Christopher Smith Ochoa
In a strong contribution to our new themed section on Interpretive Process Tracing, this article examines how poverty became recognised as a legitimate policy issue in Germany, bringing interpretive process tracing into dialogue with policy feedback theory to explain how a political system that long denied poverty came to embed it within federal policy reporting.
Continue readingEnhancing Democracy throughout the Policy Process
by Sarah Brown and Elizabeth Koebele
This quarter’s highlights collection features four articles that examine the use of democratic principles and processes in contexts that are not traditionally democratic, which we hope will resonate with some of the topical debates that are currently playing out on the global stage.
In our first article, author Karin Fossheim asks how non-elected representatives can secure democratic representation. In this important contribution to the literature on representative democracy, Fossheim analyses representation in governance networks. She does this by comparing how non-elected representatives, their constituents and the decision-making audience understand the outcome of representation to benefit constituency, authorisation and accountability. Her research findings conclude that all three groups mostly share an understanding of democratic non-electoral representation, understood as ongoing interactions between representatives and constituents, multiple (if any) organisational and discursive sources of authorisation and deliberative aspects of accountability. All these elements are shown to support democratic representation despite the absence of elections.
Continue readingSpecial issue blog series on Transformational Change through Public Policy.
Rosana Boullosa & Janaina Perez
People around the world seem eager for transformational change in our societies. But in which direction must these winds of change blow? This was perhaps the question that provoked us the most when we came across the call for articles for the themed issue on “Transformational Change through Public Policy”, proposed by the Policy & Politics editorial team. Our response has just been published in our article: The democratic transformation of public policy through community activism in Brazil. Continue reading
Anna Siede and Sybille Münch
The integration of migrants and refugees is often proclaimed to be a ‘two-way process’, leading not just to a transformation of the newcomers but the whole society. This requires efforts from both the state as well as civil society, ideally in co-operation. That’s how many policy documents in Germany phrase it. And indeed, since 2015 and now with the current arrival of Ukrainian refugees, we see unprecedented levels of civic engagement. So, where do we stand with regard to these new forms of interaction between state and society that are called “co-production”? Continue reading
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