This article evaluates Colombia’s medical cannabis reform by distinguishing paradigmatic failure from implementation failure and policy design failure. While most studies of policy evaluation focus on the performance of instruments and outcomes, it integrates insights from the literature on policy paradigms to assess whether the ideas underpinning a policy remain aligned with evolving social, economic, and political realities. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with public officials, entrepreneurs, and civil society actors, the analysis shows that Colombia’s pharmaceutical model of medical cannabis was largely successful at the level of implementation: regulations were adopted swiftly, a licensing system was established, and a small export-oriented industry emerged. However, overregulation, the exclusion of small producers, and limited domestic access reveal a growing misalignment between the policy’s underlying assumptions and the social, therapeutic, and market realities it seeks to govern. To capture this dynamic, the article distinguishes between evaluation within a policy paradigm – assessing performance according to a paradigm’s own logic – and evaluation of a policy paradigm – examining the continued relevance of its foundational assumptions. It shows that governments can implement reforms effectively while remaining constrained by outdated ways of conceptualizing policy problems.
Assessing the success of public policies is particularly challenging when focusing on policies driving major, complex health system reforms. Such policies often have broad, ‘transformational’ aims involving new constellations of organisational arrangements and service provision configurations across scales and contexts. McConnell’s framework of policy success provides a useful structure for assessing impact across success/failure spectrums within the dimensions of process, programme, and politics. However, this framework was designed around the assessment of the impact of discrete newly formulated and implemented policies. Major health system reforms, by contrast, are often the result of layers of politically mediated decisions and responses to previous policies over long periods, and as such assessing their success or failure is more complex. In this paper, we explore the value of combining McConnell’s framework with tenets of policy feedback theory (PFT) to support a more temporally dynamic approach to understanding policy processes and assessing policy. Focusing on the Health and Care Act 2022 in the English NHS, the introduction of Integrated Care Systems, and the legacy of preceding policies, we highlight PFT’s ability to support understanding of the recursive ways political conditions shape policy design and how policies subsequently reshape political landscapes. By exploring how positive and negative feedback behaves in different success dimensions, we illuminate the dynamics of policy stability and change across broader time periods.
Outcome-based indicators are widely used to assess policy success, yet their adequacy is rarely questioned in contexts characterized by design uncertainty and multilevel governance. This article argues that outcome indicators alone are insufficient to evaluate experimental policies. Using the Italian “trial office” NRPP investment as a case study, the article shows how the narrow focus on target outcomes fails to capture key dimensions of the policy implementation process developed under these conditions. The article contributes to the literature on policy implementation by proposing a framework for assessing policy success. It complements outcome-based evaluation by incorporating learning-oriented criteria that focus on changes in interpretative frameworks, the development of relational networks, and the emergence and diffusion of organizational innovations.
The concept of success is widely used in policy analysis. Moreover, thanks to the spread of policy forecasting, policy makers are increasingly applying a success criterion in critical decision-making processes. However, the multi-dimensionality of the success concept has proved to be problematic when policy analysts try to evaluate policies ex post. Analogously, it may be challenging whenever policy success is applied as a criterion of choice in critical decision-making.This article falls within the scope of this critical debate and intends to show the problematic use of the success concept as a criterion of choice in emergency policy-making processes, which are characterised by pervasive uncertainty and a lack of time. The paper offers insights that were obtained from an empirical investigation of the 17 main emergency response processes that were implemented in Italy to face the COVID-19 crisis. In-depth fieldwork revealed several dilemmatic choices and impasses, due to the multi-dimensional nature of the success concept. Faced with dilemmatic situations, policy makers had to apply different and less rational (at least from the holistic rationality perspective) choice criteria to escape from the decisional impasses.
