply, and sanitation facilities. This is highly prevalent among construction workers and other manual laborers working in the manufacturing and service sectors. They live in poor conditions and face the threat of displacement and eviction. These people are vulnerable to harassment, especially women laborers and their children who are often the victims of trafficking and beggaring. Migrants also bear harsh conditions like long working hours, the nature and toughness of the work, and are prone to injuries, without any medical benefit. They are neglected and isolated without any social security benefits. This paper aims to study the policy problem related to housing for migrant workers and the challenges in its governance. To this end, this paper analyzes the provisions related to migrant workers in the Urban Housing Policy 2007, National Urban Rental Housing Policy 2015, and social housing policies of different state governments and the various schemes supporting it. To this policy analysis, the paper builds on the appropriate governance arrangement that can build equitable, inclusive, and sustainable policies to address the issues of migrant workers.

Seeing Is Believing: The Role of Place in Mitigating Partisan Attitudes Toward the Environment

Over the past decade the partisan divide over environmental issues has widened significantly. Although attitudes toward climate change and other environmental policy issues have become highly polarized, it is possible that personal geography may moderate partisan attitudes. This study considers whether residing in coastal Virginia influences attitudes on environmental issues among Virginians. To test this question, we survey Virginia registered voters on a range of coastal environmental issues and consider whether place of residence has an effect on these attitudes when accounting for other factors including partisanship. We find a significant relationship between place of residence and a wide range of environmental issue attitudes, though the impact of partisanship is moderated in only limited cases. This research builds on the policy process literature concerning individual proximity to policy problems, place-attachment, and the relationship between partisanship and state environmental policy attitudes.

Observe, inspect, modify: Three conditions for generative AI governance

In a world increasingly shaped by generative AI systems like ChatGPT, the absence of benchmarks to examine the efficacy of oversight mechanisms is a problem for research and policy. What are the structural conditions for governing generative AI systems? To answer this question, it is crucial to situate generative AI systems as regulatory objects: material items that can be governed. On this conceptual basis, we introduce three high-level conditions to structure research and policy agendas on generative AI governance: industrial observability, public inspectability, and technical modifiability. Empirically, we explicate those conditions with a focus on the EU’s AI Act, grounding the analysis of oversight mechanisms for generative AI systems in their granular material properties as observable, inspectable, and modifiable objects. Those three conditions represent an action plan to help us perceive generative AI systems as negotiable objects, rather than seeing them as mysterious forces that pose existential risks for humanity.

Axiological and religious aspects of solving current social and pedagogical problems

The problem of religious and cultural upbringing and education is one of the pressing problems of social policy. Illiteracy in terms of knowledge of one’s historical roots and true cultural values, lack of spiritual and moral priorities among young people — all these factors can pose a threat to the national security of Russia in preserving its integrity. This article reveals some of the causes of social problems and suggests ways to resolve possible conflict situations.

Assessment of the problems of Brazilian biofuels policy and the proposal for an operational solution for distributors in the North

This work sought to combine bibliography, critical analysis and operationality into a set of evaluations regarding the Brazilian biodiesel policy, discussing the necessary efforts that a distributor in the northern region of the country must make to comply with the specifications of the National Agency for Petroleum, Biofuels and Gás Natural (ANP), regulator and supervisor at national level regarding the water content present in biodiesel. A distributor provided space for the construction of a filtration system using two filter elements available on the fuel market, Clean Diesel and Donaldson, mostly applied to diesel, and thus operational tests were developed to evaluate their effectiveness in filtering biodiesel (B100) and the consequent mitigation of water content. In fact, both resulted in an effectiveness greater than 10%, however Donaldson showed a maximum effectiveness of 34%, surpassing Clean Diesel with values close to 10%, in terms of reduction compared to the initial content. The Donaldson filter presented rapid saturation against the continuity of Clean Diesel, generating data that could be fundamental for future research and applications.

