Tools For Institutional Political And Social Analysis Of Policy Reform

"Analysis of the distributional impact of policy reforms plays an important role in the elaboration and implementation of poverty reduction strategies in developing and transitional countries, promoting evidence-based policy choices and fostering debate on policy reform options. International agencies and national partners are increasingly encouraging a more systematic application of policy reform analysis. Requisite to a systematic application is capacity building within countries as well as within donor agencies." "Tools for Institutional, Political, and Social Analysis of Policy Reform: A Sourcebook for Development Practitioners contributes to this agenda by introducing a framework and a set of practical tools that analyze the institutional, political, and social dimensions of policy design and implementation. The authors fill a perceived gap in knowledge of the application of social tools and complement existing guidance on conventional economic analysis of distributional impacts of reform." "This book will be of interest to commissioners and practitioners working in policy analysis in a range of areas - including macroeconomic, sectoral, and public sector policy - that are subject to ongoing policy reform discussions."--BOOK JACKET.

The study of public policy and the methods of policy analysis are among the most rapidly developing areas in the social sciences. Policy analysis has emerged to provide a better understanding of the policymaking process and to supply decision makers with reliable policy-relevant knowledge about pressing economic and social problems. Presenting a broad, comprehensive perspective, the Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods covers the historical development of policy analysis, its role in the policy process, and empirical methods. The handbook considers the theory generated by these methods and the normative and ethical issues surrounding their practice. Written by leading experts in the field, this book- Deals with the basic origins and evolution of public policy Examines the stages of the policy-making process Identifies political advocacy and expertise in the policy process Focuses on rationality in policy decision-making and the role of policy networks and learning Details argumentation, rhetoric, and narratives Explores the comparative, cultural, and ethical aspects of public policy Explains primary quantitative-oriented analytical methods employed in policy research Addresses the qualitative sides of policy analysis Discusses tools used to refine policy choices Traces the development of policy analysis in selected national contexts The Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods describes the theoretical debates that have recently defined the field, including the work of postpositivist, interpretivist, and social constructionist scholars. This book also explores the interplay between empirical and normative analysis, a crucial issue running through contemporary debates.

This book is a critical guide to conducting investigations under time- and resource-pressured conditions, equipping readers with the key skills and approaches for research designed to influence or inform development policies. Unlike a simple 'how to' guide, Research Skills for Policy and Development also provides a critique of various methods and situates these approaches within 'real life' organisational settings, enabling those working in or studying development to locate, evaluate and use relevant information quickly but rigorously. The successor to Finding Out Fast (SAGE, 1998) it reflects the changes in development management theories and practice over the last seven years, and includes new material and advice on critical use of the web as a resource and research tool. It is essential reading for development managers in NGOs and public sector agencies as well as students of development management and development studies more generally.

This textbook provides a concise and accessible introduction to the principles and elements of policy design in contemporary governance. Howlett seeks to examine in detail the range of substantive and procedural policy instruments that together comprise the toolbox from which governments select specific tools expected to resolve policy problems. Guiding students through the study of the instruments used by governments in carrying out their tasks, adapting to, and altering, their environments, this book: Discusses several current trends in instrument use often linked to factors such as globalization and the increasingly networked nature of modern society. Considers the principles behind the selection and use of specific types of instruments in contemporary government. Evaluates in detail the merits, demerits and rationales for the use of specific organization, regulatory, financial and information-based tools and the trends visible in their use Addresses the issues of instrument mixes and their (re)design in a discussion of the future research agenda of policy design. Providing a comprehensive overview of this essential component of modern governance and featuring helpful definitions of key concepts and further reading, this book is essential reading for all students of public policy, administration and management.

Political Creativity intervenes in the lively debate currently underway in the social sciences on institutional change. Editors Gerald Berk, Dennis C. Galvan, and Victoria Hattam, along with the contributors to the volume, show how institutions inevitably combine order and change, because formal rules and roles are always available for reconfiguration. Creative action is not the exception but the very process through which all political formations are built, promulgated and changed. Drawing on the rich cache of antidualist theoretical traditions, from poststructuralism and ecological theory to constructivism and pragmatism, a diverse group of scholars probes acts of social innovation in many locations: land boards in Botswana, Russian labor relations, international statistics, global supply chains, Islamic economics in Algeria, Islamic sects and state authority in Senegal, and civil rights reform, colonization, industrial policy, and political consulting in the United States. These political scientists reconceptualize agency as a relational process that continually reorders the nature and meaning of people and things, order as an assemblage that necessitates creative tinkering and interpretation, and change as the unruly politics of time that confounds the conventional ordering of past, present, and future. Political Creativity offers analytical tools for reimagining order and change as entangled processes. Contributors: Stephen Amberg, Chris Ansell, Gerald Berk, Kevin Bruyneel, Dennis C. Galvan, Deborah Harrold, Victoria Hattam, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Gary Herrigel, Joseph Lowndes, Ato Kwamena Onoma, Adam Sheingate, Rudra Sil, Ulrich Voskamp, Volker Wittke.

This IEG evaluation, requested by the World Bank s Board of Executive Directors, represents the first independent evaluation of the PSIA experience. The evaluation finds that: The PSIA approach has appropriately emphasized the importance of assessing the distributional impact of policy actions, understanding institutional and political constraints to development, and building domestic ownership for reforms PSIAs have not always explicitly stated their operational objectives (i.e., informing country policies, informing Bank operations, and/or contributing to country capacity) PSIAs have had limited ownership by Bank staff and managers and have often not been effectively integrated into country assistance programs Quality assurance and Monitoring and Evaluation of the overall effectiveness of PSIAs have been weak The evaluation recommends that the World Bank: Ensure that Bank staff understand what the PSIA approach is and when to use it Clarify the operational objectives of each PSIA and tailor the approach and timeline to those objectives Improve integration of the PSIA into the Bank s country assistance program by requiring that all earmarked funding for PSIAs be matched by a substantial contribution from the country unit budgets Strengthen PSIA effectiveness through enhanced quality assurance

Debates surrounding institutional change have become increasingly central to Political Science, Management Studies, and Sociology, opposing the role of globalization in bringing about a convergence of national economies and institutions on one model to theories about 'Varieties of Capitalism'. This book brings together a distinguished set of contributors from a variety of disciplines to examine current theories of institutional change. The chapters highlight the limitations of these theories, finding them lacking in the analytic tools necessary to identify the changes occurring at a national level, and therefore tend to explain many changes and innovation as simply another version of previous situations. Instead a model emerges of contemporary political economies developing in incremental but cumulatively transformative processes. The contributors show that a wide, but not infinite, variety of models of institutional change exist which can meaningfully distinguished and analytically compared. They offer an empirically grounded typology of modes of institutional change that offer important insights on mechanisms of social and political stability, and evolution generally. Beyond Continuity provides a more complex and fundamental understanding of institutional change, and will be important reading for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Political Science, Management Studies, Sociology, and Economics.