Policy Shapers Research Articles

Policy‐making, policy‐taking, and policy‐shaping: Local government responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic has challenged nations states across the world. They have implemented lockdown and social distancing and with the development of vaccines have gone to great lengths to build herd immunity for their populations. As place managers, local government has played a variety of roles supporting central government edicts related to social distancing and supporting local businesses impacted by lockdowns. The research reported here comparing the role local government has played in Australia, Canada, Italy, and New Zealand shows that they have at different times and for different issues been policy takers from central government, policy shapers, and policy makers adapting national strategies. Local government plays an important complementary role with central governments in both unitary and federal systems of government. The paper contributes to the literature on multi‐level governance, place‐based decision‐making, and disaster and emergency management by offering a framework for analysing municipal roles in crises management both in their relationship with higher layers of government and in their acting as locally placed organisations.Points for practitioners Cross‐national study: Australia, Canada, Italy, and New Zealand. Examination of local government responses to COVID‐19 pandemic as policy makers, takers, or shapers. Comparison of federal and unitary states.

The G20 and the Think 20 as new global education policy actors? Discursive analysis of roles and policy ideas

PurposeThe Group of Twenty (G20) has substantial influence in global economic policy but has been peripheral in global education governance. There is intensification of education policy-relevant engagement within the Think 20 (T20), the “ideas bank” and official engagement group of the G20. The authors analyse the evolution of education as a policy domain within the T20, the ideas and discursive framing of education and global education policy “solutions” and assumptions about the G20 in education policy engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe authors view the T20 as an external actor that can mobilise policy-relevant ideas to G20 actors responsible for internal policy selection and translation. The analysis covers the period 2018–2021 when education became an explicit T20 policy area. The authors screened all 461 T20 policy briefs across all domains. Of these, 32 briefs and four final T20 Summit communiqués were reviewed using critical discourse analysis. Data were supplemented via organisational websites and tacit professional knowledge.FindingsThree assumptions on the G20 as an actor prevailed: (1) policymaker, (2) policy shaper and (3) knowledge mobiliser. The framing ideas on education were linked to assumptions on drivers of education system reform as intertwined with, or to enable: (1) economic adaptation, (2) technical adaptation and (3) socio-political adaptation of individuals and societies.Originality/valueAccelerated education engagement within the T20 and its direct reach to G20 leaders makes it, and the G20, analytically unique and new unexamined actors of potential influence. The authors conclude that the T20 is positioned as a unique actor, both that can mobilise education policy-relevant ideas to G20 leaders, and legitimised as the actor from which G20 leaders and policymakers should adopt ideas.

The Proper and Orthodox Way of War: Henry Stimson, the War Department, and the Politics of U.S. Military Policy During World War II

Traditional accounts of the Allied grand strategic debates during World War II stress the divergence between the American and British approaches to waging war against the Axis. In these interpretations, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and their military chiefs were the primary shapers of grand strategy and policy. However, these studies have focused too much on certain figures and have relatively marginalized others who played crucial roles in shaping these debates. One of those comparatively overlooked figures was U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson, who was a vital player on the American side in influencing the politics of U.S. strategy and pushing it toward launching a second front in Western Europe. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were often internally divided over how to win the war and struggled to influence policy accordingly. The lack of focused political coordination between the War Department and the JCS made it difficult to convince Roosevelt to adopt a cross-Channel attack, which opened the door to following the British Mediterranean strategy for defeating Germany, starting with the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa.

The power struggle over education in developing countries: The case of the UNESCO-World Bank Co-operative program, 1964-1989

