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Policy integration: mapping the different concepts
Abstract
ABSTRACTA growing number of studies have examined the collaboration of actors from two or more policy domains in order to integrate aims and concerns derived from one policy domain into another. In our literature review, we refer to this empirical phenomenon as ?policy integration?, exemplified by the Health in All Policies approach. Despite the wealth of literature on the subject, the scientific community only has access to a portion of the insights that have come out of this field of research, due primarily to the fact that policy integration is discussed using a variety of different terms, which tend to be specific to the policy domain under investigation. To facilitate a more inclusive scientific debate on policy integration, we provide a comprehensive overview of the different terminologies associated with policy integration and analyse the recurring themes in the respective literature strands. What is the motivation for policy-makers to promote policy integration? What is the design of the instruments used for policy integration? How does policy integration affect the policy-making process? And how well does policy integration perform? These are the four questions guiding our study.
... Policy integration refers generally to the inclusion of specific policy objectives of one domain (in this case climate change adaptation) into another, aiming at bridging often separated or siloed policy domains (see Tosun and Lang, 2017). It can improve the alignment of policy objectives, instruments, and processes (Kivimaa, 2022). ...
... The adaptation to cross-border impacts of climate change creates new challenges for all policy domains, including those that have traditionally dealt with cross-border issues, indicating the importance of policy coherence and integration. In policy integration, "recipient" policy domains, to the integrated policy objective, are expected to adapt and renew their operations and engage in collaborative processes (Lafferty and Hovden, 2003;Tosun and Lang, 2017), including continuous learning and reflection (Biesbroek, 2021;Plank et al., 2021). Policy integration can be seen as a complex problemsolving exercise for the public administration (Cejudo and Michel, 2017). ...
... Policy integration and coherence can be advanced by multiple means, such as encouragement, policy appraisal, cross-domain collaboration (Tosun and Lang, 2017), and shared visions (May et al., 2006). It is relevant to distinguish different levels of policymaking alongside different domains when examining integration and coherence. ...
Progressing climate change is causing a growing need for policy domains to adapt to its effects. Especially cross-border impacts of climate change are only beginning to be recognised in trade and finance. Through a qualitative analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews and 30 policy documents and reports, we examine adaptation policy integration and coherence in the European Union. Specifically, we investigate how policy actors in the trade and finance domains recognise adaptation needs and whether progress is being made. Our findings show that there has been progress mostly at the level of policy objectives and informal coordination between domains, whereas formalised actions and instruments promoting integration and coherence are emerging slowly. Moreover, we find that managing the cross-border impacts of climate change and adapting to them is demanding due to (1) the complex and interconnected ways in which impacts are transmitted, (2) the detailed understanding of the impact and response transmission systems needed for policy responses, and (3) the lack of formal integration of the climate change adaptation policy within EU trade and finance policies. Given these challenges, and the rapid advance of climate change, there is a need for high-level political commitment to progress with the preparedness for cross-border climate change impacts in trade and finance.
... It is adopted to enhance synergies and minimize spillover effects and conflicts between policy domains to address complex problems (Briassoulis 2004;J. Rayner and Howlett 2009;Jochim and May 2010;Tosun and Lang 2017;Russel 2019). ...
... Many Policy integration in general terms refers to different arrangements that enable/strengthen the relationship between policy domains 1 (horizontal integration) and/or governance levels (vertical integration), to enhance synergies, minimize spillover effects and conflicts, and allow the design and implementation of complex policy solutions in a coherent way (Briassoulis 2004;J. Rayner and Howlett 2009;Jochim and May 2010;Tosun and Lang 2017;Russel 2019). ...
... As noted by Hogl, Kleinschmit and Rayner (2016, 400), "policy integration envisages common, There is a variety of policy integration approaches in the literature, and also some confusion about the different concepts (Tosun and Lang 2017). For instance, the terms "policy mainstreaming" and "nexus approach" can be understood as the same policy integration, ...
... However, integration and coherence represent two different concepts, and it is crucial to set these different concepts apart to fully understand how to best chart the relative success and failure of this effort at nexus governance (Tosun & Lang, 2017). ...
... Not only does the policy frame need to change as a "nexus" develops, but it also should involve changes in the constitution of the policy subsystem and the actual instruments and goals of the policy. That is, integration inevitably involves considerations of changes in policy designs (Saguin & Howlett, 2022;Tosun & Lang, 2017), in order to better coordinate "cross-cutting policy programs that include transversal policy goals and policy instruments" . ...
... The SDG indicators forced governments to draw the linkages between the different goals and not just within their own set of indicators and targets but did not provide for the enhanced analytical, operational, or political capacities required to do so (Tosun & Lang, 2017). Looking at the SDGs related to economic activities, the systematic review of van Zanten and van Tulder (2021) in fact finds negative associations between goals to be more widespread than positive ones. ...
... This integration is particularly crucial in formal education settings, given the substantial influence that policy wields on educational systems [13][14][15][16] . Furthermore, effective specialised policy, such CCE policy that deals with complex and cross-cutting issues, requires coherence among multiple interconnected policy domains and their respective instruments [17][18][19][20][21] , or often referred to as policy instrument mixes [22][23][24][25] . In other words, successful CCE policy implementation lies in the synergy between proximate policy domains: climate change policy and educational policy. ...
... By exploring the applicability of insights collected from previous studies to diverse global contexts, this research aims to make meaningful contribution to a more comprehensive understanding of comparative CCE policies, particularly in regions facing unique socioeconomic and environmental challenges. Furthermore, it opens avenues for future research to investigate CCE policy appraisal 17 , offering opportunities to assess their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Through meticulous thematic analysis, this research uncovers intricate patterns and interactions within Indonesia's climate change and educational policies, illuminating the complex dynamics shaping the integration of CCE initiatives at the national level. ...
... This disjointed approach may lead to duplications and gaps in policy execution, hindering the integration of CCE into the broader education system. Therefore, it is imperative to address this issue to foster a more collaborative and coherent effort, namely policy integration 17,19,21,24,25 , in advancing CCE initiatives in Indonesia. This policy integration involves four dimensions: "policy frame, subsystem involvement, policy goals, and policy instruments" 20 . ...
This article conducts a comprehensive analysis of climate change education within the framework of climate change policy and education policy in Indonesia. Employing thematic analysis on twenty climate change policy texts, twelve K-12 education policy texts, and seventeen expert interview transcripts, our study explores the congruency of climate change education in both policy domains. Despite the critical need for coordinated policies to optimise the design and implementation of climate change education, the analysis reveals a significant discrepancy between Indonesia’s climate change policy and education policy regarding this crucial aspect. Four key themes emerged: the marginalisation of climate change education, the lack of synergies between relevant policies and stakeholders, the predominant economic values, and the optimistic future outlook. The study also assesses the alignment between Indonesia’s approach and global trends in climate change education. The findings shed light on critical areas for improvement and development in the integration of climate change education within the Indonesian policy landscape.
... Coherence and integration are related to interactions between different policy domains (Cejudo & Michel, 2017;Tosun & Lang, 2017). Efforts to pursue policy coherence refer to the systematic promotion across government departments and agencies of policy actions that mutually reinforce each other and create synergies (Jones, 2002) thereby increasing effectiveness and efficiency (Kivimaa & Sivonen, 2021). ...
... It means the integration of specific policy goals (here: climate change adaptation) into the objectives and instrument designs of other policy domains. Approaches reported for advancing integration range from encouragement through appraisal to full mutual engagement of actors across policy domains (Tosun & Lang, 2017). Cejudo and Michel (2017) see policy integration as a process of solving complex problems via strategic and administrative decisions, and policy coherence as a policy design issue. ...
... Preconditions for policy coherence include cooperation, shared responsibility, and political leadership (Tosun & Lang, 2017). Pursuit of coherence may be seen, for example, in political statements of intent, via champions advancing coherence (Mackie et al., 2017) and through aligning government budgets to avoid contradictory objectives . ...
... In fact, while trying to analyze or assess the interactions and intersections of a policy mix components, the very first challenge that a researcher is most likely to face, is the choice of the right term referring to this phenomenon, out of a variety of terms with overlapping and intersecting meanings, indicating similarities but with subtle distinctions. While analyzing the academic works that tried to assess and qualify these intersectoral aspects of public policies and public actors, Tosun & Lang (2017) have identified a variety of concepts. Some of them are related to government, such as "joined-up government" (Carey & Crammond, 2015;Kavanagh & Richards, 2001;Wilkins, 2002) and "whole-of-government" (Christensen & Laegreid, 2007;Karré et al., 2012). ...
... Other studies adopted rather technical terms such as convergence (Balme & Brouard, 2005;Heichel et al., 2005;Riadh, 2022) , and lastly the concept that serves as the foundation of this work is " policy coherence" (Belley, 2017;Evans, 2023;Guerrero & Castañeda, 2021;Howlett & Rayner, 2007;Savard & Saël, 2020).This absence of accuracy in terminology can lead to ambiguity and hinder effective communication and understanding within the policy realm. Additionally, the substitutable use of related terms can amplify the complication of the matter, making it challenging to discern specific aspects of decision-making processes (Chan et al., 2020;Tosun & Lang, 2017;Trein et al., 2023). As Righettini & Lizzi, (2022) stated "Given the prominence and ambiguity of the concept, it makes sense to dwell on the evolution, content, and most relevant analytical dimensions of the academic literature on this topic and its associated sub-topics to highlight how scientific attention toward it so far, and in order to explore systematic patterns and variations within the policy coherence literature". ...
Navigating the intricate landscape of modern governance has increasingly placed the exploration of policy mixes at the heart of political science. As governments strive to address the “wicked problems” of our time—complex, interwoven issues such as climate change, economic inequality, and public health crises—the need for effective combinations of policy instruments and actors has never been more critical. Central to this effort is the pursuit of policy coherence, which aims to align diverse policies, manage trade- offs, and prevent the pitfalls of overlapping and redundant measures that can derail even the most well- intentioned initiatives. However, despite its importance, policy coherence remains elusive, fraught with challenges in its conceptualization, measurement, and practical application. This article tackles these challenges head-on through a mixed-methods approach, blending a comprehensive review of the literature with conceptual case studies that simulate real-world policy scenarios. Our findings reveal that while qualitative methods offer valuable insights into the nuanced dynamics of policy interactions, there is a pressing need for more robust quantitative tools to accurately measure and enhance coherence across varied policy domains. Moreover, the study underscores the limitations of current approaches, particularly their dependence on extensive data and the complexities involved in capturing the full scope of policy interdependencies. By weaving together these insights, this article enriches the ongoing discourse on policy coherence and charts practical pathways for future research and policy development, with the ultimate goal of crafting more coherent and effective solutions to the world’s most intractable challenges.
