How institutional legacies constrain reform during a favourable policy window: COVID-19 and the healthcare workforce shortage

policypressblogLeave a comment

COVID-19 opened the door to major healthcare reform—but old systems and social norms still held much of the power.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems around the world were pushed to the limit. In Switzerland, this sparked strong public support for nursing staff and even led to a popular vote backing major improvements to nursing care. With political will, public awareness, and a clear workforce crisis, it looked like the perfect moment for real change. But did that happen?

In a recent article published in Policy & Politics, Lisa Asticher investigates how institutional legacies—particularly those tied to economic liberalisation and gender inequality—shaped the reforms that followed. The findings are both fascinating and sobering.

Continue reading →

Does HIV stigma shape views on who deserves welfare?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Kaila Witkowski and Stephen R. Neely

New research highlights the subtle but persistent role of stigma in shaping public support for welfare benefits.

Public support for welfare benefits often hinges on perceptions of who is “deserving.” Are recipients viewed as victims of circumstance—or as somehow responsible for their own misfortune? A new Policy & Politics article by Kaila Witkowski and Stephen R. Neely asks how HIV stigma may influence these judgements, with important implications for social policy.

Continue reading →

Policy & Politics Highlights collection on Gender Policy: free to access from 1st May – 31st July 2025

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Sarah Brown and Allegra Fullerton

Welcome to this quarter’s highlights collection featuring a range of our most popular, recent research on different aspects relating to gender policy. Whether you’re preparing to teach a unit on gender policy or are interested in keeping up to date with the latest research in that area, we hope you will find the articles we’ve featured of interest!

Continue reading →

What is successful policy experimentation?

policypressblogLeave a comment

By Kate Mattocks

Governments around the world undertake policy experiments – temporary, often micro-level interventions – to try new things and ‘learn what works.’ But what makes an experiment successful? This is the question I explore in my recent article published in Policy & Politics.

Discussions of success are surprisingly absent from the literature. We might think of success as a positive hypothesis: i.e. achieving an expected result. But this doesn’t capture all of the possible outcomes of experiments, and it also doesn’t consider the process of carrying them out.

Continue reading →

Policy Goals versus Service Delivery in the Welfare State: Bridging the Gap

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Janna Goijaerts, Natascha van der Zwan, Jet Bussemaker

three portraits of three women, who are the authors of the article

Policies often set ambitious goals for social services, envisioning a welfare system that is preventative, tailored, and complementary. Yet, as middle managers in street-level organisations know all too well, reality frequently falls short of these ideals. In our recent research article, just published in Policy & Politics, we explore the discrepancy between policy goals and actual service delivery, shedding light on the role of middle managers within this gap.

Continue reading →

Which criteria guide constructions of ‘deservingness’ in public policy?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Sonja Blum and Johanna Kuhlmann

In public policy, target group constructions are crucial. Groups are granted additional rights, while rights from other groups are withdrawn, certain groups of people or other entities are regulated, while burdens elsewhere are lifted. As Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram’s work (1993) told us, such decisions are related to target groups’ power position, but also to their positive or negative construction.

But how do these social constructions work, and based on which criteria are target groups of public policy perceived as deserving or undeserving? These exact criteria guiding social constructions of groups have remained rather elusive in extant public policy research.

Continue reading →

Policy & Politics announces the 2024 winners of the Early Career and Best Paper Prizes

policypressblogLeave a comment

We are delighted to announce this year’s prizes for award winning papers published in Policy & Politics in 2024. 

The Ken Young Prize for the best article judged to represent excellence in the field is awarded  to Claire Dupont, Jeffrey Rosamond and Bishoy L. Zaki (University of Ghent, Belgium) for their article: Investigating the scientific knowledge–policy interface in EU climate policy. Well deserved, Claire, Jeffrey, and Bishoy!

The Bleddyn Davies Prize recognising scholarship of the very highest standard by an early career academic, is awarded to Leah McCabe, University of Edinburgh, UK for her article: An intersectional analysis of contestations within women’s movements: the case of Scottish domestic abuse policymaking. Congratulations Leah!

In celebration of these winning articles, the co-editors’ elucidate the distinct and important contributions these articles make to their fields. 

Continue reading →

The relationship between national identity and the United Nations General Assembly voting patterns: a Narrative Policy Framework analysis

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Yael R. Kaplan, Melissa K. Merry and Michael D. Jones

Three portrait photos two women and one man, authors of the article

In our recent article published in Policy & Politics, we explore how narratives shape the way countries behave in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), focusing on their voting behaviour. We argue that the big stories a nation tells about itself – termed “macro narratives” – play a crucial role in how that country votes. Essentially, these macro narratives help form a country’s identity and influence its political decisions in the global arena.

Through our analysis, we explain that narratives are not just random tales; they are powerful tools that help people make sense of complex situations. In politics, leaders and interest groups use these stories to shape public opinion and rally support for their goals. Our research emphasises that, while we know a lot about how narratives work at smaller levels – like within groups or communities – there’s still a lot to learn about how these stories operate on a larger, national scale.

Continue reading →

How Can Political Conflict in Adversarial Policy Networks Promote their Coordination?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Jeongyoon Lee and David Lee

Policy actors often clash during policy processes, especially in contentious areas like climate change, gun control, and healthcare reform. These actors—including government agencies, private companies, and interest groups—frequently vie for influence, and political rivalries can lead to gridlock or policy failure. Understanding the drivers of these conflicts and how to manage them is crucial in order to propose strategies that can mitigate their effects, and enhance network coordination.

In our recent article published in Policy & Politics, we explore the causes of political competition and propose strategies for reducing it, using the case of local fracking policy processes in New York as an example. The fracking debate involves a wide range of actors, such as landowners, media organisations, oil and gas associations, environmental groups, city agencies, local governments, and legal organisations—all competing over whether fracking should be permitted in the state. But what drives these actors to clash so intensely? We explore the underlying reasons for these clashes, investigating whether competition arises from shared struggles for scarce resources, similar structural positions in resource-sharing relationships, differing policy beliefs or all three.

Continue reading →

How Policy Advisors Construct Legitimacy in Challenging Times

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Andrea Krizsán and Dorottya Fekete

Two photographs of women, both of European heritage, both smiling: the authors of the article.

In our recent article in Policy & Politics, we delve into the changing context of policy advice in autocratising Hungary. In this context, the legitimacy of policy expertise is closely linked to the experts’ relationship with the political regime. As experts are increasingly clustered on opposite sides of the political divide – some with limited or no access to policy processes; others too close to the government, undermining their professional credibility – they rely on a series of practices to construct legitimacy. 

Policy advisors use various strategies to construct legitimacy. They balance scientific rigour with political relevance. Our analysis demonstrates that even if the main bases of legitimacy (policy relevance and scientific robustness) continue to be seen as benchmarks for constructing legitimacy, they gain new meanings in the context of polarised, autocratising Hungary. This balancing involves distinctive discursive, individual and organisational practices.

Continue reading →