The influence of visualizations on decision‐making about controversial policy issues is increasingly recognized in the political and policy sciences. In this paper, we explore how combinations of visuals and text on Twitter (now X) lead to the formation of networks of actors sharing similar textual and visual framings about a policy issue in an online setting, which we conceptualize as Multimodal Online Discourse Coalitions (MODCs). MODCs struggle over the meaning of contested policy issues. We examine multiple MODCs in 2018 in the context of the regulatory decisions in that year about CRISPR‐Cas gene editing technology in the USA, Mercosur, and the EU. Based on an SNA and a qualitative visual and discursive analysis in three languages on Twitter in 2018 (covering in total ~ 427 k Tweets), we show that MODCs in English and Spanish focused on technocratic aspects of CRISPR‐Cas, resembling the regulatory decisions in the USA and Mercosur. In Europe, next to technocratic MODCs, an MODC in French formed around ethical/normative framings of the consequences of CRISPR‐Cas applications, using visuals of embryos to represent “GMO babies.” These visuals were emotional triggers in their framing of CRISPR technology. The ethical/normative framing reflected the argument brought to the CJEU by a group of French actors involved in the court case which categorized CRISPR‐Cas as a GMO technology in the EU. These results suggest that the French MODC and their visualization was of influence on the EU decision‐making process; however, more research is needed to verify the role of this online debate in the decision‐making process.
{"title":"Cliquepolitik: Multimodal online discourse coalitions on CRISPR‐Cas genome editing technology","authors":"Eduardo Rojas‐Padilla, Tamara Metze, A. Dewulf","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12590","url":null,"abstract":"The influence of visualizations on decision‐making about controversial policy issues is increasingly recognized in the political and policy sciences. In this paper, we explore how combinations of visuals and text on Twitter (now X) lead to the formation of networks of actors sharing similar textual and visual framings about a policy issue in an online setting, which we conceptualize as Multimodal Online Discourse Coalitions (MODCs). MODCs struggle over the meaning of contested policy issues. We examine multiple MODCs in 2018 in the context of the regulatory decisions in that year about CRISPR‐Cas gene editing technology in the USA, Mercosur, and the EU. Based on an SNA and a qualitative visual and discursive analysis in three languages on Twitter in 2018 (covering in total ~ 427 k Tweets), we show that MODCs in English and Spanish focused on technocratic aspects of CRISPR‐Cas, resembling the regulatory decisions in the USA and Mercosur. In Europe, next to technocratic MODCs, an MODC in French formed around ethical/normative framings of the consequences of CRISPR‐Cas applications, using visuals of embryos to represent “GMO babies.” These visuals were emotional triggers in their framing of CRISPR technology. The ethical/normative framing reflected the argument brought to the CJEU by a group of French actors involved in the court case which categorized CRISPR‐Cas as a GMO technology in the EU. These results suggest that the French MODC and their visualization was of influence on the EU decision‐making process; however, more research is needed to verify the role of this online debate in the decision‐making process.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139445784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeking to derive lessons for future policy processes on how climate change concerns can be integrated into sectoral policies to expedite policy approval, we applied the Multiple Streams Framework to analyze the forces and dynamics at work in the policy process of Brazil's National Biofuel Policy (known as RenovaBio). Based on an analysis of 123 newspaper articles citing “RenovaBio” and eleven semistructured interviews with stakeholders from the fuel sector, the research findings suggest that attaching RenovaBio to the country's climate commitments helped to secure policy approval and decrease public opposition to it. On the other hand, having multiple objectives without a clear priority made policy direction more diffuse and vulnerable to criticisms. We also found that the existence of multiple policy entrepreneurs, in the different stages of the political process and with complementary skills, helped to speed the legislative process.