... The first challenge we face here is conceptual, which concerns the panoply of concepts used to describe the nature of the intersections and interactions that arise between the components of a specific policy mix. Tosun and Lang (2017) listed around ten terms used to capture and qualify the intersectoral aspects of public policies and public actors. ...
... Following the same reasoning, Trein et al. (2023) conducted an empirical literature review of 413 articles that have addressed policy integration (concepts, theories, research design, and methods) over the past decade. Overall, the terminology was quite varied, and the authors confirmed the advances of Tosun and Lang (2017), who pointed out that policy integration is a functional equivalent for other concepts that denote a similar phenomenon. Their results show that empirical research over the last decade is increasingly converging on the term policy integration, rather than concepts that were invented earlier. ...
SMEs are characterized by a number of flaws that threaten their survival and counteract them from reaching high levels of growth and development. Access to finance is the primary problem facing these companies in the Moroccan context. Aware of the effective and potential impacts of SMEs on the country as a whole, the Moroccan Government through a variety of actors has mobilized its efforts in a number of ways to support this population of companies. This study assesses the extent to which actors within the Moroccan SMEs’ financing ecosystem align to support these companies and develop their ability to access external financing. Using the MACTOR model, based on an in-depth contextual analysis and expert interviews, our findings suggest that Morocco’s SMEs’ financing ecosystem is skewed, with high levels of convergence between its components.
... Recently, the focus in the literature has been on integration as a process that is continuously adjusted (Biesbroek, 2021;Biesbroek & Candel, 2020;Tosun & Lang, 2017). Integration begins from the policy design stage and needs to be modified and improved upon throughout the other parts of the policy process (Cejudo & Michel, 2023;Cejudo & Trein, 2023). ...
... However, integrative capacity is different from other forms of capacity as the aim is to coordinate the process of integration across multiple jurisdictions and sectors. Integrative capacity also differs from policy capacity, which is focused on a single policy area because there is a need for continuous adjustment and coherence across jurisdictions and sectors (Biesbroek, 2021;Biesbroek & Candel, 2020;Tosun & Lang, 2017). ...
An important aspect of policy integration is the need for policymakers to establish integrative capacity. However, very few scholars who refer to this concept have explained what integrative capacity is and what aspects of the policy process policymakers need to focus on to establish that capacity. In this paper, we define integrative capacity and introduce an “integrative capacity framework” that outlines key components required by public agencies to progress policy integration. Drawing on existing literature, we apply three dimensions of policy—the policy process, program, and politics—to identify where integrative capacity can occur. Within those dimensions, we identify four conditions that can impact integration: coordination and coherence; accountability, transparency, and legitimacy; resourcing and adequate institutional architecture. We argue that by unpacking the integrative capacity concept, scholars and policymakers can utilize the framework to identify what elements of the policy process need to be addressed to increase the likelihood of integrative policy success.
... "The food system is broken" has become a familiar cry (Oliver et al., 2018); without food system transformation (FST), food-related climate change and resource degradation are expected to increase up to 90% by 2050, with health outcomes projected to worsen (Rockstro¨m et al., 2020). Policy-makers and scholars recognise that policies from the twentieth century are "no longer fit for purpose" (Dengerink et al., 2022 1 ) and that a lack of policy cohesion is producing negative implications for the food system and other essential sectors, such as public health and the welfare system Slade et al., 2016;Tosun and Lang, 2017). ...
... As researchers have long been arguing, it would provide a pathway to address cross-cutting and "wicked" policy problems such as food insecurity (see, for example, Barling, 2011;Cohen and Ilieva, 2015;Candel and Pereira, 2017). In theory at least, integrated approaches are suggested to not only address "siloisation" but to also bring in new actors, locations and demands into the policy arena (Tosun and Lang, 2017). Researchers have identified a range of factors that are hampering PI. ...
Growing evidence shows that current policies are unable to catalyse the necessary transformation towards a more just and sustainable food system. Scholars argue that food policy integration-policies that unite numerous food-related actions-is required to overcome dominant siloed and fragmented approaches and to tackle environmental and economic crises. However, what is being integrated and how such integrations contribute to food system transformation remain unexplored. This paper aims to disentangle frames and approaches to food policy integration through a critical analysis of literature on integrated policies and food system transformation. Complemented by a systematic literature review for "food system" and "polic* integrat*", overlapping approaches and gaps between these literatures are revealed over the last twenty years. We use the prisms of processes ("how" food policy integration is being practiced), placement ("where" crossovers between sectors in governance institutions and where synergies between objectives can be created) and things ("what" specific aspects of the food system and related sectors exist within integrated policies and leverage points to trigger transformative dynamics) to explore how policy integration and food system transformation intersect within current debates. Our findings reveal cross-cutting themes and distinct theoretical frameworks but also identify substantial gaps, where frames of food policy integration often remain within their disciplinary silos, are ambiguous or ill-defined. We conclude that to achieve policy integration as a tool for food system transformation, a new research and policy agenda is needed that builds on diverse knowledges, critical policy approaches and the integration of food with other sectors.
... Forskningen på miljöområdet har länge betonat behovet av policyintegrering: att miljö-och klimatfrågor samordnas med andra politikområden och görs till en integrerad del av målen på dessa områden (Trein m.fl. 2019;Tosun & Lang 2017;Candel & Biesbroek 2009). Samtidigt visar den internationella forskningen på en hel del utmaningar att åstadkomma integrering: det gäller redan på policynivå och utmaningarna kan ofta vara än större i policyimplementeringen (Jordan & Leschow 2010;Biermann m.fl. ...
... It is believed that a top-down approach will not always be successful (Runhaar et al. 2014) because bottom-up and interactive dynamics are more efficient and effective. Here, two basic conceptualisations should be considered-government-centred and governance-centred approaches (Tosun and Lang 2017). For the first, as mentioned above, coordination, cooperation and political leadership are necessary, while for the latter, efficiency and effectiveness of policy implementation are crucial. ...
Lignite provides energy security and contributes economically. However, it also causes dirty outcomes in terms of climate aspect. In addition to the energy and climate dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals, there is also a water issue: lignite is usually found submerged below the local groundwater tables. Mining lignite could be exploited to achieve drinkable and agriculturally usable water. In today's literature, while the impact of lignite production on global warming and emissions are already highly discussed, the water management side of the issue is regularly omitted. However, considering the complex interlink between these three areas (the Water-Energy-Climate (WEC) nexus) is necessary within policy coherence, which is mostly ignored even though it is one of the development targets. Here in this framework, Türkiye, which aims to reduce its heavy dependency on energy imports, is worth studying because almost all of its coal, the country's largest fossil resource, is lignite. Therefore, this study examines the WEC nexus related to lignite production and combustion and seeks policy coherence between their outputs in the context of Türkiye's historical steps to climate change mitigation, specifically oriented with the Paris Agreement. This story expands from the absence of specific development policy objectives to the practicalities of politics and economics.
... " [56] Candel and Biesbroek describe integration as a process in which "constituent elements are brought together and made subject to a single, unifying conception. " [57] Tosun and Lang extend this to suggest that "certain domains take policy goals of other, arguably adjacent, domains into account, " [58] thereby creating "interdependencies between different policy sectors and [then coordinating] these. " Thus, another aspect of normative convergence may be indicated by interdependency, evidenced through increased interlinkages with an awareness of cross-sectoral implications. ...
Background
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work underscored the importance of mitigating health emergencies while ensuring accessible and affordable health services. Central to these efforts are global health security (GHS) and universal health coverage (UHC), which act both as standalone goals and as cross-cutting approaches to health policy and practice. While GHS and UHC each operate as distinct norms, global health stakeholders increasingly advocate for advancing them synergistically to address interconnected health challenges amid limited resources. However, the current extent of alignment between GHS and UHC remains unclear, especially post-COVID-19. This qualitative study assesses normative convergence between GHS and UHC by tracing their development through iterative draft texts across two major international health negotiations – specifically examining how UHC norms are expressed in the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and how GHS norms are expressed in the 2023 UNGA Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage.
Results
UHC was promoted in the WHO Pandemic Agreement through three closely-associated discourse themes (rights-based narratives, equity frames, focus on social determinants of health) and three closely-associated core functions (accessible and affordable health commodities, prioritizing vulnerable populations, primary health care approach). Meanwhile, GHS was reciprocally promoted in the 2023 UHC Political Declaration through three related discourse themes (existential threat narratives, resilience frames, focus on infectious diseases) and three related core functions (outbreak preparedness, health emergency response, One Health approach).
Conclusions
The findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic created a policy window uniquely-positioned to accelerate normative convergence between GHS and UHC. Both international agreements advanced convergence by demonstrating increased complementarity and interdependency between the two norms through the co-promotion of their underlying features. However, negotiators agreed to political and operational trade-offs which made it difficult to sustain progress. This study provides a nuanced account of how global health norms evolve through integration in complex policy environments – finding that normative convergence may not always be explicit, but rather implicit through incremental linkages in their underlying discourse and core functions. This research contributes to pragmatic efforts by global health actors seeking consensus amidst an era of polycrisis, and highlights the importance of navigating geopolitics and overcoming path dependencies. It also deepens scholarly understanding on how ‘hybrid norms’ develop through the dynamic process of normative convergence via diplomacy.
... In tourism, Becken et al. (2020) stressed that addressing complex climate challenges requires policy integration, and Cury et al. (2023) presented similar findings in the context of sport. Policy integration relates to cooperation and coordination between actors and policy making in different domains (Tosun & Lang, 2017). This paper considers policy integration between event and climate adaptation domains at local government level as a crucial step towards understanding how government and the event industry might work together. ...
Climate change poses unique challenges for the event industry, yet the industry and its key stakeholders have been slow to acknowledge the need to adapt. In Australia, local governments play an important role in event and climate change policy making. This research assessed local government event and climate policy integration in Queensland, Australia, as the state seeks to grow its visitor economy ahead of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Policies from seven local governments were analysed. We found no evidence of policy integration. While local governments envisioned using events for public engagement to increase climate literacy, the event industry appeared overlooked as a necessary site for adaptation. Yet opportunities to create connections between these misaligned policy domains were evident. Findings suggest local governments can support event adaptation through mainstreaming of climate concerns across event-related policy areas, including economic development and community resilience. ARTICLE HISTORY
... It has led to a highly compartmentalized approach in land use policies that separates agriculture for food production not only from forestry but also from interlinked objectives such as climate change mitigation or adaptation, biodiversity conservation, or public health (Candel and Biesbroek, 2016;Nilsson and Weitz, 2019;Biesbroek and Candel, 2020). This compartmentalization also inhibits effective policy integration and coherence, key concepts when attempting to address complex systems and their respective actors, disciplines and ideologies (Tosun and Lang, 2017;Runhaar et al., 2014). ...
