1,721,018 research outputs found
Replication Data for: Policy Failures, Blame Games, and Changes to Policy Practice
No full textResearch examining the policy implications of elite polarization usually concentrates on policy formulation and change, but neglects the impact of polarization on the day-to-day application of policies. Applying the method of causal process-tracing to the Swiss ‘Carlos’ case, a blame game triggered by the reporting about an expensive therapy setting for a youth offender, this article exposes and explains a hitherto neglected, but highly important, mechanism between political elites engaging in blame-generation and changes in policy practice. A policy’s distance and visibility to mass publics, as well as the incentives and resources of elites to engage in blame-generation, explain the dynamics within blame games, which, in turn, effect organizational and behavioral changes that help to institutionalize a more politicized policy practice. Politicized policy practice can make an important difference to policy target populations, as well as damage output legitimacy and undermine democracy
Reconciling Perspectives on Blame Avoidance Behaviour
No full textBlame avoidance behaviour (BAB) has become an increasingly popular topic in political science. However, the preconditions of BAB, its presence and consequences in various areas and in different political systems largely remain a black box. In order to generate a better understanding of BAB and its importance for the workings of democratic political systems, the scattered literature on BAB needs to be assessed and structured. This article offers a comprehensive review of the literature on blame avoidance. It departs from Weaver’s concept of blame avoidance and subsequently differentiates between work on BAB in comparative welfare state research and work on BAB in public policy and administration. It is argued that between these two strands of literature a bifurcation exists since both perspectives rarely draw on each other to create a more general understanding of BAB. Advantages from existing approaches must be combined to assess the phenomenon of blame avoidance in a more comprehensive way
How Do Rating Agencies Rate? The Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis
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Policy’s role in democratic conflict management
Full text linkThis article proposes rethinking democratic conflict management by acknowledging the increasingly important role policy plays in it. As the debate on the health of democracy intensifies, research on how democracies manage and absorb political and societal conflicts becomes broadly relevant. Existing theories and perspectives view conflict management through the lens of elections and other institutional mechanisms, or they examine the social and economic preconditions for successful conflict management while inadequately understanding how policies contribute to conflict management. The article develops a theoretical framework that allows for the analysis of how policies’ material and interpretive effects influence societal conflicts and thereby strengthen (or weaken) democracy. While the article focuses on hypothesis-generation rather than hypothesis-testing, it draws on a large variety of policy and case examples to corroborate and illustrate the theoretical expectations embodied in the framework. Insights into policy’s role in democratic conflict management expand our understanding of the challenges to democracy in the twenty-first century and create new possibilities for comparative, policy-focused research into what makes democracy work
Policy failures, blame games and changes to policy practice
Full text linkStudies examining the policy implications of elite polarisation usually concentrate on policy formulation and change, but neglect the impact of Polarisation on the day-to-day application of policies. Applying the method of causal process tracing to the Swiss “Carlos” case, a blame game triggered by the reporting about an expensive therapy setting for a youth offender, this article exposes and explains a hitherto neglected, but highly important, mechanism between political elites engaging in blame generation and changes in policy practice. A policy’s distance and visibility to mass publics, as well as the incentives and resources of elites to engage in blame generation, explain the dynamics within blame games, which, in turn, effect organisational and behavioural changes that help institutionalise a more politicised policy practice. Politicised policy practice can make an important difference to policy target populations, as well as damage output legitimacy and undermine democracy
How Do Credit Rating Agencies Rate? An Implementation Perspective on the Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis
Full text linkDuring the recent European debt crisis, credit rating agencies
(CRAs) and the ratings they were producing became a frequent bone
of contention. We analyze which factors are considered by CRAs
when they judge a state's credibility in implementing an announced
austerity program. The results of a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative
Analysis of credit ratings show that implementation-related factors
had a comparatively minor impact while the level of economic competitiveness
of the evaluated country displayed high explanatory
power. The findings highlight the desolate implications for less competitive
countries that emanate from credit ratings and their influence
on refinancing costs. While competitive states are deemed better able
to generate future growth and therefore get positive evaluations, less
competitive states cannot prevent (further) downgrades in the short or
middle-term by announcing austerity programs
Avoiding Blame – a Comprehensive Framework and the Australian Home Insulation Program Fiasco
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