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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alarcon

 

 

 

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 →

Nudge Plus: How behaviour change policies can build on their success by recognizing their failings

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Hill and stokerPeter John and Gerry Stoker

Policies that promote behaviour change are not so controversial as we move towards the third decade of the twenty first century. The question that matters now is how to ensure that behaviour change policies work and match an increasingly assertive democratic culture among citizens. Our solution is to build on past successes and to move towards something we label “nudge plus”. Continue reading →

Why do some public agencies attract more media attention than others?

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Boon et alJan Boon, Heidi Houlberg Salamonsen and Koen Verhoest

The role of the media in relation to public agencies has only recently become the focus of scholarly attention within public management and administration. Many would agree that, at least in Western democracies, we live in what is referred to as “mediatised societies”. These are generally understood to be societies in which the media somehow penetrate and affect the way central institutions of our societies function (including the public agencies responsible for service delivery, regulation, etc). However, we have just begun to investigate the degree to which such media attention affects public agencies, how they are organized, and held accountable.   Continue reading →

Summer Highlights Collection from Policy & Politics

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BROWN_SarahSarah Brown,
Journal Manager of Policy & Politics

Policy & Politics Summer Highlights collection free to access from 1 May 2019 – 31 July 2019.

This quarter’s highlights collection from Policy & Politics showcases the best of the journal’s most topical research, retaining our hallmark focus on combining robust science coupled with a real-world relevance that resonates across our diverse readership.

Continue reading →

Annual Policy & Politics prizewinners announced!

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winners

Competition winners pictured: Madeleine Pill, Valeria Guarneros-Meza, Christopher M. Weible & Paul Cairney 

Written by Sarah Ayres, Steve Martin and Felicity Matthews, Co-Editors of Policy & Politics

The Bleddyn Davies Best Early Career prize has been awarded to: Madeleine Pill and Valeria Guarneros-Meza for their article on Local governance under austerity: hybrid organisations and hybrid officers  

In this excellent paper, Madeleine Pill & Valeria Guarneros-Meza explore what austerity means for participation in city governance.   Continue reading →

Policy & Politics at the Political Studies Association conference 2019

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FelicityProfileFelicity Matthews, Co-Editor of Policy & Politics

Policy & Politics will be at the 2019 PSA Conference!

Do your plans for the Easter vacations include a trip to Nottingham for the 2019 Annual International Conference of the Political Studies Association?  And are you interested in meeting the editorial team of Policy & Politics to discuss your work?  If so, read on as this blog post is for you! Continue reading →

Does privatisation reduce public deficits?

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Beatriz and NoemiBeatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros and Noemí Peña-Miguel

Privatisation may be defined as the sale of shares of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to private investors, resulting in the transference of the property and the decision-making capability from the public to the private sector. Privatisations have always been controversial reforms, from the first ones developed by the Thatcher government in 1979, until now, when the Troika has pushed through privatisation programmes in EU member states that suffered financial problems during the last crisis.   Continue reading →

2019 P&P Annual Lecture with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi on Muslim Britain

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OscarOscar Berglund
Digital Associate Editor for Policy & Politics

Policy & Politics was delighted to welcome the Rt Honourable Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to speak to audiences in Bristol last night on her topic of being Muslim in Britain.

Baroness Warsi was the UK’s first Muslim Cabinet minister and has become a leading voice in the British debate on Islamophobia, not least within the Conservative Party.

Baroness Warsi began her lecture by saying that the recent shocking Islamophobic terror attack in New Zealand highlighted the importance of ‘having an open conversation’ to dispel the myths about what it means to be Muslim. In the current environment, where Islamophobia has become acceptable in so many areas of society, the Christchurch terrorist attack, she says, neither shocked nor surprised her. This conversation about the relationship between Islam and Britain is what Sayeeda Warsi seeks to promote in her book The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain. This is a relationship stretching back to the 7th century that has suffered over the last couple of decades. She asks, ‘How do we reset this relationship?’ Continue reading →