Agroforestry is receiving renewed interest due to its highly diversified, multifunctional nature. With a long history and roots in many indigenous farming systems, agroforestry offers a ‘win-win’ for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, on-farm profitability, resilience, and social wellbeing. However, the re-integration of trees on farms goes against the previous decades’ push for de-mixing, intensifying, and simplifying production methods, and farmer uptake remains low. As understanding and support for more integrated, complex farming systems builds, an enabling policy landscape is needed. This narrative policy review considers policies for agroforestry across four ‘continental’ regions: the EU, India, Brazil, and the United States. Using an agroecological framework, we explore the content, development, objectives, and alignment of both direct and indirect policies to provide insight into: how policies for agroforestry are currently framed; their development process; and, whether over-lapping and interconnected policy objectives are included. We find that policies for agroforestry are increasing gradually, but are typically confined to an agronomic understanding, with limited inclusion of the socio-political aspects of food and farming. Except in Brazil, policies appear to be narrow in scope, with few stakeholders included in their development. Policies do not challenge the status quo of the dominant corporate agri-food system and appear to miss the transformative potential of agroforestry. We recommend: greater coordination of policy instruments to achieve co-benefits; focused integration of agricultural and climate policies; greater inclusion of diverse stakeholders in policy development; and a widening of agroforestry systems’ objectives, both in policy and practice.
... Designing FRM policies that integrate engineering and social concerns requires collaboration and coordination between the two strategies, drawing attention to the importance of policy integration. Policy integration refers to the cooperation of actors from different domains (Tosun & Lang, 2017). The concept departs from the assumption that measures emerging from one area of expertise are more likely to fail, due to the complexity of societal problems (Howlett & Ramesh, 2014). ...
Flood risks worldwide are rising and it is increasingly recognised that the impacts of floods are not neutral. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics determine people's capacity to deal with flood events. These differences in social vulnerability to floods need to be considered in flood risk management (FRM) to prevent the most vulnerable groups from being disproportionately impacted. However, due to a diversification of FRM strategies and the involvement of various policy domains, the experts working on FRM are no longer a homogeneous group. Where FRM was previously dominated by engineers, now various experts are involved that have different disciplinary backgrounds, knowledge bases and approaches to FRM. As a result, they also differ in their recognition of social vulnerability to floods. In this paper, we explore the different types of knowledge and expertise in FRM in three countries (England, Flanders and France), focussing on the strategies of flood defence and flood risk prevention. We characterise the epistemic communities supporting the domains and study to what extent experts differ in their recognition of social vulnerability to floods. We also dive into the mechanisms employed to stimulate integration between experts and consider the extent to which this integration can strengthen recognition justice.
... Elements of the institutional literature examine related themes, particularly those concerned with multilevel governance and the authority structures arising from the distribution of decision-making powers between tiers of governance and the expression of power through policy ordering in jurisdictions like the European Union (Heinen et al., 2022;Jänicke, 2017;Jordan, 2001;Jordan et al., 2013;Piattoni, 2009). The environmental and climate policy integration literatures (Jordan and Lenschow 2010;Lafferty and Hovden 2003;Tosun and Lang 2017) similarly consider the institutional and economic challenges of incorporating environmental principles and policies into other policy areas (Skagen and Boasson 2024). However, this research has been mostly concerned with how institutional 'nesting' links policy relationships to actor behaviour and is seen by some as offering somewhat 'rational-comprehensive' and idealised portrayals of policy relationships (Ishii & Langhelle, 2011). ...
How functional relationships between policies influence policy design and policy change has received relatively limited attention within public policy scholarship despite the importance of policy coordination. This article contributes to addressing this gap by introducing the Anchoring Policies Perspective (APP), a framework for analysing interactions between policies in functional policy hierarchies. The APP examines how formal links between anchoring policies (AP) and functionally subordinate policies (SP) generate anchoring effects, whereby the provisions codified in APs generate alignment pressures that channel the design of SPs towards the norms and goals of the AP. In the article, we examine the analytical contribution of the APP by analysing the distinguishing characteristics of APs, the mechanisms through which APs influence SP introduction and design, and political strategies for managing situations where resistance occurs to the alignment of SPs with their APs. Examples from environmental and energy policy are used to illustrate key features of the AP-SP relationship, following which the APP’s contribution to public policy scholarship is discussed. We conclude by arguing that the APP has the potential to bring important new insights to the analysis of policy change while building connections with established theories of policy change to develop the APP framework further.
... Mainstreaming refers to attempts to make administrative departments consider these issues and take responsibility for addressing them in their operations. Mainstreaming is sometimes used interchangeably with policy integration (Nunan et al., 2012), a concept that likewise highlights attempts at overcoming the institutional differentiation of the policy system through crosscutting strategies (Scott et al., 2022, p. 203;Tosun & Lang, 2017). However, we note that the analytical focus of policy integration is on policy content, such as policy problems, goals, and means (Bornemann, 2016), while mainstreaming is about the organizational and procedural conditions of policy-making (Nunan et al., 2012). ...
Public administrations must change toward sustainability to play a meaningful role in sustainable policy‐making. However, little is known about how and why sustainability‐oriented change unfolds in public administrations. This article aims to advance conceptual and empirical knowledge by examining sustainability mainstreaming through sustainability offices (SO) as a specific type of sustainability‐oriented administrative change. Based on a framework that distinguishes modes and mechanisms of mainstreaming, the article provides qualitative insights into how SO in five Swiss cantons shape the work of their respective administrations toward sustainability. The case comparison suggests that sustainability mainstreaming is most transformative when committed SO address a combination of institutional, ideational, and agency‐related factors through their activities. These findings highlight the critical role of SO in sustainability‐oriented administrative change and lay the groundwork for developing targeted strategies to enhance their effectiveness in mainstreaming sustainability.
... This involves actions aimed at older adults more broadly but also measures that target marginalized older adults. Ideally, governments would seek policy integration, a term commonly used in health policy, to create synergies through the development of policy processes to enact common goals and objectives across organizations (Tosun & Lang, 2017). However, this is not realistic when it comes to programs and policies aiding and supporting marginalized older adults due to the sheer volume of governmental actions and the multiplicity of policy actors who do not always share similar goals and values. ...
Background and Objectives
Coordination of governmental action is crowded with policies and programs that are highly interdependent, sometimes operating in silos if not contradicting each other. These dilemmas, or administrative quagmires, are heightened for older adults in general, but they are particularly problematic for marginalized older adults because these groups often require public assistance and support. This scoping review studies the coordination of governmental action on aging published in social science journals, focusing on six groups of marginalized older adults: those with histories of immigration, individuals with severe mental health problems, those who have had experiences of homelessness, formerly incarcerated individuals, members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, and individuals living in a rural area.
Research Design and Methods
A five-stage scoping review methodology was followed, and 53 articles (published between 2000-2022) from five social science databases were analyzed.
Results
The analysis revealed a limited number of contributions with coordination as a primary focus. Understandings of coordination varied, but tended to examine structure, organization, and relationships between sectors. When coordination was the primary object of a study, it was often analysed in one specific policy area or within a clinical setting along the lines of facilitating care coordination.
Discussion and Implications
This scoping review reveals a mutual neglect on the part of public administration and policy scholars towards marginalized older adults, and a lack of public administration considerations on the part of scholars studying long-term care and social service programs for these marginalized older adults.
... In policy research, scholars have started to address cross-cutting or 'trans-subsystem' policy challenges such as climate change or migration, widening the focus from single subsystems to interactions among several subsystems (Jones & Jenkins-Smith, 2009;Meckling & Goedeking, 2023;Milhorance et al., 2021;Reber et al., 2022). The literature on policy integration discusses multiple subsystems and sectors (Candel & Biesbroek, 2016;Kefeli et al., 2023;Tosun & Lang, 2017;Trein et al., 2023). Policy research has studied multiple issues, multiple-policy subsystems, an integration of instruments from multiple policy sectors, or actors engaging in multiple debates (Brandenberger et al., 2022;Hedlund et al., 2021;Leifeld et al., 2022). ...
Grand sustainability challenges span multiple sectors and fields of policymaking. Novel technologies that respond to these challenges may trigger the emergence of new policy subsystems at the intersection of established sectors. We develop a framework that addresses the complexities of ‘multi-system settings.’ Empirically, we explore belief and coalition formation in the nascent policy subsystem around hydrogen technologies in Germany, which emerges at the intersection of electricity, transport, heating, and industry and is characterised by a broad range of actors from different sectoral backgrounds. We find two coalitions: a rather unusual coalition of actors from industry, NGOs, and research institutes as well as an expectable coalition of gas and heat sector actors. Actors disagree over production, application, and import standards for hydrogen. However, there is widespread support for hydrogen and for a strong role of the state across almost all actors. We explain our findings by combining insights from the advocacy coalition framework and politics of transitions: Belief and coalition formation in a nascent subsystem are influenced by sectoral backgrounds of actors, technology characteristics, as well as trust and former contacts. Our study contributes to a better understanding of early stages of coalition formation in a multi-system setting.
... With policy integration Candel and Biesbroek (2016) refer to the involvement of and interaction between multiple policy sectors; the presence of integrated and coherent policy objectives; and a coherent mix of policy instruments. We can make a further distinction between internal and external integration: internal refers to the integration between different water domains (freshwater, flood risk management and water quality) and external integration between water domains and other domains (such as nature, agriculture and spatial planning) (Candel & Biesbroek, 2016;Tosun & Lang, 2017) The ambition of policy integration in water policy has a long history and is referred to in the Second Memorandum on water management (1984) as "integrated management for the benefit of the various functions". The Memorandum on Dealing with Water (1985) introduces the water system approach and the Third Memorandum on Water Management (1989) explicitly adds external integration in the form of integrated water management that "looks beyond the boundaries of one's own policy area". ...