{"title":"Climate integration into sectoral policies: The case of the Brazilian biofuel policy RenovaBio","authors":"Gustavo Velloso Breviglieri, Camila Yamahaki","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12593","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12593","url":null,"abstract":"Seeking to derive lessons for future policy processes on how climate change concerns can be integrated into sectoral policies to expedite policy approval, we applied the Multiple Streams Framework to analyze the forces and dynamics at work in the policy process of Brazil's National Biofuel Policy (known as RenovaBio). Based on an analysis of 123 newspaper articles citing “RenovaBio” and eleven semistructured interviews with stakeholders from the fuel sector, the research findings suggest that attaching RenovaBio to the country's climate commitments helped to secure policy approval and decrease public opposition to it. On the other hand, having multiple objectives without a clear priority made policy direction more diffuse and vulnerable to criticisms. We also found that the existence of multiple policy entrepreneurs, in the different stages of the political process and with complementary skills, helped to speed the legislative process.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139376488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study uses a vignette-based survey experiment for recycling programs in Korea to examine how different messages of a public information campaign as a policy instrument affect the attitudes and behaviors of citizens. It tests hypotheses based on construal-level theory, which suggests that people tend to be more affected by abstract messages under distant psychological conditions and by concrete messages under proximal psychological conditions. In contrast to the conventional assumption of construal-level theory, this study shows that people appear to be more affected by concrete and specific messages (mundane instructions for “how and what to recycle”) than by abstract messages (a noble vision and goal for “why to recycle”) under both distant and proximal conditions.
{"title":"Impact of public information campaign on citizen behaviors: Vignette experimental study on recycling program in South Korea","authors":"Eunyi Kim, M. Jae Moon, Sun-Young Park","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12595","url":null,"abstract":"This study uses a vignette-based survey experiment for recycling programs in Korea to examine how different messages of a public information campaign as a policy instrument affect the attitudes and behaviors of citizens. It tests hypotheses based on construal-level theory, which suggests that people tend to be more affected by abstract messages under distant psychological conditions and by concrete messages under proximal psychological conditions. In contrast to the conventional assumption of construal-level theory, this study shows that people appear to be more affected by concrete and specific messages (mundane instructions for “how and what to recycle”) than by abstract messages (a noble vision and goal for “why to recycle”) under both distant and proximal conditions.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139372757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An important, although insufficiently answered, environmental governance research question concerns how exactly participation improves policy implementation at different scales. Numerous studies have highlighted important variables influencing the effectiveness of participatory processes. However, studies of participation tend to be strongly process-oriented rather than system-oriented and often overlook the reality that participatory processes are part of increasingly complex and broader decision-making systems. By analyzing particular process-system linkages, this paper contributes new knowledge regarding how participatory processes can influence decision-making in polycentric governance systems. This study focuses on the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, which aims for good ecological and chemical status in all European waters, in six German states with varied polycentric decision-making structures. No direct decision-making power was found to be associated with any of the participatory processes themselves. Rather, the power remained embedded within the other established institutional structures. Nevertheless, the participatory processes did still intend to influence decision-making within those established structures through the aggregation and multiplication of information. The findings show that only a few representatives or a small proportion of the total number of decision-makers are involved in participatory processes. Therefore, those processes may either affect decisions directly due to the binding nature of the decisions taken within participatory processes or alternatively have effects through more complex and nuanced multiplication routes following the conclusion of each participatory process. Moreover, all of the participatory processes examined in this study were reliant to some extent on such multiplication mechanisms to amplify the effects on decisions throughout the overall polycentric governance system.