This paper examines the relationship between the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) between the 1960s and the 1980s. It focuses on the Co-operative Program (CP) between the two organizations, which was established in 1964 and lasted officially until 1989. In the context of the Co-operative Program, the Education Financing Division (EFD) was established, a joint unit located in UNESCO, with the purpose of carrying out technical missions to assist governments in the identification and preparation of educational projects and the formulation of funding requests to the World Bank. Drawing on archival research and interviews with former UNESCO and World Bank officials, the paper traces the history of the Co-operative Program, which was characterized by intense power struggles exacerbated by Cold War tensions. During the 25 years of the duration of the Co-operative Program, the World Bank developed into the most influential policy shaper for education in developing countries, while the influence of UNESCO, created in the post-World War II order as the United Nations’ designated organization for education, declined. Using Bourdieu’s concept of fields and DiMaggio and Powell’s concept of isomorphism as analytical lenses, the World Bank’s expansion to a development agency will be explained by its greater autonomy as a field, endowed with more capital based on the rationalization of education and isomorphic processes of professionalization of the “field of power” of educational planning. To the detriment of UNESCO, the World Bank became the powerhouse of a global governance structure that was built with support from the United States government and furthered by the rise of economics.

Government lawyers: technicians, policy shapers and organisational brakes

ABSTRACT Government lawyers have been rather neglected by scholars interested in the workings of the legal profession and the role of professional groups in contemporary society. This is surprising given the potential for them to influence the internal workings of an increasingly legalistic and centralised state. This article aims to partly fill this gap by looking at the way that lawyers employed by the government and the administrators they work with talk about their jobs. It draws on the findings of a large-scale empirical study of government lawyers in seven departments, funded by the ESRC and undertaken by Philip Lewis between 2002–2003. By looking at lawyers in bureaucracies the interviews conducted revealed much about the work that government lawyers do, their relationship with other civil servants and the subtle influences on policy that they are able to exert.

Can historians influence public policy? Challenges and possibilities

This article examines the traditional divide between historical expertise and the world of policy making. It traces the origins of academic historians' reluctance to engage in present-day debates within the context of the development of the discipline, and claims that a quartet of pressing global issues – climate change, rising inequality, disenchantment with democratic governance and the Corona virus pandemic – present an opportunity for history to assert its relevance to the present. In arguing that the expertise of historians should be more effectively tapped to address significant environmental, economic, security, health and other issues, the article tracks the growth of policy history initiatives in Australia, the United States and Britain. It claims that greater and more explicit engagement with contemporary issues among scholars will provide the discipline of history with a stronger public presence, both within and outside the academy. This public demonstration of the value of history can be a defence against the hostility directed towards current humanities disciplines by political conservatives, including the incumbent Liberal-National government led by Scott Morrison. This article is concerned with the capacity for academic history to enlarge and contextualise public debates rather than conjure crude ‘lessons’ or quickly-drawn analogical templates. We encourage historians to communicate productively with governments and the broader realm of policy makers and shapers, and assist them to incorporate historical consciousness into their decision-making.

Investment Migration and Subnational Jurisdictions

This chapter sets out to explain the position of small islands, focusing on their economic and citizenship dependence on metropolitan states. These small jurisdictions argue that their market operations could be legitimately described as improving the institutional ‘efficiency’ of financial markets. Moreover, and quite realistically, they have limited development choices to consider and are effectively playing to their narrow competitive edge, as rendered by their sub-national status, small size and islandness. These acts, suitably ring fenced, are expressions of ‘creative governance’, a blatant and market driven exploitation of political geography for economic, fiscal or strategic gain. Furthermore, the ‘governmentality’ of the territorial state – its clout and reach over the behaviour of its citizens – is being sorely tested, with the proliferation of offshore banking and dual nationality/multi-passporting for various clients, ranging from transnational corporations to ‘cosmopolites’ to those unable or unwilling to tolerate particular leaders at home. Such practices are being also abetted by the politico-economic elite at the helm of small, often island, jurisdictions: these policy shapers sense – and are reminded by the international corporate world – that they have a rare competitive advantage in widening their jurisdiction’s tax base by reducing tax rates and offering citizenship schemes. Criticism and conceptual provocations, of course, abound, and especially since the 2008 global financial crisis, when leading economies have been naming and shaming individual and corporate tax offenders in attempt to collect their tax. The very principle of ‘offshore financial services’, for all its veneer of respectability, has been subjected to disrepute because the legal products being offered are tantamount to acts of ‘selling sovereignty’. The practice has been sometimes viewed as part of a suite of desperate measures taken by small and chronically vulnerable and cash strapped territories, often connived by external elites who can capture the state to do their bidding. That said, citizenship by investment programs have recently been proliferating and this trend is expected to continue. The extra-territoriality potential offered by such spaces as the high seas, the Moon and the Planet Mars renders them attractive locales for novel governance regimes that may wish to escape the clutches of rapacious, tax-seeking states. Meanwhile, here on Planet Earth and on solid ground, subnational jurisdictions are ‘territories sui generis’ that already offer their own opportunities for creative endeavour.