Dutch water governance is world famous. It to a large extent determines the global public image of the Netherlands, with its windmills, polders, dikes and dams, and eternal fight against the water, symbolized by the engineering marvel of the Delta Works. Dutch water governance has a history that dates back to the eleventh century. Since the last 200 years, water governance has however undergone significant changes. Key events are Napoleonic rule, land reclamation projects, the Big Flood of 1953, the Afsluitdijk and the impoldering of the former Southern Sea, the ecological turn in water management and the more integrated approach of "living with water". In the current anthropocentric age, climate change presents a key challenge for Dutch water governance, as a country that for a large part is situated below sea-level and is prone to flooding. The existing Dutch water governance system is multi-level, publicly financed and strongly decentralized. The responsibilities for water management are shared between the national government and Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management, provinces, regional water authorities, and municipalities. Besides these governmental layers, the Delta Commissioner is specifically designed to stimulate a forward-looking view when it comes to water management and climate change. With the Delta Commissioner and Delta Programme, the Netherlands aims to become a climate-resilient and water-robust country in 2050. Robustness, adaptation, coordination, integration, and democratization are key ingredients of a future-proof water governance arrangement that can support a climate-resilient Dutch delta. In recent years, the Netherlands already has been confronted with many climate extremes and will need to transform its water management system to better deal with floods but even more so for dealing with droughts and sea-level rise. The latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change show that more adaptive measures are needed. Such measures also require a stronger coordination between governmental levels, sectors, policies and infrastructure investments. Furthermore, preparing for the future also requires engagement and integration with other challenges, such as the energy transition, nature conservation and circular economy. To contribute to sustainability goals related to the energy transition and circular economy, barriers for technical innovation and changes to institutionalized responsibilities will need to be further analysed and lifted. To govern for the longer term, current democratic institutions may not always be up to the task. Experiments with deliberative forms of democracy and novel ideas to safeguard the interests of future generations are to be further tested and researched to discover their potential for securing a more long-term oriented and integrated approach in water governance.
... As can be seen, the above-mentioned literature barely mentions which organizational capacities are needed to be able to achieve integration and /or coordination of agents/instruments/policies/actions. Furthermore, even though under the label of government-centered approaches some studies point to the institutional and organizational dimensions of governments 42 , not many engage with its measurement. For instance, they mention the importance of coordinating agencies, but they do not usually examine whether they have the administrative and organizational capacity to do so [26][27][28]43 . ...
How to address a “super wicked problem” like climate change is not only a policy sciences discussion but also a public administration one. Surprisingly, climate change has received little attention from the public administration field and public policy literature has given marginal attention to the role of the state apparatus in climate action. Especially, at the local level where it is crucial to address most of the adaptation agenda. This a serious problem since Latin America faces an especially challenging situation since the organizational capacity at the local level in the public sector is poor. State apparatuses with a low organizational capacity to process the complexity of certain public policies may distort and even ruin well-designed climate policies. Furthermore, empirical research on the role of public administrations in addressing climate change at the local level, despite its importance, remains extremely limited. Much of the discussion focuses on the design of policies to achieve this goal. If the organizational capacity of the agencies of the state is built only around specific policies to address very local challenges, we will miss the fact that they are tied up with systemic and intractable organizational practices and capacities. To examine the organizational capacity at the Latin American public sector local level to address climate challenges is as important as designing technically accurate policies and the debate on state capacity can shed light on how to do so. Finally, this article aims to open an agenda for research and a claim for local action.
... Finally, literature on policy integration argues that the cross-sectoral and multidimensional nature of social policy (Sen, 2006) requires holistic approaches in policy formulation and implementation to reduce uncertainty and conflict (Candel & Biesbroek, 2016;Cejudo & Michel, 2017;Tosun & Lang, 2017). Policy integration is intended not only to guarantee coherence in formulating policy mixes but also to engage relevant stakeholders across sectors and at various government levels in the policymaking process. ...
Addressing current socio-economic crises strains public budgets and may threaten fiscal sustainability. Particularly in the welfare sector, where high expenditures meet poor controllability, efficient resource usage is essential to ensure future governments’ capability to act while alleviating current problems. Consequently, this paper asks: why are some countries more efficient in translating social expenditure into welfare outcomes? To answer this question, it is argued that efficiency is a matter of institutional structures and their vertical policy-process integration (VPI): efficiency depends on institutional structures’ capability to (1) ensure policymakers’ responsibility and to (2) provide coordinated feedback, thus pushing for considerate and informed resource use. Analysing the effect of VPI on the relationship between welfare efforts and social outcomes in 21 OECD countries over three decades, the results show that VPI can not only turn ‘less’ into ‘more’, but it also compensates for performance losses in the face of spending cuts.
... Policy Coherence (PC) and Policy Integration (PI) are not synonyms, yet the two terms are often used interchangeably (Tosun and Lang, 2017). To overcome such confusion, several definitions have been written, allowing to reach some consensus on their distinction. ...
Multiple scholars in the last two decades have called for a coherent and integrated approach to food policy to address the challenges of the current food systems. Food Policy Coherence and Integration (PCI) are both challenging, as food matters are addressed at more than one level of governance and across several policy domains. Moreover, the analysis of food PCI has been carried out with different methodologies, but no reviews of such methodologies exist in the literature. Thus, the objective of the present study is to fill this gap, by reviewing which research methods were used to assess food PCI. The research adopts a bibliometric methodological approach to develop a quantitative network analysis of the identified studies and content analysis. Data collection was performed on Web of Science and Scopus including exclusively scientific articles from peer-reviewed journals. A total of 35 articles published since 2006 were included in the analysis. The main topics addressed were health and nutrition policies, followed by food security and agriculture. A variety of methods were used to assess Coherence and Integration. The first methodological phase often aimed at creating a policy inventory, followed by a second methodological phase to assess PCI. Some studies used interviews to identify the relevant policies and to comment on them. Other studies carried out PCI assessment relying on researchers’ expertise. To conclude, food PCI studies choose from a variety of methodologies the one that better fits their aims.
Background The pursuit of policymaking integration and policy coherence represents the ultimate gap between aspiration and reality. Policy processes are too fragmented to produce coherent policies to address complex problems. Whole-of-government and joined-up-government are popular buzzwords that struggle for meaning and traction. How can policymakers and researchers address this problem? I searched multiple academic literatures for advice on policy coherence via policymaking integration. Methods A qualitative systematic review of 705 academic journal articles identified in two systematic reviews on ‘whole-of-government and joined-up government’ (WG/JUG, 340) and ‘policy integration’ (PI, 413), and snowballed texts in academic and grey literatures (65) (net total 770). I searched each text for advice on how to foster policymaking integration in the service of policy coherence. I used an immersive inductive approach, and policy theory insights, to identify common themes. Results Most accounts describe aspirations for integration and coherence. Few describe substantive progress. The literature describes requirements for integration and coherence and inevitable or routine policymaking barriers . This comparison of barriers and facilitators helps to inform a realistic approach, to combine managed expectations and practical advice. Conclusions Five themes of practical advice connect aspiration to limited progress. Explain what policymaking integration means, since a rhetorical commitment means nothing. Identify your rationale, model, and theory of change. Engage with trade-offs between top-down and bottom-up conceptions of policy coherence. Explain why the pursuit of integration has advantages over a reasonable alternative, such as specialisation. Learn about facilitators from studies of success and barriers from studies of failure. These lessons help to clarify your aims, connect them to routine government business, and ensure capacity to deliver. If this advice seems obvious, we should reflect on its lack of traction when governments lack the willingness and ability to follow it.
Complex societal challenges, such as climate change and environmental degradation, are encumbered by numerous interdependences across different policy issues. Coordination of interdependent policy issues is thus critical. However, coordination challenges persist, partly because coordinating interdependent policy issues among actors often involves high costs. While network governance literature often advocates for management strategies that steer the coordination between actors, little is known about what specific strategies can stimulate the emergence of collaborative relationships suitable for coordination of interdependent policy issues. To address this gap, we develop a typology of four different strategies operationalized as network motifs. We present a simulation modeling approach using Exponential Random Graph Models to evaluate if the identified network strategies facilitate actor coordination of interdependent policy issues and demonstrate the method on empirical data from water governance in Sweden. Results show that coordination of interdependent policy issues is enhanced by shared responsibilities, efforts to broaden expertise, and consideration of issue interdependencies in the search for collaborators. Results show less support for effective coordination of interdependent policy issues through a network manager. Taken together, the paper contributes both theoretical and methodological developments relevant for evaluating progress on coordination of interdependent policy issues and improving network interventions.
Bürokratieabbau und Bürokratiekritik sind seit Jahrzehnten ein Lieblingsthema der deutschen innenpolitischen Debatten und werden in letzter Zeit wieder zunehmend intensiver und hektischer diskutiert. Da dabei die immer gleichen Stereotypen bedient und Lösungen vorgeschlagen werden, und unter Bürokratieabbau alle möglichen Konzepte verstandenwerden, stellt sich die Frage, was die Policy Forschung zu dieser Debatte beitragen kann, denn im Kern geht es immer um Formulierung und Implementierung von Policies, und dabei betrifft Bürokratieabbau nicht nur das Innenleben, sondern gerade die Außenwirkung von Politik und Verwaltung. Der Beitrag argumentiert, dass dieses Thema im Mainstream der Policy Forschung weitgehend ignoriert wird, und skizziert, welche Bereiche der Policy Forschung – von Implementation über Regulierung, Design, Tools, Styles, Integration bis Policy Growth – Debatten zu Umfang, Ursachen und Auswirkungen von Bürokratisierung informieren könnten. Bürokratieabbau, zumindest in der derzeit vorherrschenden Perzeption, ist für die Stärkung demokratischer Institutionen und deren Legitimation kaum die richtige Antwort. Policy- und Verwaltungsforschung sind gefordert, sich gemeinsam dieser ewigen und verwirrten Debatte anzunehmen.
The main aim of the research was to attempt to ascertain how gender mainstreaming (GM) global public policy (GPP) could possibly disguise other inequities. The report provides initially a background on the main subjects related to the aim, how these are interrelated, and provides some of the preliminary matters that concern gender, GM and how GM GPP may disguise inequities. The report then provides a context which, along with the background, sets the scene for the research. This is followed by the main findings derived from literature, sources of secondary data and information, cases, and personal experiences. The report then concludes that GM GPP does disguise inequities to a much greater degree, but this being more a question of degree than an absolute.
Public policy scholars have long agreed that the coordination of policies involving different authorities and policy frameworks is challenging. This paper responds to recent calls to explore new empirical methods for studying policy coordination by integrating automated text analysis into the workflow of human experts. A key contribution of our approach is a quantitative indicator of the semantic alignment between different policy objectives. We critically review the performance of the indicator in terms of its ability to assess both horizontal and vertical policy coordination by analysing the Recovery and Resilience Plan (2021–26) and the national and regional Smart Specialization Strategies (2021–27) in Portugal. Based on this exercise, we reflect on the necessary conditions for the successful implementation of automated text analysis of policy documents as well as its potential in other empirical settings.