{"title":"Assessing participatory process-system linkages in polycentric water governance: Insights from WFD implementation in Germany","authors":"Nadine Jenny Shirin Schröder, Nigel Watson","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12588","url":null,"abstract":"An important, although insufficiently answered, environmental governance research question concerns how exactly participation improves policy implementation at different scales. Numerous studies have highlighted important variables influencing the effectiveness of participatory processes. However, studies of participation tend to be strongly process-oriented rather than system-oriented and often overlook the reality that participatory processes are part of increasingly complex and broader decision-making systems. By analyzing particular process-system linkages, this paper contributes new knowledge regarding how participatory processes can influence decision-making in polycentric governance systems. This study focuses on the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, which aims for good ecological and chemical status in all European waters, in six German states with varied polycentric decision-making structures. No direct decision-making power was found to be associated with any of the participatory processes themselves. Rather, the power remained embedded within the other established institutional structures. Nevertheless, the participatory processes did still intend to influence decision-making within those established structures through the aggregation and multiplication of information. The findings show that only a few representatives or a small proportion of the total number of decision-makers are involved in participatory processes. Therefore, those processes may either affect decisions directly due to the binding nature of the decisions taken within participatory processes or alternatively have effects through more complex and nuanced multiplication routes following the conclusion of each participatory process. Moreover, all of the participatory processes examined in this study were reliant to some extent on such multiplication mechanisms to amplify the effects on decisions throughout the overall polycentric governance system.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139372754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fabrizio Di Mascio, Alessandro Natalini, Stefania Profeti
The onset of the European NGEU program represented for European member states a formidable opportunity for post-pandemic recovery and yet a significant challenge at the same time: to receive and retain EU funds, each state had to promptly draw up a National Recovery and Resilience Plan—NRRP) and commit to a pressing timetable for its implementation. Regarding this challenge, the Italian government's response is a case in point: first, Italy is by far the largest beneficiary of NGEU funds; second, it has long had a reputation for being laggard in both the implementation of European directives and the spending of cohesion policy structural funds; and the formulation of the NRRP, the design of the governance in charge of its implementation, and implementation itself, occurred at a particular moment in the country's political life. Based on these premises, the article examines the upstream process by which the Italian government designed the implementation arrangements for the adoption of simplification policies under the NRRP and their downstream recalibration in the first two years, taking the implementation arrangements as the dependent variable. Analytically, the focus is on the interplay between the pressures of EU timetables and internal political dynamics, be they the legacy or strategic political considerations on the part of national policymakers, in determining the design and eventual re-design of implementation arrangements as the plan unfolds.
欧洲 NGEU 计划的启动对欧洲各成员国来说，是疫后恢复的一个巨大机遇，但同时也是一个重大挑战：为了获得并留住欧盟的资金，每个国家都必须立即制定国家恢复和复原计划（National Recovery and Resilience Plan-NRRP），并承诺执行该计划的紧迫时间表。关于这一挑战，意大利政府的应对措施是一个很好的例子：首先，意大利是迄今为止国家重建与恢复计划资金的最大受益国；其次，长期以来，意大利在执行欧洲指令和使用凝聚力政策结构基金方面一直以落后著称；而且，国家重建与恢复计划的制定、负责其实施的管理机构的设计以及实施本身，都发生在该国政治生活中的一个特殊时刻。基于这些前提，文章以实施安排为因变量，考察了意大利政府在《国家改革与发展计划》下设计简化政策实施安排的上游过程及其在头两年的下游重新调整过程。分析的重点是欧盟时间表的压力和内部政治动态之间的相互作用，无论是国家政策制定者的遗留问题还是战略性政治考虑，都决定了随着计划的展开，实施安排的设计和最终重新设计。
{"title":"Upstream and downstream implementation arrangements in two-level games. A focus on administrative simplification in the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan","authors":"Fabrizio Di Mascio, Alessandro Natalini, Stefania Profeti","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12594","url":null,"abstract":"The onset of the European NGEU program represented for European member states a formidable opportunity for post-pandemic recovery and yet a significant challenge at the same time: to receive and retain EU funds, each state had to promptly draw up a National Recovery and Resilience Plan—NRRP) and commit to a pressing timetable for its implementation. Regarding this challenge, the Italian government's response is a case in point: first, Italy is by far the largest beneficiary of NGEU funds; second, it has long had a reputation for