Beyond Transplant: A Network Innovation Model of Transnational Regulatory Change

Abstract Seeking inspiration from different legal systems in order to solve common policy problems is a core enterprise of comparative law. However, dominant understandings in comparative law and regulatory theory about how norms, rules, and formal institutions move across borders are increasingly inadequate in the face of modern transnational policy challenges. Solving transnational problems requires regulatory innovation, complex coordination, and even competition among private and public actors in multiple jurisdictions, as well as much faster policy responses than most countries can achieve either domestically or multilaterally. Accelerating solutions to emerging transnational problems therefore demands a new focus within comparative law on how transnational legal innovation works and how to leverage its benefits faster on both a global and local scale. This Article proposes a conceptual framework to ground this effort—a “network innovation” model of transnational law formation. Building on earlier literatures on legal transplant, policy diffusion, institutional change, and transnational legal ordering, as well as studies of firm-level innovation, this approach recognizes that new norms, rules, and other institutions are sourced from, coordinated by, and transmitted through transnational networks of public and private actors. Moving beyond prior literatures, however, it views transnational law formation as an aggregating process of innovation where the resulting outputs are the complex product of multiple experimental sites and sources. This approach offers a more accurate descriptive account of transnational regulatory change and points to network innovation processes as central to solving common or collective transnational problems. This Article illustrates the proposed framework with case studies of efforts to build sustainable financial systems. It concludes by suggesting strategies to accelerate network innovation and considering how this theoretical paradigm might inform new directions in comparative law.

Swedish bureaucratic biodiversity: Analysing municipal worker discourse with the theory of sociocultural viability

AbstractCities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly recognised around the issue of biodiversity conservation and protection. However, cities are often characterised by the need to develop and grow. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainable development have been criticised as failing to address the fundamental causes of environmental destruction. In this article, based on interviews with bureaucrats and documentary analysis, I explore urban planning and biodiversity protection at four Swedish municipalities. Biodiversity protection has been an official goal in Sweden for 30 years. As such, my research aim is to explore how Swedish bureaucrats represent efforts to balance imperatives to develop cities and protect biodiversity. Taking an institutional approach, I identify what information is included and excluded. In assessing municipal discourse, I utilise the theory of sociocultural viability, which provides an analytical typology of four worldviews. I identify that within respondents' discourse, biodiversity primarily emerges as a product of a hierarchical view of reality, as a measurable object; an indicator; a characteristic; and as a provider that is both engineerable and replaceable. This was despite numerous respondents articulating an egalitarian desire for more holistic interpretations of biodiversity in urban planning, appreciative of its inherent worth. This suggests that biodiversity has largely been integrated into extant hierarchical conceptualisations of public administration. According to cultural theory, addressing wicked policy problems effectively requires insight from several of the typology's worldviews. As such, current practice may reiterate dominant contemporary views on nature rather than innovation towards a radically different society.

A process-based evaluation framework for environmental impacts of policy making

Policy making is a highly interactive process with environmental systems. Evaluation of policy's potential environmental impacts has been regarded as an efficient precautionary measure to avoid unexpected losses and environmental risks. One of the greatest challenges is how to streamline the policy-making process through an integrated evaluation approach. This paper formulated a process-based framework for environmental impact assessment of policy making (PB-EIA), by integrating policy problem identification, environmental impact assessment, and policy cost-effectiveness evaluation. Using China's wastewater resource utilization (WWRU) policy as a case study, the institutional, technological, and economic constraints or limitations related to wastewater resource utilization were identified, and the potential environmental impacts of policy implementation on energy consumption and carbon emissions were evaluated. The expected ecological and environmental benefits of the WWRU policy were supposed to be significant, and the cost of recycled water was relatively low compared with other unconventional water resources in China. Furthermore, significant variations in the environmental impacts and policy effectiveness were found across different sectors and regions. According to the evaluation results, some recommendations for supporting policy improvements and follow-up policy implementations were proposed. The specific technical procedures and application of PB-EIA were also discussed. This study demonstrates that the process-based framework can effectively incorporate environmental considerations into policy-making processes and promote sustainable development.