Background: Effective public health policy implementation is crucial for improving population health outcomes; however, existing research in dissemination and implementation (D&I) science has largely overlooked the role of health administration technicians in this process. Despite the impact of policies on health, studies examining the execution of such policies are limited. Aim: This review seeks to identify and evaluate quantitative measures used to assess health policy implementation outcomes and determinants, filling a significant gap in the current literature. Methods: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, utilizing various academic databases to gather empirical studies that evaluated public health policy implementation from 1995 to 2019. The review analyzed 70 measures of implementation outcomes and determinants, focusing on their psychometric and pragmatic quality. Results: The analysis revealed that fidelity/compliance and acceptability were the most frequently assessed implementation outcomes, while readiness for implementation was the most common determinant. Only a small number of measures assessed cost implications, indicating a potential area for further research. Conclusion: Findings underscore the need for robust quantitative measures to accurately assess health policy implementation. The systematic review contributes to understanding how health administration technicians can effectively support policy execution, enhancing overall public health outcomes.
The gender change is legally permitted by Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, where the use of self-perception for the gender change remains controversial. The self-perception relevance, suitablility and coherence has the legal policy impact on the future of transgender act.This qualitative research using semi-structured interviews is conducted,as part of policy evaluation with the thematic analysis through NVivo software showing implementation of self-perception test lacking coherency and relevancy. The results highligted that socio-cultural, biological conditions, Islamic injunctions and principles as the main considerations that all parties consider before permitting gender change.Future research on evaluation of the self-perception identity is recommended.
Background
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work (2019–2023) underscored the importance of mitigating health emergencies alongside ensuring accessible and affordable health services. Key to these efforts are global health security (GHS) and universal health coverage (UHC), which serve as both standalone goals as well as cross-cutting approaches to health policy and practice. While GHS and UHC each function as distinct norms, global health stakeholders increasingly argue that advancing them synergistically may better address interconnected health challenges amidst greater resource constraints. However, little is understood about the extent of convergence between GHS and UHC norms, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study assesses normative convergence between GHS and UHC by tracing their development through iterative draft texts across two recent international health negotiations – specifically unpacking the expression of UHC norms in the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and GHS norms in the 2023 UNGA Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage.
Results
The findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic created a policy window uniquely-positioned to foster normative convergence between GHS and UHC. Both international agreements advanced GHS and UHC convergence by demonstrating increased complementarity and interdependency between the two norms. However, sustaining this proved difficult, as negotiators made political and operational trade-offs which sometimes undermined normative convergence.
Conclusions
This study provides a nuanced account of how global health norms evolve through integration in complex policy environments – finding that normative convergence may not always be explicit, but rather implicit through incremental linkages in their underlying discourse and core functions. This research contributes to pragmatic efforts by global health actors seeking consensus amidst an era of polycrisis, and highlights the importance of navigating geopolitics and overcoming path dependencies. It also enhances scholarly understanding of the dynamic process of norm convergence through health diplomacy.
Critical to achieving the global net zero objective, transport transitions require multi-domain policies to coordinate and cohere. Different policy domains involve actors with diverse priorities and perspectives, complicating coordination. Policy coordination is particularly challenging for the Global South governments given their dependence for external financial and technological resources, and weaker institutions. Drawing on transport transition and policy coordination literature, this research studied the low-emission transport policies of Dhaka City, Bangladesh from 2000 to 2021. The study found that policy frameworks and institutional arrangements were established to enable local and global actors (development partners) to coordinate to support transport transitions. The development partners were engaged in mobilizing resources, transferring low-emission transport technologies and local capacity development. However, these policies were focused on politically prioritized supply-side solutions (e.g. metro-rail), without sufficient coherence with land use and housing policies. Also, they did not adequately consider local need-based low-emission transport alternatives such as walking and cycling; unintended policy effects and boundary-spanning challenges. Based on the findings, we propose codified and reflexive policy coordination concepts to describe discrete but mutually reinforcing mechanisms to support effective policy coordination. Codified coordination is enacted by formal policy frameworks and institutional arrangements and reflexive coordination is by formal evaluation of policy interventions. This framework proposes a new approach to examine coordination between multi-domain policies that are required to cohere to advance transport transitions. In practice, it can potentially guide the adoption of coordinated policies to drive transport transitions.
Governmental organizations face the challenge to integrate different sectoral policy perspectives and interests to deal effectively with the wicked issues of late-modern societies. This article delves into attempts of governmental organizations to realize such integrated policies and unravels the intra-organizational dynamics of collaborating on policy integration.
Based on two in-depth case studies from The Netherlands, one focusing on public transport for specific target groups in the city of Rotterdam and the other focusing on a national policy program for criminal youth groups, we show how attempts at policy integration take place in the periphery of bureaucracies by temporary program teams. After the abolishment of the program team, the integrated policy easily volatilizes because of the lack of foothold and ownership in the line organization. Ironically, policy integration becomes a differentiated activity in the margins of public organizations rather than a joint exercise of sectoral organizational units.
We present three explanatory hypotheses of this dynamic of marginalization. First, from a system-psychodynamic perspective, the line organization and the program team maintain distance from each other to reduce the tensions that are inherent in policy integration. Second, from an institutional perspective, the line organization marginalizes policy integration to protect their sectoral and vested interests. Third, from an innovation perspective, however, innovative policy integration does need the margins of organizations to protect itself against conservative reflexes from bureaucracies at risk of becoming marginalized and alienated. To facilitate a productive dynamic of policy integration in governmental organizations, this article concludes with providing the components for such an organizational design.
Income, education, employment, and housing conditions are key determinants of energy poverty. Recent studies have also highlighted the role of ethnicity and race. The current study analyzed data from a survey of 1274 social-aid recipients in Israel, with the objectives of firstly, delineating disparities in personal and household characteristics, along with energy poverty experiences, between the two principal ethnic groups in Israel – Jews and Arab-Muslims; and secondly, investigating the relationship between belonging to an ethnic minority and the relative severity of energy poverty experiences, while accounting for the aforementioned determinants. The findings reveal striking ethnic disparities related to energy poverty, even when controlling for income and education. Compared with Jewish households, Arab-Muslim households were twice as likely to experience severe energy poverty, which manifested in higher rates of self-reported electricity disconnections and the need to forgo cooling, heating, and other essentials due to the inability to pay electricity bills. In addition to ethnicity, poor housing conditions, unpaid financial commitments, and aid dependency were significantly associated with energy poverty. The discussion highlights the historical, social and structural contexts, which may account for such disparities. Within Israeli society, Arab-Muslim households confront multifaceted challenges stemming from enduring discrimination as well as cultural barriers. Persistent inequalities in planning and housing leads to unsafe electricity connections and distrust in the state's institutions; ill-adapted banking and finance systems hinder payment flexibility and debt resolution; and language and cultural obstacles limit access to social rights and increase aid dependency. We conclude that tackling energy poverty demands an integrated understanding of these issues and the design of policies that bridge the gap between energy and welfare services.
This review examines the promises and pitfalls of multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) for sustainable development. We take stock of the literature on the creation, effectiveness, and legitimacy of MSPs and focus on recent research on MSPs committed to achieving the 2030 Agenda and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda conceives of MSPs as vehicles to achieve large-scale sustainability transformations. Yet, research on MSPs under earlier sustainable development initiatives found that they had limited effectiveness and significant legitimacy deficits. We show that recent research on SDG partnerships suggests they reproduce many of the shortcomings of their predecessors and so are unlikely to foster synergies and minimize trade-offs between areas of sustainable development to deliver transformations on a global scale. We also examine recent research on the prospects of governing MSPs to enhance accountability and ensure better institutional designs for achieving transformations, highlighting challenges arising from international political contestation.
Mapping the roles of various actors involved in handling a pandemic is significant for effective policy integration. It helps clarify each actor’s authority, the coordination level and the interaction patterns formed. This emergence of COVID-19 as a cross-sectoral issue necessitates involvement from numerous actors, given its impact produces trade-offs in the health, social and economic sectors, thereby rendering a balance in its implementation imperative. In the context of the pandemic, swift and appropriate policy integration and collaboration between industries are essential to address its broad and complex impact. This study aims to identify prominent actors in handling the pandemic by employing social network analysis (SNA) supported by the Socio-Technogram Network to map the actor centrality in the network structure for handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Bandung City. The findings reveal that policy actors in the health sector had the highest centrality in handling COVID-19 in Bandung City, mainly due to the significant involvement of non-human factors regulated mostly by the Health Agency. Therefore, ensuring stability in the health system is pivotal to successfully handling COVID-19 in Bandung City.
Metropolisation and globalisation have had a significant influence on space and development, both in terms of the physical and social aspects of the environment. Metropolitan areas have become engines of development, centres of economic activity, innovation, and culture, attracting people and businesses from all over the world. However, this concentration of people and activities has also resulted in significant challenges concerning management of their sustainable development. Most of today’s challenges are spread across administrative borders and working at the level of the metropolitan area can help develop innovative solutions that benefit the wider functional urban areas. Many of the problems faced by territories cut across sectors and effective solutions require an integrated approach to managing the development of functional urban areas (FUAs) and cooperation between the various authorities and stakeholders involved. The aim of this study is to evaluate the degree to which an integrated approach to development management is used in the management of metropolitan areas in Slovenia. The research focuses on FUAs of Ljubljana and Maribor. The results show that policy makers understand the need for integrated planning and management on a supralocal level. Local authorities commonly cooperate with each other using legitimate forms of institutionalising inter-municipal cooperation.
The gender change is legally permitted by Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, where the use of self-perception for the gender change remains controversial. The self-perception relevance, suitablility and coherence has the legal policy impact on the future of transgender act.This qualitative research using semi-structured interviews is conducted,as part of policy evaluation with the thematic analysis through NVivo software showing implementation of self-perception test lacking coherency and relevancy. The results highligted that socio-cultural, biological conditions, Islamic injunctions and principles as the main considerations that all parties consider before permitting gender change.Future research on evaluation of the self-perception identity is recommended.
This chapter recognises the lack of published research on cultural and creative industries (CCI) policymaking that allows for comparative studies and introduces to policy research and a framework for understanding the development of CCI policymaking in Europe. The chapter briefly describes the scope of policy research and then discusses some matters in the multidisciplinary field of policy research that are central to CCI policymaking, such as cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination and policy integration. The chapter then presents the theoretical framework of the empirical analyses of later chapters, the policy regime perspective. This framework is effectively a type of comparative-historical analysis framework and allows analysis of central ideas, interests and institutional arrangements in a policy as well as analysis of policy legitimacy, coherence and durability over time.
Addressing the ‘wicked problem’ of nutrient pollution requires coordinated policies spanning across diverse sectors and environmental systems. Using a case study of Canadian legislation, we apply semantic network analysis to identify thematic links across an inventory of 245 nutrient-related policies. Our analysis identifies twelve topics with unique types of connections across multiple facets of Canadian society. ‘Hub’ policies include broad environmental protection, land use planning, and climate-related legislation with close ties to multiple other topics. ‘Bridge’ policies create connections among otherwise disconnected topics in the network, representing opportunities to inform new policy proposals. Some legislation, such as food processing regulations, indirectly relates to nutrient use but could inform policy integration towards more coordinated and holistic nutrient management across the food system. A computational text network approach can be useful for addressing challenges in complex policy analysis, including by identifying unique entry points to guide more cross-cutting nutrient policy development.