being laggard in both the implementation of European directives and the spending of cohesion policy structural funds; and the formulation of the NRRP, the design of the governance in charge of its implementation, and implementation itself, occurred at a particular moment in the country's political life. Based on these premises, the article examines the upstream process by which the Italian government designed the implementation arrangements for the adoption of simplification policies under the NRRP and their downstream recalibration in the first two years, taking the implementation arrangements as the dependent variable. Analytically, the focus is on the interplay between the pressures of EU timetables and internal political dynamics, be they the legacy or strategic political considerations on the part of national policymakers, in determining the design and eventual re-design of implementation arrangements as the plan unfolds.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139373025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the socioeconomic systems of all European member states. To reduce the severe impact of the pandemic, the European Union has established a common fund for European states, launching therefore a social-economic recovery process. This fund was granted upon the submission of a programmatic plan of targets to be pursued within certain deadlines, appropriately assessed by the European Commission. Although the European Commission provided general guidelines for the elaboration of plans and the constitution of the multi-level governance of national recovery plans, each country followed its own institutional, political, economic, and social context. Thus, this article investigates the influencing factors on the implementation arrangements of research and innovation policies in four different contexts, geographically, historically, economically, and administratively, such as Italy and Spain as representatives of the Mediterranean model; France and Germany as representatives of the continental model. Findings confirm two main key factors, enriching the reference literature on implementation arrangements of public policies. Firstly, the actors' ability to join together in synergetic and cooperative networks is oriented towards achieving common goals. The second is the policy legacy, which still anchors actors in path dependencies, thus complicating their path diversion.
{"title":"Implementation arrangements for research and innovation policies in the Italian, Spanish, French, and German national recovery plan: A comparative analysis of emerging challenges for multi-level governance","authors":"Valentina Ottone, Michele Barbieri","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12592","url":null,"abstract":"The crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the socioeconomic systems of all European member states. To reduce the severe impact of the pandemic, the European Union has established a common fund for European states, launching therefore a social-economic recovery process. This fund was granted upon the submission of a programmatic plan of targets to be pursued within certain deadlines, appropriately assessed by the European Commission. Although the European Commission provided general guidelines for the elaboration of plans and the constitution of the multi-level governance of national recovery plans, each country followed its own institutional, political, economic, and social context. Thus, this article investigates the influencing factors on the implementation arrangements of research and innovation policies in four different contexts, geographically, historically, economically, and administratively, such as Italy and Spain as representatives of the Mediterranean model; France and Germany as representatives of the continental model. Findings confirm two main key factors, enriching the reference literature on implementation arrangements of public policies. Firstly, the actors' ability to join together in synergetic and cooperative networks is oriented towards achieving common goals. The second is the policy legacy, which still anchors actors in path dependencies, thus complicating their path diversion.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139057017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Perception and performance in environmental policy","authors":"N. Bandelow, Johanna Hornung, Ilana Schröder","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12587","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138962779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Governance and policy authors are concerned with the effectiveness of crisis management. In this study, the effectiveness of 27 Chinese provinces in addressing COVID‐19 is examined using the QCA approach. The contribution identifies four pathways for explaining effective crisis management and two for explaining ineffective crisis management. Strong analytical capacity is a relatively critical condition for achieving effective crisis management. This study contributes to the existing governance and policy literature through uncovering the mechanisms underlying effective crisis management.
