European Policy Analysis最新文献

This article examines the fire and rescue services sector in Sweden in the period 1986–2021, and explains the timing of bureaucratic reforms using the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF). In this study, we insert institutions in MSF by employing a two-level analysis; we highlight the interactions among experts acting as policy entrepreneurs over time and during a large window of opportunity, and we show that in a programmatically complex policy during a large window of opportunity open for a long period of time, policymakers may become proactive and engage in commissioning.

This symposium examines the theoretical and empirical advancement of policy entrepreneurship scholarship, addressing a field that has grown significantly over the past four decades. This symposium contributes to the theoretical advancement of policy entrepreneurship through five papers that integrate modern entrepreneurship literature, synthesize frameworks into new models, and explore policy entrepreneurship across diverse contexts. Contributions include Hand and Birkhead's integration of opportunity creation theories and identification of distinct “species” of policy entrepreneurs, and Arslangulov and Ackrill's Multi-Level Governance and Strategy model for sustainability transitions. Arnold et al. demonstrate that policy entrepreneurship may enhance transformative governance capacity more than fiscal or political resources, while Taylor et al. extend research beyond elite influence to examine public behavior during policy implementation. Finally, Eriksson et al., explore expert-entrepreneurs' persistence in reorganizing Sweden's fire and rescue services. The symposium addresses policy entrepreneurship's relevance in increasingly complex policy environments spanning multiple domains and jurisdictions facing transformation pressures. Future research directions include challenging the normativity of policy entrepreneurship, establishing rigorous identification methods, and developing sophisticated measures beyond binary classifications. The work emphasizes the importance of micro-level policymaking dynamics, particularly when institutions fail to preserve democratic values in crisis contexts.

In this article, we examine concepts that underpin the theories of the policy process. We exemplify the applicability of these concepts in the European policy-making contexts through a systematic scoping review of European applications of the policy entrepreneur. Our findings include that (i) the overwhelming majority of the studies anchored the policy entrepreneur in the Multiple Streams Framework; (ii) more than half of the studies were contextualized at the EU level and in the UK country context; (iii) policy entrepreneurs were identified in a wide range of policy sectors, and (iv) policy entrepreneurs were identified as being individuals as well as organizations but mostly elite actors, often policy-makers. Future avenues for research include policy entrepreneurship in political parties, exploring the interactions of policy entrepreneurs and the role their other identities (public servant, elected official, NGO official, etc.) play in how reactive or proactive they are in seeking opportunities.

The development of policy process theories is progressing rapidly. Scholars increasingly apply these theories originated in the US to different contexts and continents, such as Europe. Furthermore, scholars at different career stages, including junior scholars, work on and with these theories. Focusing on junior scholars, this paper poses the following question: What are the key considerations of European junior scholars engaging in policy process theory development? We present three observations: The first observation refers to the general construction of a research project contributing to theory development. The second observation investigates how teaching policy process research and public policy, in general, can advance theory development. The third observation focuses on how to bridge the science-practice gap as a junior scholar working on policy process theories. The three observations highlight the potential of making use of your own agency as a junior scholar engaging in policy process theory development in Europe.

This personal reflection starts with the theme of how Theories of the Policy Process or ToPP (Sabatier, 1999) was received by European researchers and why this volume was particularly important for scholars working on the policy process of the European Union. Yet (this is the second theme) policy process research in Europe was also stimulated by other theoretical frameworks. A third theme is the status of theory in Europe today, balancing the reception of ToPP with the presence of frameworks like the référentiel, Europeanization, and policy learning. Finally, the fourth theme is about the future. The successful cumulation of theory-inspired policy process research does not suggest the need for another set of new theories. Rather, the key is to integrate ToPP with theory-oriented research on the policy stages that are less explored by existing theories (such as implementation and evaluation theories), public administration theory, and the normative perspective on governance.