Drawing on an in-depth analysis of eight global health networks, a recent essay in this journal argued that global health networks face four challenges to their effectiveness: problem definition, positioning, coalition-building, and governance. While sharing the argument of the essay concerned, in this commentary, we argue that these analytical concepts can be used to explicate a concept that has implicitly been used in global health governance scholarship for quite a few years. While already prominent in the discussion of climate change governance, for instance, global health governance scholarship could make progress by looking at global health governance as being polycentric. Concisely, polycentric forms of governance mix scales, mechanisms, and actors. Drawing on the essay, we propose a polycentric approach to the study of global health governance that incorporates coalition-building tactics, internal governance and global political priority as explanatory factors.
Global health networks, webs of individuals and organizations with a shared concern for a particular condition, have proliferated over the past quarter century. They differ in their effectiveness, a factor that may help explain why resource allocations vary across health conditions and do not correspond closely with disease burden. Drawing on findings from recently concluded studies of eight global health networks—addressing alcohol harm, early childhood development (ECD), maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, pneumonia, surgically-treatable conditions, tobacco use, and tuberculosis—I identify four challenges that networks face in generating attention and resources for the conditions that concern them. The first is problem definition: generating consensus on what the problem is and how it should be addressed. The second is positioning: portraying the issue in ways that inspire external audiences to act. The third is coalition-building: forging alliances with these external actors, particularly ones outside the health sector. The fourth is governance: establishing institutions to facilitate collective action. Research indicates that global health networks that effectively tackle these challenges are more likely to garner support to address the conditions that concern them. In addition to the effectiveness of networks, I also consider their legitimacy, identifying reasons both to affirm and to question their right to exert power.
This paper analyzes the institutional coevolution of policy sectors – in other words, the mutual influence and adaptation of the institutional connection between related policy areas. The article proposes a two-dimensional analytical space ranging from separation to unity on one axis and from superiority/subaltern to equality on the other. The paper argues that the overall governance framework behind the coevolving sectors affects the institutional relationship between the sectors. In its empirical part, the paper focuses on the health care and public health sectors. Based on a comparative historical examination of three countries with different health care systems – Australia, Germany, and the United States – the paper shows that health care and public health coevolve differently depending on the type of national health care system. Further research can transfer the concepts introduced in this article to the analysis of other policy challenges, such as immigration or environmental protection.
A fresh perspective on policy-making and planning has emerged which views disproportionate policy as an intentional policy response. A disproportionate policy response is understood to be a lack of ‘fit’ or balance between the costs of a public policy and the benefits that are derived from this policy, and between policy ends and means. This paper applies this new perspective on the proportionality of policy-making to the area of climate change. The first part of the paper discusses the underlying causes of disproportionate policy responses in broad terms and then applies the theoretical reasoning to understand the conditions in which they are likely to appear in relation to climate change. These conditions are hypothesized to relate to four main factors: economic considerations; levels of public demand; focusing events; and strategic considerations. It concludes with the suggestion that societal actors may be able to manipulate these four factors to encourage politicians to adopt policies that mitigate climate change more rapidly than is currently the case in most countries.
This paper explores the extent to which global health governance – in the context of the early implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is grounded in the right to health. The essential components of the right to health in relation to global health are unpacked. Four essential functions of the global health system are assessed from a normative, rights-based, analysis on how each of these governance functions should operate. These essential functions are: the production of global public goods, the management of externalities across countries, the mobilization of global solidarity, and stewardship. The paper maps the current reality of global health governance now that the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals are beginning to be implemented. In theory, the existing human rights legislation would enable the principles and basis for the global governance of health beyond the premise of the state. In practice, there is a governance gap between the human rights framework and practices in global health and development policies. This gap can be explained by the political determinants of health that shape the governance of these global policies. Current representations of the right to health in the Sustainable Development Goals are insufficient and superficial, because they do not explicitly link commitments or right to health discourse to binding treaty obligations for duty-bearing nation states or entitlements by people. If global health policy is to meaningfully contribute to the realization of the right to health and to rights based global health governance then future iterations of global health policy must bridge this gap. This includes scholarship and policy debate on the structure, politics, and agency to overcome existing global health injustices.
Stimulating technological innovations and limiting access to expensive health technology require the coordination and coherence of overlapping policy sub-systems: research, market access, and reimbursement. This study investigates which procedural policy instruments proved more successful in integrating collaborative governance arrangements in Great Britain and Germany. A new classification of procedural policy instruments is developed based on the targeted dimensions of collaborative governance (network structure and policy phase). The comparative analysis rests on expert interviews and meeting records and reveals that, in Great Britain, active leadership prevails during the consultations, while Germany, in contrast, presents a case of inconsistent governance.
The role of policy integration in the governance of cross-cutting policy problems has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years. Nevertheless, the concept of policy (dis)integration is still under theorized, particularly regarding its inherent processual nature. The main argument of this paper is that policy integration should be understood as a process that entails various elements that do not necessarily move in a concerted manner but may develop at different paces or even in opposite directions. To study such dynamic integration pathways, the paper proposes a multi-dimensional framework. Drawing on existing literature, the framework distinguishes four dimensions of integration: (1) policy frame, (2), subsystem involvement, (3) policy goals, and (4) policy instruments. For each of these dimensions, we describe different manifestations that are associated with lesser or more advanced degrees of policy integration within a governance system. Apart from offering an innovative theoretical approach that does justice to the dynamic and oftentimes asynchronous nature of integration processes, the framework allows for holding decision-makers accountable for promises they make about enhancing policy integration. Simultaneously, it is argued that the merit of lower degrees of integration should not be underestimated, as these may sometimes be the most feasible or appropriate for the governance of a cross-cutting problem.
As the traditional mode of coordinating - essentially issuing regulation - no longer commands sufficient political support, the EU has turned to what are increasingly termed soft or 'new' modes of governance, which rely upon different actors working together in relatively non-hierarchical networks. New modes of governance are in vogue because they appear to provide the EU with a new way to add value to national level activities without the slow process of agreeing new legislation or the cost associated with building new administrative capacities in Brussels. This analysis provides the first book-length account of the effectiveness of network-based modes at addressing problems that simultaneously demand greater horizontal and vertical coordination. Taking as an example the thirty-year struggle to build environmental thinking into all areas and levels of EU policy making, it systematically explores the steps that two major EU institutions (the European Commission and the European Parliament), and three member states (Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK) have (not) taken to build effective networked governance. By blending state of the art theories with new empirical findings, it offers a stark reminder that networked governance is not and has never been a panacea. Coordinating networks do not spontaneously 'self organize' in the EU; they have to be carefully designed as part of a repertoire of different coordinating instruments. The book concludes that the EU urgently needs to devote more of its time to the more mundane but important task of auditing and managing networks, which, paradoxically, is an exercise in hierarchy. In so doing, this book helps to strip away some of the rhetorical claims made about the novelty and appeal of new modes, to reveal a much more sober and realistic appraisal of their coordinating potential.
A roadmap for 'new policy design' studies now exists in the orientation which has emerged in recent years towards the formulation of complex policy mixes. The new design orientation focuses on bundles or portfolios of tools and the interactive effects which occur when multiple tools
are used over time in policy packages designed to address multiple goals, and upon more complex multi-policy and multi-level design contexts. This review article examines the differences between the 'old' instrument orientation and the 'new' design one, setting out the current research agenda
in this field and its rationale.
‘Joined-up government’ (JUG) approaches have emerged in many industrialized countries as a means to tackle persistent ‘wicked’ public and social policy problems (Pollit 2003). Despite this, limited evidence exists concerning their implementation or effectiveness. ‘JUG’ was popularized by the Blair Government (UK) with its focus on addressing social exclusion. Following in these footsteps, in 2007 the Australian Government launched the Social Inclusion Agenda: a joined-up approach to improving the wellbeing of all Australians and addressing disadvantage. This paper focuses on findings from a study that examined the SIA as a natural experiment in JUG. Drawing on the implementation experiences of federal policy makers, our findings lend weight to emerging research into JUG that suggests that compatibility and consistency between goals, instruments, and processes is critical to success. We argue that closer attention needs to be given to developing ‘supportive architecture’ around joined-up initiatives to facilitate implementation.
Research in the area of ASD demonstrates an understanding of evidence-based practices in isolation. To make sustainable change in the quality of life for an individual with ASD, it is essential that we determine whether a particular intervention or, more likely, sets of interventions matches his or her strengths and needs. This requires a thorough understanding of the student's needs, especially those related to the underlying characteristics of ASD. The UCC at any level (HF, CL, or EI) provides a tool for teams to identify those strengths and needs as a basis for developing goals and strategies to help in selecting the most appropriate instructional strategies. The Ziggurat Model provides tools, including the ISSI, the Global Intervention Plan, and the Ziggurat Worksheet, for matching goals and prioritizing interventions. Integrating these strategies systematically and comprehensively throughout the individual's day in a comprehensive plan provides for continual development of student skills. To maximize educational benefit, practices must be used competently and consistently (Fixsen et al., 2009). Lastly, measurement of those skills with a vision of the effect on the student now and in the future is a final critical step to achieve sustained change (NRC, 2001). Such implementation usually requires changes in the daily activities of staff, related service providers, administrators, and even parents. It takes cohesive team planning, clearly defined objectives, and professional development of all personnel to ensure that the chosen evidence-based strategies are implemented with fidelity and across all settings. The Ziggurat Model and CAPS provide a vehicle by which this can occur.
This article assesses and explains the level of climate policy integration (CPI) in the EU's energy sector, and takes issue with the assumption – which has grown with the adoption of the integrated climate and energy package of policy measures in 2009 – that a high level of CPI has been achieved in this case. To do so, we first introduce a conceptualisation of CPI, drawing on the rich literature of environmental policy integration (EPI) in the EU; and also outline an analytical framework to explain levels of CPI, drawn from theories of European integration and EPI literature (highlighting factors such as functional overlap, political commitment, policy pathways, and the role of climate advocates in policy making). The article then empirically analyses CPI in two sub-energy policies: the EU's renewable energy policy, widely considered a success case of CPI; and EU policies for the construction of gas pipelines, as an example where lower levels of CPI may be expected. We argue that even in the renewable energy case the level of CPI has remained insufficient to reach long-term climate policy objectives. CPI has been virtually absent in the EU's gas pipeline policy. The explanatory framework helps us in understanding the insufficient levels of CPI and the differences between the sub-areas. In particular, we argue that the lack of CPI has been hidden by an insufficient focus on the long-term requirements of climate protection in policy making and discussion.