{"title":"Is it all about the government's early response? A configurational analysis of 27 cases in governing COVID‐19 in China","authors":"Haibo Tan, Yanwei Li, Jiachen Huang, Xiaozhou Liu","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12586","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12586","url":null,"abstract":"Governance and policy authors are concerned with the effectiveness of crisis management. In this study, the effectiveness of 27 Chinese provinces in addressing COVID‐19 is examined using the QCA approach. The contribution identifies four pathways for explaining effective crisis management and two for explaining ineffective crisis management. Strong analytical capacity is a relatively critical condition for achieving effective crisis management. This study contributes to the existing governance and policy literature through uncovering the mechanisms underlying effective crisis management.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139228696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Blockchain is gaining popularity as a potential solution for the decentralized management of public information. A number of interesting solutions have been proposed by independent developers around the world to promote blockchain as a promising platform to potentially accelerate democratic processes and achieve certain public values in reforming digital governance. This could be reflected in facilitating direct citizen participation in digital politics, promoting greater civic cooperation and engagement in political discussions, boosting the role of civic commentary and even collaborative decision-making in e-government. In this regard, the article critically elaborates on the potential of this technology to promote political dimensions of public sector reforms in a post-positivist manner, resorting to the analysis of concrete e-participation cases in a number of public areas where the potential has already been realized and the opinions of professional software developers who are currently engaged in building various blockchain-driven data management solutions in the e-government area. This paper identifies, debates, and draws on what benefits and risks public policy can yield from the implementation of blockchain governance.
{"title":"Blockchain and digital governance: Decentralization of decision making policy","authors":"Maxat Kassen","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12585","url":null,"abstract":"Blockchain is gaining popularity as a potential solution for the decentralized management of public information. A number of interesting solutions have been proposed by independent developers around the world to promote blockchain as a promising platform to potentially accelerate democratic processes and achieve certain public values in reforming digital governance. This could be reflected in facilitating direct citizen participation in digital politics, promoting greater civic cooperation and engagement in political discussions, boosting the role of civic commentary and even collaborative decision-making in e-government. In this regard, the article critically elaborates on the potential of this technology to promote political dimensions of public sector reforms in a post-positivist manner, resorting to the analysis of concrete e-participation cases in a number of public areas where the potential has already been realized and the opinions of professional software developers who are currently engaged in building various blockchain-driven data management solutions in the e-government area. This paper identifies, debates, and draws on what benefits and risks public policy can yield from the implementation of blockchain governance.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138519005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Policy makers often struggle to adapt and respond to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with new and emerging technologies. In such situations decision makers often widen their search for information and acquire more expertise in order to better define complex problems and to understand the potential consequences of proposed alternatives. I argue that acquiring information also carries social and symbolic value: having reports and other kinds of information provided to you signals that you are a policy maker important and influential enough to keep informed. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) provided the US Congress with nonpartisan reports on technology-related issues from 1972 until 1995 when its funding was zeroed out. Using data on all OTA reports published from 1974 to 1995, I find evidence that, while almost every committee requested at least one report, the reports largely were concentrated among a few committees in each chamber. The committees more likely to request reports also tended to be lower in prestige among members; acquiring OTA reports thus helped raise the committee leaders' profile on science and technology-related issues but was not directly related to the surrounding issue environment or immediate legislative efforts. OTA reports also were concentrated on a relatively small number of policy issues, which further suggests inequalities in the dynamics of expertise in policy making.
{"title":"Expertise for emerging technology: Information, prestige, and the Office of Technology Assessment","authors":"Jonathan Lewallen","doi":"10.1111/ropr.12584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12584","url":null,"abstract":"Policy makers often struggle to adapt and respond to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with new and emerging technologies. In such situations decision makers often widen their search for information and acquire more expertise in order to better define complex problems and to understand the potential consequences of proposed alternatives. I argue that acquiring information also carries social and symbolic value: having reports and other kinds of information provided to you signals that you are a policy maker important and influential enough to keep informed. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) provided the US Congress with nonpartisan reports on technology-related issues from 1972 until 1995 when its funding was zeroed out. Using data on all OTA reports published from 1974 to 1995, I find evidence that, while almost every committee requested at least one report, the reports largely were concentrated among a few committees in each chamber. The committees more likely to request reports also tended to be lower in prestige among members; acquiring OTA reports thus helped raise the committee leaders' profile on science and technology-related issues but was not directly related to the surrounding issue environment or immediate legislative efforts. OTA reports also were concentrated on a relatively small number of policy issues, which further suggests inequalities in the dynamics of expertise in policy making.","PeriodicalId":47408,"journal":{"name":"Review of Policy Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138519031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：