Anonymity and Online Search: Measuring the Privacy Impact Of Google’s 2012 Privacy Policy Change

Abstract One of the most vexing problems in privacy policy is identifying consumer harm from unwanted observation; because it is highly subjective and is likely to vary greatly throughout the population, it doesn’t lend itself to easy measurement. Yet, these types of situations increasingly are the focal point of privacy policy discussions, including the Supreme Court’s recent decisions regarding standing and the FTC’s recently announced commercial surveillance rulemaking. The primary approach to attempt to quantify subjective harms has been to measure consumers’ willingness to exchange personal data for money in an experimental setting. This study takes a different tack, using field data to measure actual consumer response to a real-world reduction in the anonymity of online search. In March 2012, Google began to combine user information across platforms. To the extent that Google’s policy change reduced the anonymity associated with Google search, it may have diminished incentives to search sensitive topics. Using Google Trends (GT) data and a difference-in-difference estimator with top non-sensitive search terms as the control group, the results suggest that there was a 3–7 % short-term (1–2 months) reduction in sensitive search (relative to the non-sensitive search control group), as measured by GT. I examine heterogenous treatment effects, and find that the largest measured impact is for health-related search. There is no measured difference in reaction between high- and low-privacy demand states.

The role of European (transnational) business actors in the emergence of a boundary spanning policy regime in European education and employment

ABSTRACT Although research on European education policy has aptly focused on the role of supranational and intergovernmental actors, less attention has been devoted to its analysis as a policy arena in which legitimacy can be created and power can be exerted in sophisticated ways. Specifically, the role of non-state actors as agenda-setters for European education and employment policies is still unexplored. By combining a neo-Gramscian approach of political economy with Jochim and May’s boundary spanning policy regimes’ perspective, which captures activity across policy subsystems that seek to manage ‘wicked’ policy problems, this paper looks at the role of private and business actors, and specifically the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), in European education during the 1980s and 1990s. The findings show how this period can be considered a foundational period for the emergence of a BSPR in education and employment, and in which specific goals and directions were set out in the European education agenda more fine-tuned with employment goals and industry’s needs. Moreover, the paper illustrates why private and non-state actors shape boundary policy spanning regimes at the nexus of education and employment, which in this case reflected the economic interests and preferences of European transnational companies.

ECONOMIC AND LEGAL REGULATION OF THE ACTIVITIES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ENTITIES IN THE INNOVATION SECTOR

The subject of the study is public relations in the field of economic and legal regulation of innovation activity. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the methods of induction and deduction, the dialectical-materialist method, the method of analysis and synthesis, and the historical method, which allowed for an objective understanding of the content and essence of the issues under study. The purpose of the article is to analyse the theoretical and practical aspects of economic and legal regulation of activities of public administration entities in the innovation sphere in Ukraine and developed countries, and to propose effective ways to improve the mechanism of the relevant state policy. The results of the study show that the State economic and legal regulation of innovation activity is carried out with the aim of ensuring progressive transformations in the field of material production, increasing the competitiveness of the national product in the world market, improving the environmental situation, and strengthening the security and defence capability of the country. The economic and legal regulation of the activities of public administration entities in the innovation sphere should not restrict innovation processes (including through excessive structuring and detailing), but should set the direction of their evolution, constantly improve, dynamically monitoring changes in the situation. Conclusion. The main form of state support for the development of innovation is the economic and legal regulation of innovation activities, support for small innovative enterprises and the creation of a favourable innovation climate. The aim of state policy in this area is to move towards an innovative development path based on selected priorities. The state economic and legal regulation of innovation activity is carried out in order to ensure progressive transformations in the sphere of material production, increase the competitiveness of the national product on the world market, improve the environmental situation, strengthen the security and defence capability of the country. In order to achieve the effectiveness of innovation activities, it is necessary to adopt a new approach to solving the problems of antimonopoly policy, product quality management, safety and labour protection. This requires the adoption of new laws and regulations, which should take into account legal issues related to the development of production, resource conservation, environmental protection, etc. The regulatory framework of innovation activity should be brought in line with innovation policy, in particular, it should be closely linked to the measures provided for in the relevant state programme documents and should actively contribute to their implementation.