This article compares policy discourses concerning youth unemployment of seven international governmental organisations (IGOs). We classify the discourses according to broadly neoliberal and social democratic positions across labour market and social welfare domains, regarding causes of and responses to youth unemployment. We relate evidence of hybrids and shifts in IGOs' discourses to wider institutional contexts of global social policy and to debates about IGO responses to the global financial crisis. Our analysis addresses a neglected sphere of global social policy and youth policy research and opens a window on the contested politics of the determination of a new policy field.
One of the largest public sector reforms in Norway is the welfare administrative reform of 2005. The aims are to get passive beneficiaries back into work and to make the administration more user-friendly, holistic and efficient. The aims are to be achieved by increasing the administration’s capacity to address “wicked issues” by cutting across existing policy fields and administrative levels. This joined-up-government approach poses three main challenges: 1) to get a merged central government agency to work, 2) to establish constructive cooperation between the central and local authorities and 3) to coordinate front-line services with user-oriented employment and welfare offices. The article shows that increasing the capacity of government to cut across existing policy fields and handle transboundary wicked issues are still struggling to be implemented. Cooperation between sectors is however easier to achieve than cooperation between levels. The joined-up-government-approach also tends to make accountability relations more ambiguous.
This article develops the concept of “Functional Regulatory Space” (FRS) in order to analyze the new forms of State action addressing (super) wicked problems. A FRS simultaneously spans several policy sectors, institutional territories and levels of government. It suggests integrating previous policy theories that focused on “boundary-spanning regime,” “territorial institutionalism” or multi-level governance. The FRS concept is envisaged as a Weberian “ideal-type” of State action and is applied to the empirical study of two European cases of potential FRS: the integrated management of water basins and the regulation of the European sky through functional airspace blocks. It will be concluded that the current airspace regulation does match the ideal-type of FRS any better than the water resource regulation does. The next research step consists in analyzing the genesis and institutionalization of potential FRS addressing other (super) wicked problems such as climate change and economic, security, health and immigration issues in different institutional contexts as well as at various levels of governance.
Considerable barriers can emerge in developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies. Understanding the nature of barriers to adaptation is important so as to find strategic ways of dealing with them. However, our current understanding is limited and highly fragmented across the academic community. This paper aims to bring some conceptual convergence in these debates by applying a systematic review method to assess the current state of knowledge on barriers to adaptation in the peer-reviewed literature. The review results show that: (1) Barriers to adaptation have hardly been defined in the literature and no clear indicators exist so as to identify and assess them systematically. (2) An impressive number of barriers have been reported, but the list of possible barriers is seemingly endless. (3) The most frequently reported barriers relate to the institutional and social dimensions of adaptation. (4) Barriers are identified as configurations of climate and non-climate factors and conditions that emerge from the actor, the governance system, or the system of concern. (5) Barriers are mainly studied in developed countries with a strong focus on water-related domains. (6) The majority of studies on barriers use small-n inductive case approaches while comparative studies across different contexts are limited. (7) Although interventions to overcome barriers are recommended by most studies, empirical studies on interventions are scarce. We present further conceptual clarification and a more precise definition of barriers to adaptation. We conclude that future research should go beyond asking the questions ‘if’ and ‘which’ barriers to adaptation exist and begin asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ barriers emerge.
This article summarizes the findings of an international research effort, presented in this Special Issue, intended to identify the opportunities and challenges in creating institutional arrangements that could lock in, and exploit, a dynamic in which development policies alter socio-technical systems and indirectly promote various climate activities. In doing so, it also introduces and assesses intervention theory as a novel approach to analyse the link between international institutions and national policies. The conclusions are based on an analysis of Sustainable Development – Policies and Measures (SD-PAM), a precursor to National Appropriate Mitigation Action, a suggested mechanism in the current climate negotiations, built around a set of national case studies in Brazil, China and Mozambique, covering a diverse set of sectors – biofuels, bioenergy, agriculture and transportation. The article concludes that a mechanism like SD-PAM could play a vital role in promoting the changes in socio-technical systems necessary to meet the 2°C target defined as a precondition to avoid dangerous climate change. Most critically, it constitutes a means to provide recognition for national activities that are otherwise not viewed as climate policies. This could in turn generate (1) new commitments; (2) additional direct funding; (3) indirect financing in the form of tradable permits; and (4) different forms of technology transfer.
Over the last 20 years, policy appraisal has emerged as a popular topic for discussion amongst policy-makers and academics alike. Much research effort has been devoted to developing tools and techniques to inform appraisal activities, but there has been, until recently, a distinct paucity of research on what might be termed the 'policy and politics' of policy appraisal. This is surprising, since policy appraisal is undoubtedly an important site of political behaviour, with its own institutions, instruments and policy actors. This paper takes stock of recent research on policy appraisal, draws out some common threads, and makes some suggestions for future research on what is a rapidly expanding field of European public policy analysis.
In the 1990s environmental policy integration (EPI) became a popular approach to bring about preventive environmental action in key polluting and resource-using sectors. Following the rise of climate change on the political agenda, a similar imperative of climate policy integration (CPI) has emerged. In this chapter, we discuss questions raised by CPI, with some practical examples from EU policymaking. Specifically, we examine whether and how three challenges that have emerged in the context of EPI-the incentive structures of integration; prioritization of objectives; and safeguarding democratic accountability-also hold for CPI. We show that sufficient resources need to accompany CPI, but that the promise of such resources may also lead to ‘re-labeling’ ongoing activities as climate-relevant. We further underline the importance of disaggregating questions of CPI, taking into account the particularities of mitigation and adaptation, as well as those of the different policy sectors with which integration is sought. Finally, we highlight that ensuring the democratic accountability of CPI is particularly challenging in the EU context, where policymakers at one level can defer difficult political tradeoffs between policy goals to other levels of governance. © Karin Bäckstrand and Eva Lövbrand 2015. All rights reserved.
Coordination has been the most poorly understood and least examined problem for governments since their inception, and this book discusses the causes, consequences, and possible remedies of coordination problems.
Drawing together work presented at a conference held at the British Academy, this book provides a broad overview of one of the most significant aspects of modern government. Joined-up government is a key theme of modern government. The Labour government, first elected in 1997, decided that intractable problems such as social exclusion, drug addiction and crime could not be resolved by any single department of government. Instead, such problems had to be made the object of a concerted attack using all the arms of government - central and local government and public agencies, as well as the private and voluntary sectors. This book seeks to analyse 'joined-up government', to consider its history, and to evaluate its consequences for British institutions such as the Cabinet, the civil service and local authorities. Is joined-up government a new idea, or merely a new label for a very old idea? What lessons can be learnt from previous attempts at joined-up government? How does it affect our traditional constitutional conceptions relating to Cabinet government, a politically neutral and non-partisan civil service, and an independent system of local government? Will it lead to the concentration of power in 10 Downing Street or is it compatible with a political system based on checks and balances?
Public sector reforms continue to preoccupy governments all over the world, compelled by the need to 'get the state right' through better policy development and implementation. Developing countries see this as the path to a developmental state. This article examines Ghana's quest to build such a state through its new public sector reforms, originally hailed in hyperbolic terms. We argue that the rejection of a top-down and bottom-up synergy in favour of an exclusively top-down approach dooms this effort to failure.
Joined-up government is a new term coined in the 1990s for an old administrative doctrine called 'coordination'. In a general sense, coordination in the old administrative doctrine suggests that all of the parts of the executive government should be interconnected and complementary to one another. The aim of coordination in the government is to be able to present a single face to the people and to operate as a single unit on multiple yet interrelated problems. Historically, the idea and concept of government coordination is hard to trace as it is a nebulous one. It appears in several disciplinary literatures and spans many institutional and social domains. This chapter does not offer a historical outline of the term 'joined-up term' or of broader coordination doctrines in the government, rather it presents questions from a comparative-historical questions. The first question examines old and new aspects of the Blair New Labour doctrine of joined-up government. The second query tackles from an historical perspective some of the principal means that have been advanced for the linking of the parts of the executive government. The last question addresses the counter-doctrines to the idea of joined-up government.
Problem: Local, regional, and state growth management policy in the United States has been evolving since the 1950s, generally becoming much more comprehensive in how it addresses growth over time. Purpose: In this article, I describe the three historic phases of local, regional, and state approaches to managing growth in the United States since the 1950s. I then sketch the characteristics of the emerging fourth wave, one that must respond to challenges relating to economic development, climate change, and changing energy demands and supplies. Methods: Using a review of the literature and an assessment of the major trends shaping local, regional, and state land planning efforts, the article traces the evolution of growth management policy. Results and conclusions: Of the many changes land planning policy has experienced over time, the most telling is the shift in attitudes toward growth and development. For many decades growth management policy viewed development as a problem to be limited or managed, but in the last two decades planners have embraced new development as an opportunity for fixing past errors and addressing problems linked with growth. Takeaway for practice: Although smart growth remains an anchor for land planning policies and programs, approaches to managing growth will and must evolve in the coming years. Despite the many economic and political challenges faced by land planners and growth management advocates, there is much to be optimistic about as a new fourth wave of growth management emerges.
In 2014, United Nations member states proposed a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as reference goals for the international development community for the period 2015–2030. The proposed goals and targets can be seen as a network, in which links among goals exist through targets that refer to multiple goals. Using network analysis techniques, we show that some thematic areas covered by the SDGs are well connected with one another. Other parts of the network have weaker connections with the rest of the system. The SDGs as a whole are a more integrated system than the MDGs were, which may facilitate policy integration across sectors. However, many of the links among goals that have been documented in biophysical, economic and social dimensions are not explicitly reflected in the SDGs. Beyond the added visibility that the SDGs provide to links among thematic areas, attempts at policy integration across various areas will have to be based on studies of the biophysical, social and economic systems at appropriate scales. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Perceptions of the pervasive and persistent failures of governments in many issue areas over the past several decades have led many commentators and policy makers to turn to non-governmental forms of governance in their efforts to address public problems. During the 1980s and 1990s, market-based governance techniques were the preferred alternate form to government hierarchy but this preference has tilted towards network governance in recent years. Support for these shifts from hierarchical to non-hierarchical governance modes centre on the argument that traditional government-based arrangements are unsuited for addressing contemporary problems, many of which have a cross-sectoral or multi-actor dimension which is difficult for hierarchies to handle. Many proponents claim that recent ‘network governance’ or ‘collaborative governance’ arrangements combine the best of both governmental and market-based alternatives by bringing together key public and private actors in a policy sector in a constructive and inexpensive way. This claim is no more than an article of faith, however, as there is little empirical evidence supporting it. Indeed both logic and evidence suggests that networks too suffer from failures, though the sources of these failure may be different from other modes. The challenge for policymakers is to understand the origin and nature of the ways in which different modes of governance fail so that appropriate policy responses may be devised. This article proposes a model of such failures and a two-order framework for understanding them which helps explain which mode is best, and worst, suited to which circumstance.