Canada’s G20 entrepreneurship

Canada has been the successful entrepreneurial conceiver, co-creator, and normative and policy shaper of the G20 since the start. Under Paul Martin, Canada invented the concept and mission of the G20, co-creating it as a finance ministerial forum in 1999. Under Stephen Harper, Canada supported its elevation to summit in 2008, hosted it in 2010, and led important policy outcomes. Under Justin Trudeau, Canada further fostered the G20’s institutions, principles, and programs. Despite several entrepreneurial failures, Canada's lead was followed by established and rising members to make its G20 entrepreneurship succeed. Canada’s entrepreneurship was driven by its relative invulnerability to global shocks, its second-tier institutional position in the Bretton Woods institutions, and its rising relative capabilities. Canada’s three leaders brought strong domestic political control; continuity; expertise in business, economics, and finance; and mass public support. Canada was also a well-connected member of a G20 club at the hub of a global network.

Mandating – a likely scrutiny instrument for regional parliaments in EU affairs?

ABSTRACTScrutinising governments lies at the heart of parliamentary activities in EU affairs. This applies to national as well as to regional parliaments, most of which possess a toolbox of scrutiny instruments, including the power to mandate, allowing for the strongest form of scrutiny vis-à-vis governments. The article investigates the existence of mandating tools in the 70 regional parliaments equipped with legislative competences in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, whose role in EU affairs has been strengthened by stipulations in the Lisbon Treaty. It is argued that mandating tools are, first, not widely used; second, they are more commonly applied in cases where national parliaments act as ‘policy shapers’ – enabling policy transfer – and if meso-level factors involving territorial politics create further incentives. In sum, the regional parliaments in six member states are still trying to find a place in the maturing EU multi-level parliamentary system.

Makers and shapers of environmental policy making: Power and participation in forest legislation in Bolivia

The objective of this paper is to assess the possibilities and barriers for subaltern actors' participation in environmental policy making. To discuss this issue I focus on the case of the creation of new forest legislation in Bolivia and the involvement and influence of actors such as indigenous forest community organisations and migrant peasant organisations in the process. How can subaltern actors be makers and shapers of environmental policies, and whose interests and demands are considered, included and excluded in these processes? The case study demonstrates that on the one hand, participation has been made possible and facilitated by subaltern strategies such as coalition building among different actors and strategic framings of their demands, combined with public and government agencies' responsiveness and the creation of 'collaborative spaces'. On the other hand, participation has been limited by fragmented processes for inputs, selective inclusions and exclusions of actors and underlying state-society tensions. Finally, the study illustrates how agricultural and land-use interests have influenced the law-making agenda and the development of recent policies affecting forest areas.

\u2018Dialogue, partnership and empowerment for network and information security\u2019: the changing role of the private sector from objects of regulation to regulation shapers

The protection of cyberspace has become one of the highest security priorities of governments worldwide. The EU is not an exception in this context, given its rapidly developing cyber security policy. Since the 1990s, we could observe the creation of three broad areas of policy interest: cyber-crime, critical information infrastructures and cyber-defence. One of the main trends transversal to these areas is the importance that the private sector has come to assume within them. In particular in the area of critical information infrastructure protection, the private sector is seen as a key stakeholder, given that it currently operates most infrastructures in this area. As a result of this operative capacity, the private sector has come to be understood as the expert in network and information systems security, whose knowledge is crucial for the regulation of the field. Adopting a Regulatory Capitalism framework, complemented by insights from Network Governance, we can identify the shifting role of the private sector in this field from one of a victim in need of protection in the first phase, to a commercial actor bearing responsibility for ensuring network resilience in the second, to an active policy shaper in the third, participating in the regulation of NIS by providing technical expertise. By drawing insights from the above-mentioned frameworks, we can better understand how private actors are involved in shaping regulatory responses, as well as why they have been incorporated into these regulatory networks.

