University of Northern British Columbia: Open Journal Systems
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Who Is a Stream? Epistemic Communities, Instrument Constituencies and Advocacy Coalitions in Public Policy-Making
Full text linkJohn Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) was articulated in order to better understand how issues entered onto policy agendas, using the concept of policy actors interacting over the course of sequences of events in what he referred to as the “problem”, “policy” and “politics” “streams”. However, it is not a priori certain who the agents are in this process and how they interact with each other. As was common at the time, in his study Kingdon used an undifferen- tiated concept of a “policy subsystem” to group together and capture the activities of various policy actors involved in this process. However, this article argues that the policy world Kingdon envisioned can be better visualized as one composed of distinct subsets of actors who engage in one specific type of interaction involved in the definition of policy problems: ei- ther the articulation of problems, the development of solutions, or their enactment. Rather than involve all subsystem ac- tors, this article argues that three separate sets of actors are involved in these tasks: epistemic communities are engaged in discourses about policy problems; instrument constituencies define policy alternatives and instruments; and advoca- cy coalitions compete to have their choice of policy alternatives adopted. Using this lens, the article focuses on actor interactions involved both in the agenda-setting activities Kingdon examined as well as in the policy formulation ac- tivities following the agenda setting stage upon which Kingdon originally worked. This activity involves the definition of policy goals (both broad and specific), the creation of the means and mechanisms to realize these goals, and the set of bureaucratic, partisan, electoral and other political struggles involved in their acceptance and transformation into action. Like agenda-setting, these activities can best be modeled using a differentiated subsystem approach
Evaluation and Utilization of Policy Information in the Canadian Parliament: The Influence of External Policy Actors
Full text linkWhile policy information utilization in the Public Service has been the subject of investigation, little is known in Canada about how legislators seek out knowledge or respond to information provided by external actors. Often described as lacking influence within the policy process, the average Canadian MP is assumed to engage little in policy-making. Based on a survey conducted amongst Members of the Canadian Parliament in April 2013, this paper investigates how MPs engage with both internal and external sources of information and what are some of the potential factors that explain MPs’ utilization of policy knowledge. Findings indicate that internal sources of information are the most regularly consulted, yet that amongst external providers, academic research is valued most highly. In line with recent literature on policy networks, results suggest that personal contact between policy actors is one of the most important mechanisms to ensure a positive reception of information. The overall conclusion is that MPs continue to have a strong interest in policy and respond positively to lobbying, whether these are the efforts of industry associations or academics disseminating their research
Instruments of Government: Perceptions and Contexts
Full text linkGovernment uses a wide variety of instruments to reach its policy goals, ranging from indirect methods, such as moral suasion and cash induce- ments, to more direct ones involving government provision of services. Although there has been a fair amount of writing on the nature and use of various policy instruments, there is very little work on either the meaning ascribed to these instruments by the decisionmakers who use them (or the experts who design them) or the processes by which some come to be favored over others. Characteristics of the political system, such as national policy style, the organizational setting of the decisionmaker, and the problem situation are all likely to have some influence over the choice of instruments. The relative impact of these variables, however, is likely to be mediated by subjective factors linked to cognition. Perceptions of the proper 'tool to do the job' intervenes between context and choice in a complex way. Effortsto account forvariation in instrument choice, then, must focus not only on macro level variables but on micro ones as well
Models of the user: designers’ perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour
Full text linkInfluencing more environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviour is a current focus of many projects, ranging from government social marketing campaigns, education and tax structures to designers’ work on interactive products, services and environments. There is a wide variety of techniques and methods used, intended to work via different sets of cognitive and environmental principles. These approaches make different assumptions about ‘what people are like’: how users will respond to behavioural interventions, and why, and in the process reveal some of the assumptions that designers and other stakeholders, such as clients commissioning a project, make about human nature. This paper discusses three simple models of user behaviour – the pinball, the shortcut and the thoughtful – which emerge from user experience designers’ statements about users while focused on designing for behaviour change. The models are characterised using systems terminology and the application of each model to design for sustainable behaviour is examined via a series of examples
Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes: Opportunities and Challenges
Full text linkDesign thinking has the potential to improve problem definition and mechanism design in policymaking processes. By promoting greater understanding of how citizens experience government services, design thinking can support public managers who desire to enhance public value. In Australia, as elsewhere, design thinking currently remains separated from mainstream policymaking efforts. This article clarifies the essence of design thinking and its applicability to policy development. Five design thinking strategies are discussed, all of which have lengthy histories as social science methodologies. They are (1) environmental scanning, (2) participant observation, (3) open-to-learning conversations, (4) mapping, and (5) sensemaking. Recent examples from Australia and New Zealand are used to illustrate how these strategies have been incorporated into policymaking efforts. The article concludes by considering how design thinking might be more broadly applied in policymaking, and the training and resourcing requirements that would entail
Design for Sustainable Behaviour: investigating design methods for influencing user behaviour
Full text linkThis research aims to develop a design tool for product and service innovation which influences users towards more sustainable behaviour, reducing resource use and leading to a lower carbon footprint for everyday activities. The paper briefly explains the reasoning behind the tool and its structure, and presents an example application to water conservation with concept ideas generated by design students
Design with Intent: Persuasive Technology in a Wider Context
Full text linkPersuasive technology can be considered part of a wider field of ‘De- sign with Intent’ (DwI) – design intended to result in certain user behaviour. This paper gives a very brief review of approaches to DwI from different disci- plines, and looks at how persuasive technology sits within this space
How to Get to Hérouxville
Full text linkThis paper explores “reasonable accommodation blowback” in Canada and, in particular, the province of Quebec. As will be argued below, the “accommodation crisis” in Quebec resulted from two related developments: i) a misapplication of the term “reasonable accommodation” taken from disability law which has allowed it to be perceived as providing undeserved preferential treatment to minorities and; ii) the practice of interculturalism that then magnifies this perception of preferential treatment as obstructing the integration of minorities into the dominant French-language culture. In part, this explains why the accommodation crisis occurred in Quebec and has sparked a far more virulent blowback in that province than in the rest of Canada. This suggests that, while some might argue that interculturalism is “complimentary” to multiculturalism or “does not contradict the stated multicultural ideology”, multiculturalism can also be in opposition to and even antagonistic to the goals of interculturalism
Behavioural Assumptions of Policy Tools
Full text linkThis paper provides a framework to analyze the implicit or explicit behavioral theories found in laws, regulations, and programs. The analysis focuses on policy tools or instruments and the underlying behavioral assumptions that guide their choice. We begin with the premise that public policy almost always attempts to get people to do things they otherwise would not have done, or it enables them to do things they might not have done otherwise. Policy tools are used to overcome impediments to policy-relevant actions. The five broad categories of tools we iden- tify-authority, incentives, capacity-building, symbolic and hortatory, and learning-make dif- ferent assumptions about how policy relevant behavior can be fostered. We contend that policy tools are essentially political phenomena, and that policy participation in the form of com- pliance, utilization, and other forms of "coproduction" is an important form of political behavior deserving of greater attention by political science
Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy
Full text linkWe argue that the social construction of target populations is an important, albeit overlooked, political phenomenon that should take its place in the study of public policy by political scientists. The theory contends that social constructions influence the policyagenda and the selection of policy tools, as well as the rationales that legitimate policy choices. Constructions become embedded in policy as messages that are absorbed by citizens and affect their orientations and participation. The theory is important because it helps explain why some groups are advantaged more than others independently of traditional notions of political power and how policy designs reinforce or alter such advantages. An understanding of social constructions of target populations augments conventional hypotheses about the dynamics of policy change, the determina- tion of beneficiaries and losers, the reasons for differing levels and types of participation among target groups, and the role of policy in democracy