Climate change is a complex cross-cutting problem that necessitates a high level of policy coordination. One proposed strategy for dealing with such issues is policy integration or mainstreaming. Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) was heralded as one of the key features of sustainable development. However, in recent years Climate Policy Integration (CPI) has come to the fore. This article argues that CPI is an emerging concept that has received insufficient attention in the literature, despite gathering increasing prominence in policy circles. In particular, the precise nature of the relationship between EPI and CPI is still unclear. This article compares CPI with EPI in order to systemically unpack what CPI means both conceptually and in practice. The article finds that CPI is less about ambitious and expansive integration across all policy sectors and more about engaging a narrower set of sectors to work together in particular ways to meet specific goals. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Purpose
– Comprehensive urban management (CUM), with specified philosophical and technical limits, can address the negative consequences of the interrelationship between increasing urban poor population, spatial expansion of squalor and informal settlement on marginalised urban lands, overburdened and old urban infrastructure and increase in frequency and intensity of natural hazards. The research places these four concerns within the urbanisation context of the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) in Jamaica, where their expressions are related to the lack of effective urban management and planning. The research uses a mixture of secondary information, from a myriad of public and private institutions and field surveys in the forms of observations and questionnaires. The cause and effects interrelationship between the factors are presented in a problem tree and analysed and discussed against known facts and theoretical posits. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research draws from a litany of document analysis, qualitative research as well as pre-coded questionnaires, field research and expert interviews and discussions with urban managers. Information and data selected from state and quasi-state agencies also proved valuable. Additionally, other relevant materials were sourced from the published domain including publications, journal articles, newspapers, textbooks and internet (online professional group discussions), etc.
Findings
– Increase in urban poor over the last ten years increase in squalor settlements on marginal urban lands. Urban infrastructure is old and overburdened. Natural hazards are on the increase and are associated with negative demographic and social dynamics. Development plan and planning is lacking in the KMR. Urban management roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. There are gaps and overlaps in roles and legislations. CUM needs redefinition for it to be effective in solving this relationship. Limits can be set for defining comprehensive urban planning.
Research limitations/implications
– Space to explore more the relationship and evidences of the factor under investigation to their fullest extent.
Practical implications
– Investments in urban infrastructure and other built environment and physical structures in important for urban resilience to hazards. Non-traditional countries and agencies are good source of financial and technical support for developing countries to improve their urban and national physical and social infrastructure. Urban land management and administration are crucial or urban spatial planning and land use.
Originality/value
– The four factors under investigation, even though they are not novel in their individual treatment, are however original in the context of assessing their interrelationship and moreover their relationship with CUM. A redefinition of CUM is attempted to give stated criticisms of its past failures. The application to Jamaica and its potential application to other small island developing states are unique.
This article bridges a gap in the literature by considering the application of a whole of government approach to indigenous issues in advanced economy societies. It highlights that indigenous disadvantage may be considered one of the 'wicked problems' to which whole of government approaches are best suited. Using the example of capacity building initiatives targeting indigenous peoples, it documents the mixed records of the New Zealand and Australian governments regarding whole of government coordination and collaboration. The article argues that a whole of government approach to capacity building allowed indigenous New Zealanders and Australians to develop their corporate governance capabilities. But conceptual limitations saw the notion of whole of government being used more as a management tool than an instrument of governance that could potentially address the long-standing political claims of indigenous New Zealanders and Australians. As a result, the jurisdictional governance issues central to indigenous desires for greater devolution of decision-making authority were not adequately addressed. In concluding that the whole of government represents yet another example of a generic policy discourse being applied to indigenous peoples, the article indicates that the relative disadvantage they face remains unlikely to be resolved until a conceptual framework for whole of government is developed which accounts for indigenous cultural and political specificity.
Does the emergence of a new boundary-spanning policy regime shift the focus of well-established organized interests, or does it mobilize new ones? In this article, I show that interest groups with a presence in Washington before 9/11 rapidly—but temporarily—shift their attention to the homeland security issues. Established groups' entrenchment in antecedent subsystems appears to buffer against widespread policy disruption and interest upheaval. However, a new set of previously latent groups opportunistically mobilizes after the regime is institutionalized. Newly mobilized groups replace those that retreat back to the regime's antecedent subsystems. Though the policy regime fails to resolve the jurisdictional turf conflicts that triggered its creation, the institutionalization of homeland security generates its own original, distinct government demand for lobbying. Interests that previously had no business in Washington before 9/11 took advantage of the new opportunities the regime offered without supplanting interests established long before the Department of Homeland Security and its congressional committees existed.
Environmental policy integration (EPI) refers to the incorporation of environmental concerns in non-environmental policy sectors. EPI aims to avoid conflicts between environmental and other policy objectives and to enhance environmental policy by directly targeting the driving forces of environmental degradation. In practice, however, the potential of EPI has not been fully utilized. Scientific knowledge of EPI is found in several, largely isolated, bodies of literature (on EPI, climate policy integration and environmental impact assessment/strategic environmental assessment) and does not provide an adequate answer to the question of what EPI strategies work, where and why. A systematic framework based on comparative empirical research is required to contribute to more effective EPI strategies. In this paper we formulate a research agenda for the development of such a framework on the governance of EPI that is robust, i.e. builds on other theories of environmental governance and policy change and that envisages large-scale, international comparative empirical analysis. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
In the context of Political Science, fragmentation refers to the process of decentralization, department differentiation and division of management in governmental institutions. Increasingly fragmented features emerge in China's administrative values, public resource operation, public organizational structures and public service provision in the post-industrial age, which affect the planning and implementation of e-government and inevitably map onto virtual government, leading to a fragmented Chinese e-government. Although most of the literature include impediments or measures to China's e-government, hardly any research can be found that focuses on theoretically identifying and innovating the way to handle problems. An aim of this research is to determine that holistic governance could be considered a rational choice for the transformation from fragmentation to holistic development and an effective measure for the sound advancement of e-government.
This special issue of Science and Public Policy takes up the recently discussed problem of political coordination in the ‘third phase of innovation’. The introduction prepares the analytical ground for the four case studies that follow. It develops the image of a ‘knowledge space’ consisting of the four ‘core’ areas of innovation policy — higher education, professional education, basic research and technological research — and uses insights from administrative science and a number of science and policy studies that discuss the need for coordination in policy-making in knowledge and innovation systems. Different types of coordination are distinguished as well as various institutional levels within the political system that play a role in the overall capacity of improving political coordination. A number of problems and expectations are raised which are the starting point of reflections in the ensuing case studies. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
Governments serve as a vehicle through which citizens, communities and societies express their values and preferences (Bourgon, 2007). Some of these values and preferences remain constant; while others change as societies confront new situations and evolve. Periodically, new values surface whose energy transforms the role of government and the practice of public administration. Reflecting back on the last three decades, we can see how public administrators around the world embarked on a journey of experimentation and innovation in response to changing circumstances and public expectations (Bourgon, 2008a). The nature and pace of change has been astonishing. The theme of the conference is `New Directions in the Study and Practice of Public Administration'. In addressing this theme, I will argue that the search for new directions in research and the practice of public administration should relate to the search for a new balance in the role of government.
Policy makers have now recognised the need to integrate thinking about climate change into all areas of public policy making. However, the discussion of ‘climate policy integration’ has tended to focus on mitigation decisions mostly taken at international and national levels. Clearly, there is also a more locally focused adaptation dimension to climate policy integration, which has not been adequately explored by academics or policy makers. Drawing on a case study of the UK, this paper adopts both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective to explore how far different sub-elements of policies within the agriculture, nature conservation and water sectors support or undermine potential adaptive responses. The top-down approach, which assumes that policies set explicit aims and objectives that are directly translated into action on the ground, combines a content analysis of policy documents with interviews with policy makers. The bottom-up approach recognises the importance of other actors in shaping policy implementation and involves interviews with actors in organisations within the three sectors. This paper reveals that neither approach offers a complete picture of the potentially enabling or constraining effects of different policies on future adaptive planning, but together they offer new perspectives on climate policy integration. These findings inform a discussion on how to implement climate policy integration, including auditing existing policies and ‘climate proofing’ new ones so they support rather than hinder adaptive planning.
Comprehensive planning requires of planners that they understand the overall goals of their communities. Truly comprehensive goals tend, however, to be too general to provide a basis for evaluating concrete alternatives. Consequently, it is difficult to stir political interest in them, and politicians are rarely willing to commit themselves to let general and long-range goal statements guide their considerations of lower-level alternatives. Many planners have themselves abandoned the comprehensive planning ideal in favor of the ideal of middle-range planning. Middle-range planners pursue operational, though still relatively general, goals. The middle-range planning ideal has much to recommend it. It provides no basis, however, for planners to claim to understand overall community goals. With it as a guide, therefore, the fundamental distinction between planning and other specialities is lively to become progressively more blurred.
Mainstreaming has been adopted internationally as a key approach to promoting environmental concerns and opportunities in national plans and strategies, as well as in sectoral policies and plans. As the climate change response begins to look to mainstreaming as a way forward for adaptation, lessons should be learnt from the environmental mainstreaming experience on the forms of organisational arrangements adopted. From an analysis of experience in a range of southern countries, the article uses a framework of vertical and horizontal organisational arrangements for policy integration to assess which organisational forms have been adopted and with what implications. The review found a mix of experience, with strong political commitment seeming to support a vertical approach to organisational integration, with a lead, overarching agency, as opposed to a more horizontal approach with the ministry responsible for the environment leading. The theory and analysis suggests that a more promising approach to facilitate effective mainstreaming might be to combine elements of vertical and horizontal arrangements, at least over the medium term, where there is strong central commitment and capacity for sustained implementation.
Environmental policy integration (EPI) is a key defining feature of sustainable development. Despite the fact that EPI has been the subject of much debate both in academic and policy-making circles, conceptual issues relating to EPI have received relatively little treatment. The conceptual work that has been completed on EPI generally fails to place the concept in an appropriate environmental policy context, and this in turn appears to betray the fact that the concept clearly implies a relatively strong revision of the traditional hierarchy of policy objectives. In this article the authors discuss the origins of the concept and provide conceptual clarification regarding its definition and context. Further, the article derives a simple analytical framework consisting of vertical and horizontal dimensions of EPI, which can serve as a useful point of departure for further empirical work on the implementation of EPI.