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction

The Gulf: The Bush Presidencies and the Middle East. By Michael F. Cairo. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012. 212 pp.

The Gulf: The Bush Presidencies and the Middle East. Michael F. Cairo. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012. 212 pp. Do individuals matter? Does it really matter is president, or are larger forces at work shaping history? Are our presidents pawns of larger societal movements, institutional roles, mass expectations, or do they shape policy and bend issues to their advantage? In the field of leadership studies, leaders are thought to matter a great deal. In the field of international relations, many believe that it matters little which individual occupies an office, as they are compelled by larger forces (e.g., national interest, power relations, etc.) to behave in fairly predictable and similar ways. In presidential studies, we seem to be a bit more ecumenical, allowing for both individual agency in some instances and role or national interest as shapers of policy in other instances. Political scientist Michael F. Cairo confronts questions of agency and decision making in this outstanding study of the two Bush presidencies, as they relate to two wars in the Gulf. This comparison proves to be an especially fertile laboratory for exploring these complex questions, as both presidents staffed many of their top advisory positions with the same people, faced the same adversary (Saddam Hussein) in the same region (the Persian Gulf), with both resulting in wars (about a dozen years apart), and with both wars being initially successful in military terms (both accomplished short-term goals) but with the aftermath of these two wars taking vastly different turns. Cairo sees 41 and 43 as reflecting two contrasting views of foreign policy, with George H. W. Bush as an and George W. Bush as a representative of the school of thought. Cairo defines an Enlightened Realist as being guided by pragmatism and experience; flexibility and compromise; negotiation; and multilateral internationalism (p. 28). George W. Bush's Cowboy Liberalism is characterized by an emphasis on ideology and gut instinct; certainty and competition; messianic universalism; and unilateral nationalism (p. 28). These two contrasting world views/approaches shaped policies in both Bush administrations, and by following the logic of each, one can see how and why many decisions were made and why the two Bush presidencies were so very dissimilar in process and policy. The author goes on to explore deeply the connections between personality and policy, as well as those between ideology and policy, arguing that, indeed, individuals do matter, and who is in the White House matters greatly. …

English

As India marches towards an exciting new future of growth and progress, medical education will play pivotal role in crafting a sustained development agenda. The idea of creating a healthy society is no longer a debatable luxury; its significance has been grasped by policy shapers worldwide. In a developing nation like India, medical services play a very important role in the well-being of their citizens and indirectly play a very important part in the economic and overall development of the nation. The medical education system is suffering from misdistribution, traditional curriculum, poor assessment, neglected research and lack of faculty development programmes. „Vision 2015‟ has potential for creating substantial change in Indian medical education. A stronger strategic approach will ensure a solid foundation for the improvement in the health status of India. Conventional-theoretical and experimental teaching blended with a system of teaching which is innovative, aiming to develop under-graduates and post-graduates as community-teachers, true-academician/researcher should be emphasized. This paper focuses on the various challenges of medical education in India.

Digital divides? UK Film Council strategy and the digital screen network

Abstract In retrospect it is easy to identify digital technology and the disruptive nature of the Internet as two key factors shaping the broader screen landscape over the last decade or so, but how did organizations deal with that process at the time? This article examines the role that digitization and its wider ramification across the UK film industry’s patterns of distribution and exhibition played in both the strategic thinking and the operational practice of the UK Film Council (UKFC) during its lifetime (2000–2011). It draws on interviews with key policy shapers and asks whether the UKFC was too slow to identify the transformative impact that digital would have on all areas of the film industry. By focusing on the origins and implementation of the Digital Screen Network, this article examines the impact of this programme on the UK film industry. It also offers insight into the organizational challenges of shaping digital film policy in an international industry.

