How might lower-ranking officials have a greater impact on policy development than previously assumed?

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andrew cornellAndrew Connell

How can small-territory, subnational governments make the most of their position? Subnational governments like the devolved governments in the UK combine some of the opportunities and limitations of the national and the local governments between which they sit. They have some ‘national government’-type responsibilities and resources, like legislative authority and funding powers, although those resources are limited by their subordinate status. On the other hand, because their territories are comparatively small (Scotland has just under 5.5 million people and 32 local authorities, Wales just over 3 million and 22) they might able to cultivate ‘local government’-type relationships with a comprehensive range of local groups.    Continue reading →

What happens to the public in the era of digital government?

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pSzlTFug Sarah Moore

The UK government is currently undertaking a highly ambitious £1 billion court reform programme. The aspiration is for the physical courts of yesteryear — seemingly sluggish, anachronistic, expensive, and paper-bound — to be replaced by a new, virtual court estate. As the 2016 announcement of the court reform programme made clear, the ambition is for all cases to begin online, for some to be carried out entirely online, and for physical court hearings to make more extensive use of video conferencing.  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 →

2018 Impact Factor announcement: Read our most highly cited articles

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P&P editors

Sarah Ayres, Steve Martin, Felicity Matthews – Policy & Politics Editors

We are delighted to announce that Policy & Politics has achieved a fantastic result in this year’s Journal Citation Reports with its highest ever Impact Factor of 2.028. The journal is now in the top 20 of the Public Administration category and the top 50 for Political Science.

This impressive outcome is testimony to the outstanding quality of research produced by our authors, the meticulous scrutiny of our peer reviewers, and the hard work of the Policy & Politics and Policy Press team. We would like to offer our thanks and congratulations to all.

To celebrate this increase, we have made the most highly cited articles which contributed to the 2018 Impact Factor free to read until 31 July 2019: Continue reading →

How not to conduct a consultation – and why asking the public is not always such a great idea

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Batory & Svensson.pngAgnes Batory & Sara Svensson 

Involving people in policy-making is generally a good thing. Policy-makers themselves often pay at least lip-service to the importance of giving citizens a say. In the academic literature, participatory governance has been, with some exaggeration, almost universally hailed as a panacea to all ills in Western democracies. In particular, it is advocated as a way to remedy the alienation of voters from politicians who seem to be oblivious to the concerns of the common man and woman, with an ensuing decline in public trust in government. Representation by political parties is ridden with problems, so the argument goes, and in any case it is overly focused on the act of voting in elections – a one-off event once every few years which limits citizens’ ability to control the policy agenda. On the other hand, various forms of public participation are expected to educate citizens, help develop a civic culture, and boost the legitimacy of decision-making. Consequently, practices to ensure that citizens can provide direct input into policy-making are to be welcomed on both pragmatic and normative grounds.   Continue reading →

When austerity knocks, what happens to public participation?

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Pau Alarcón, Carol Galais, Joan Font and Graham Smith

The economic crisis has led to challenges across a whole host of policy areas. But what has been its effect on citizen participation in political decision making? 

When we think about the pros and cons of citizen involvement in political decision-making, questions arise about competence and motivation. On the one hand, there is the question of the competence of citizens in making well-considered decisions. On the other hand, will politicians implement or ignore citizens’ proposals?  Continue reading →