by Sarah Brown and Allegra Fullerton
This quarter’s highlights assortment showcases 3 current articles on coverage course of theories that make necessary contributions to this space of coverage analysis and idea growth.
In our first article, ‘Organisation, info processing, and coverage change in US federal bureaucracies , authors Samuel Workman et al look at coverage change within the US federal forms. They construct on Punctuated Equilibrium Principle’s premise that institutional friction and restricted consideration are prime influences on coverage change, they usually introduce a brand new strategy for measuring and modelling these dynamics. This new strategy incorporates the centralisation of knowledge, decision-making, and the complexity of the coverage, into the structure of various organisations. Particularly, it measures how completely different sized organisations delegate federally regulated agenda objects throughout the US federal forms from 2008-2016.
Their findings counsel that bigger bureaucracies might deal with change and downside definitions extra simply than smaller organisations. These bureaucracies aren’t pressured to shift consideration to every new downside. It’s because being a part of a division offers extra capability to deal with numerous issues as they emerge onto the agenda. Moreover, the division of consideration inside these constructions permits for a broader vary of strengths and experience to deal with issues higher. These findings problem the everyday view that smaller, nimble organisations handle change higher.
Our second article, by Johanna Kuenzler and co-authors, considers how the Narrative Coverage Framework (NPF) helps in understanding how coverage narratives impression public coverage processes. It affords a systematic evaluation of the historic growth of NPF analysis, analyzing using the NPF’s theoretical components over 5 time intervals. The article offers perception into the muse of NPF, highlighting the affect of positivist and interpretivist approaches all through its growth.
Determine: Variety of revealed articles based on historic phases of the event of the NPF
As illustrated within the determine above, the article highlights the distinctive contributions of key NPF publications throughout every of the time intervals of its growth. The findings point out a constant give attention to the core theoretical elements and methodological improvements, demonstrating the framework’s robustness.
Lastly, the article suggests avenues to additional develop the framework, drawing from previous classes such because the introduction of the beneficiary character, and proposes additional investigation of character and narrative dynamics. It additionally encourages further work to bridge positivist and interpretive approaches and descriptions the strengths of every. In abstract, the article is a welcome contribution and has a lot to supply to each those that are fluent and new to the NPF.
Our ultimate article on this assortment offers one other systematic overview however this time of the A number of Streams Framework within the context of coverage processes in China. Its central analysis query asks ‘why do policymakers deal with some societal points however not others?’
For many years, the authors clarify, public coverage researchers have tried to reply this query through the use of the coverage idea known as the A number of Streams Framework (MSF) which was initially developed to grasp policymaking within the USA. Taking an summary of 178 research that use the MSF to analyse policymaking and implementation in China, the authors discovered that students have more and more used the MSF to look at how insurance policies are made and carried out in China, as illustrated within the determine under.
Determine: China-focused MSF articles (N = 178) revealed per 12 months.
For the reason that look of the primary article that used the MSF to analyse policymaking in China (Zhou & Yan, 2005), virtually 200 journal articles have used the framework to establish the driving forces behind policymaking and coverage implementation (or the shortage thereof) in China. Based mostly on the authors’ evaluation of those research, they provide necessary guiding ideas for many who want to use the MSF to analyse coverage processes in China.
To conclude, the article identifies a variety of under-examined areas for future coverage analysis, similar to banking, finance, power, and well being. As well as, extra comparative research are wanted that assist establish how coverage processes in China are completely different from that in different political programs. The authors hope this text will assist to encourage extra research that use the a number of streams framework to deepen our understanding of policymaking and implementation in China.
We hope you’ve loved this quarter’s assortment of articles specializing in a variety of views on completely different coverage course of theories. We want you a calming break and sit up for bringing you extra of the most recent analysis from Coverage & Politics in 2025!
You possibly can learn the unique analysis in Coverage & Politics at:
Kuenzler, J., Stauffer, B., Schlaufer, C., Music, G., Smith-Walter, A., & Jones, M. D. (2024). A scientific overview of the Narrative Coverage Framework: a future analysis agenda. Coverage & Politics (revealed on-line forward of print 2024) https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000046
van den Dool, A., & Qiu, T. (2024). Coverage processes in China: a scientific overview of the a number of streams framework. Coverage & Politics (revealed on-line forward of print 2024) https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000038
Workman, S., Robinson, S. E., & Bark, T. (2024). Organisation, info processing, and coverage change in US federal bureaucracies. Coverage & Politics, 52(2), 278-297 https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000013