To Join or Not to Join, and How to Join: Higher Education as an Option in the Israeli Haredi World Today

The State of Israel is gradually increasing its efforts to integrate the ultra-Orthodox population within Israeli society both in general (in the army, in employment) and in higher education in particular. The major question arising in all systems where attempts are being made to integrate this population is whether they should be encouraged to join separate settings or existent settings, together with the rest of the population. This question is at the heart of the current article. The article suggests that policy shapers in Israeli higher education object to establishing unique institutions for the ultra-Orthodox; their integration in existing settings as well should only serve as an intermediate solution. The solution devised by the CHE (Council for Higher Education) is the platform or inn institution – a Haredi or ultra-orthodox institution of higher education operating under the academic wings and direct control of an existing and recognized academic institution. At present it seems that despite forecasts regarding the significance of providing accessibility to higher education for the ultra-Orthodox in Israel, we will probably witness a similar process to that which occurred in Israeli higher education in the 1990s, one of universalization and popularization. At first there will be a significant rise in the proportion of ultra-Orthodox joining the system and then the numbers will level out.

Paper keepers or policy shapers? The conditions under which EP officials impact on the EU policy process

The Lisbon Treaty has substantially extended the co-legislative rights of the European Parliament (EP). This raises the general question of how the EP organizes itself internally in order to be able to maximize its input into the legislative process. In the quest of information processing, it is likely that officials inside the EP gain in importance. The article thus aims to clarify the conditions under which these EP officials impact on the EU policy process and as such can influence policy outcomes. The analysis is based on case studies from five different policy domains. The observations reflect that under certain conditions EP officials play a steering role in the EU decision-making process. As such they can have a significant impact on the policymaking process, defying the dualistic Weberian approach according to which politicians take decisions and officials merely implement.

How Policymakers Define ‘Evidence’: The Politics of Research Use in New Orleans

Nearly ten years after Katrina and the implementation of a host of new and radical education reforms in New Orleans, there remains little evidence about whether the changes have improved school performance. Despite this lack of evidence, the New Orleans model is held up as a reform success, and is being adopted by other cities. In this article the authors ask how policymakers in New Orleans and at the state level define, access and interpret research or evidence on the reforms, and how, if at all, such evidence informs their decision-making. They interviewed key district and state policymakers, as well as representatives from dozens of intermediary organizations in the area, who, they argue, are also shapers of policy. On the demand side, they found that policymakers primarily used personal anecdotes to justify their position and explain the success of reforms, and they relied on blogs or non-peer-reviewed sources for background information. Peer-reviewed research was seldom used, typically passed to policymakers via an echo chamber of intermediary organizations, personal contacts or key partners. Connecting supply to demand, the authors find that intermediary organizations broker research and evidence to advance their policy agendas, and that they serve as de facto policymakers in New Orleans.

Current Trends in Technical and Vocational Education Research: A Meta-Analysis

The rapid development of world economy led to the development of physical and human capital. This development is supported through the provision of skilled human resources impetus towards the enhancement of social economic status of a country. This encourages academics conducting more research in the field of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) to help improve the development and the formation of skilled workers. Current trends in research conducted around the world to the field of TVE can be used for smart partnerships between academics and policy shapers of TVE in the country. To achieve the goal, this article will discuss the current trends of research conducted through literature review. The survey, carried out will involve the use of meta-analysis using a variety of relevant peer reviewed professional journals. The findings show that current trends in the study of selected journal focused on three main areas of apprenticeship, measurement and evaluation and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the TVE.

Policy takers or policy makers? The lobbying of global banking regulators

Do financial sector groups act as passive policy takers, or do they ‘shape’ the policies to which they are subject? This article responds to this question with three arguments pertaining to the policy shaping power of the financial industry when it comes to international financial standards. First, industry groups confront a number of additional challenges when it comes to lobbying international regulatory bodies, which tend to be more opaque in their decision making and more difficult to hold accountable when they make unpopular decisions. Second, while these groups are sometimes able to shape financial regulatory policy, the extent of this influence is more partial and contingent than most depictions suggest. The third argument advanced is that since the global financial crisis, business groups have had many of their traditional lobbying tools adversely affected, making lobbying a more uphill battle than before. Financial industry groups are able to influence the governance of their own activities and act as ‘policy shapers’ some of the time, but are less strongly positioned in this role than many existing depictions seem to suggest.