Policy & Politics

Policy & Politics Highlights collection on our NEW special issue just published on ‘Policy-making as designing’: free to access from 1 Feb – 30th April 2020.

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Sarah BrownSarah Brown,
Journal Manager of Policy & Politics

In a slight departure from our usual format highlighting 3 of our most topical articles, this quarter’s highlights collection focuses on our new special issue just published on

Policy-making as designing: the added value of design thinking for public administration and public policy

In recent years, policy makers have shown increasing interest in harnessing design approaches to address policy problems. Design methods can offer innovative perspectives on persistent policy problems (e.g. climate change; ageing population; urbanization etc.). Given the enormous influx of design toolboxes, design approaches and design steps, the search is on for an ‘ultimate’ design approach for public sector problems. But there are different approaches that can be used, and which have different strengths. Continue reading →

Thank you to all Policy & Politics reviewers in 2019!

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Thank you to all our reviewers in 2019 

On behalf of the authors and readers of Policy & Politics, the Co-Editors wish to wholeheartedly thank those who reviewed manuscripts for us in 2019.

With a high 2 year impact factor of 2.028, and a 50 year tradition of publishing high quality research that connects macro level politics with micro level policy issues, the journal could not exist without your investment of time and effort, lending your expertise to ensure that the papers published in this journal meet the standards that the research community expects for it. We sincerely appreciate the time spent reading and commenting on manuscripts, and we are very grateful for your willingness and readiness to serve in this role.

We look forward to a 2020 of exciting advances in the field and to our part in communicating those advances to our community and to the broader public.

Policy & Politics Co-Editors: Sarah Ayres, Steve Martin & Felicity Matthews

p&p editors

If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also be interested to read:

Narratives as tools for influencing policy change [Open Access]

Three habits of successful policy entrepreneurs  [Open Access]

Can experience be evidence? Craft knowledge and evidence-based policing [Free]

Introduction to the Special Issue on the potential of design to improve public policy and administration

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Arwin Van Buuren, Jenny Lewis, Guy Peters, William Voorberg

In recent years, policy makers and administrators have shown increasing interest in design approaches to address policy problems. Design methods offer innovative perspectives on persistent policy problems (e.g. climate change; ageing population; urbanization etc.). Given the enormous influx of design toolboxes, design approaches and design steps, there is a search for an ‘ultimate’ design approach for public sector problems. But there are different approaches that can be used and which have different strengths.

In our introduction to the special issue on design and public policy we distinguish three rather different design approaches in public sector design.   Continue reading →

Policy & Politics Winter Highlights collection free to access from 6 November 2019– 31st January 2020.

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Sarah BrownSarah Brown,
Journal Manager of Policy & Politics

In celebration of this year’s APPAM research conference theme on diverse perspectives on issues and evidence, we bring you our latest research on that topic. To read the original research, download the articles below which are free to access until 31st January 2020. Happy reading! Continue reading →

Political Innovation, Digitalisation and Public Participation in Party Politics

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Schmidthuber et al

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Schmidthuber, Dennis Hilgers and Maximilian Rapp

Public sector institutions increasingly make use of modern information and communication technology to exchange knowledge with stakeholders and involve external actors in decision-making. Public participation has the potential to increase the knowledge base relevant for innovation and continuous improvement in policy-making. It can also enhance the relationship among actors, increase public trust and improve citizen satisfaction. Our recent article in Policy & Politics focuses on public participation in party politics. Specifically, our research focused on a political party which involved citizens in the development of its programme using an online platform.  Continue reading →

What do policy makers really do?: ‘I read, write and have meetings’

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Richard FreemanRichard Freeman

What do policy makers do?  The question is important, because making policy engages a great number of people one way or another, and what they do they might do well or badly.  Our standard answers are rather hazy, not least because policy making entails such great numbers of people doing a great number of things.  The literature tends to have addressed the question in functional terms, outlining and defining – and endlessly debating – different sets of activities such as advocacy and agenda-setting, formulating and decision making, implementing and evaluating.

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Autumn Highlights Collection from Policy & Politics

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BROWN_SarahSarah Brown,
Journal Manager of Policy & Politics

Policy & Politics Autumn Highlights collection free to access from 1 August – 31 October 2019.

This quarter’s highlights collection focuses on some of our recent articles looking at public participation in the political process through a range of different lenses. Our first article, the Use and Abuse of Participatory Governance by Populist Governments challenge the notion prevalent in academic literature that participatory governance is a panacea for all ills in Western democracies. Based on a case study of Viktor Orban’s national consultations in Hungary, the authors use their case as evidence of how not to run a public consultation and why asking the public is not always such a great idea. 

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Updating your course reading lists? Check out our essential reading recommendations

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OscarNew research articles for course reading lists in Public Policy, Politics and Social Policy from Policy & Politics. By Oscar Berglund, Lecturer in International Public and Social Policy, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.

All articles mentioned in this blog post are free to access until 20th September or Open Access. 

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The Impact of Austerity on Policy Capacity in Local Government

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eckersley and tobin.pngPeter Eckersley and Paul Tobin

How can we identify the real impact of austerity on policy? Our recent article in Policy & Politics bridges the gaps between research on ‘cutback management’, ‘policy capacity’ and ‘policy dismantling’, finding that front-line and often short-term challenges are being prioritised over more hidden and medium-term threats. The results suggest a ticking time-bomb for discovering the real impacts of austerity – particularly in sectors such as the environment, where policymakers need to stay on top of scientific and societal developments in order to design effective approaches to problems. Continue reading →

Policy & Politics at the International Conference on Public Policy #ICPP4, Montreal

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Representatives from the Policy & Politics journal team are delighted to be attending the 4th International Conference on Public Policy #ICPP4 at Concordia University, Montreal. We are looking forward to celebrating with our authors, reviewers and board members over our recent impact factor rise to 2.028 which has taken us into the top 20 of all international journals in public administration and the top 50 for political science.

You can read the top cited articles contributing to our impact factor of 2.028 for FREE until 31 July!

Please look out for our representatives around the conference to discuss any relevant articles you are planning to publish. They are:  Continue reading →