Policy success is widely understood as multidimensional, yet its programmatic dimension remains substantially under-theorized, with outcomes typically treated as given and derived from policy goals or problem definitions. This article argues that outcomes are not simply observed but constructed through prior analytical choices, and that specifying what counts as an outcome shapes any empirical appraisal of program performance. To address this problem, the article identifies four key dimensions of outcome specification: outcome domain, construct selection, intermediate outcomes, and timing. Drawing on theory-driven evaluation, the article examines outcome specification in the case of food bank markets in Italy. The analysis shows that widely used constructs in food assistance, such as standard food security measures, are poorly aligned with program mechanisms; intermediate outcomes constitute core dimensions of success; and outcome domain boundaries — such as the exclusion of food waste reduction — critically shape what is attributed to the program and when. These findings reposition outcome specification as a foundational problem in policy analysis, structuring how programmatic success is defined and assessed.
Public policy practitioners increasingly face complex, value-laden problems where the conditions for success or failure are difficult to anticipate and even harder to test in advance. This article examines serious games (SG) as a practical method for exploring these conditions before high-stakes commitments are made. Drawing on three literature reviews and a survey of 143 policy practitioners conducted across multiple institutional settings between 2020 and 2025, we ask: what is the current trend in SG use within public policy scholarship, what are practitioners’ preferences regarding different game types, and what are the prospects for deploying SG in the context of policy success? Our findings reveal a striking diffusion gap: while SG research has grown substantially across adjacent disciplines, it remains largely absent from mainstream public policy journals, despite growing practitioner interest. Building on these findings, we apply an existing typology, which distinguishes four categories of SG: Teaching Knowables, Testing Retention, Crash-testing Mechanisms, and Exploring Systems, and we position each type in relation to the Marsh’s and McConnell’s process, programmatic, and political dimensions of policy success. We argue that SG offer a scalable, low-cost complement to existing experimentation infrastructures, particularly in settings marked by uncertainty, value conflict, and the ever-present risk of policy failure.
This paper explores the potential adaptation of community-driven governance principles to Ukraine's post-war recovery. Drawing on South Korea's development experiences, particularly the Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), it examines how such approaches can enhance public policy, regional development, and local governance in synergy with Ukraine's existing decentralization framework. Rather than proposing Saemaul Undong as a substitute for Ukraine's current system, the study investigates how its principles can complement and reinforce the decentralization reforms implemented between 2015 and 2020, especially in rural areas where governance capacities remain uneven.Using semi-structured interviews with 20 experts and theoretical analyses, the study identifies pathways to strengthen governance and empower communities. Findings highlight the potential of locally-driven, participatory governance to mitigate informal power dynamics, promote transparency, and support regional recovery. Integrating Saemaul Undong principles could improve coordination, decision-making, and citizen engagement, thereby creating a sustainable framework for regional development. While qualitative insights offer valuable guidance, limitations include reliance on expert opinions and the need for further grassroots perspectives.JEL Classification: O21, Q18, H70, R11
The rise of the populist radical right (PRR) has generated significant academic interest. As they move from the fringes to power, PRR parties tend to employ similar strategies to achieve similar public policy priorities. However, this is not always the case and PRR parties maintain significant diversity while converging around other common policy goals. Further, the rise of PRR parties in more powerful states opens up new avenues for policy diffusion to countries without PRR regimes. This begs the question: Under what conditions does PRR policy diffuse? While existing literature on diffusion provides a useful framework, the PRR ideology challenges the core underlying mechanisms and necessitates further study. Drawing on theories of PRR politics and policy diffusion, I outline ways in which these two strands of literature interact and the contours of a timely and necessary research agenda. Although I still operate within the diffusion framework, I argue that we should not expect PRR diffusion to occur under identical conditions given the ideology and policy goals of the PRR. Further research must be undertaken to understand exactly when, how, and why PRR diffusion occurs.
This paper introduces a novel methodological framework for measuring variability in local policy implementation using the concept of “policy noise.” While local authorities’ discretion in implementing national policies is widely recognized as both a potential source of innovation and a challenge for policy coordination, the field lacks systematic tools for quantifying this variation. We address this gap by developing a set-theory-based measurement approach that enables systematic comparison of local policy implementation across structurally equivalent administrative units. The methodology captures variation across three dimensions: agenda-setting, types of solutions implemented, and resource allocation. Designed to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, this approach provides a foundation for empirical analysis without imposing normative judgments about optimal levels of variation. Although we demonstrate the methodology through an analysis of Polish municipalities’ responses to Ukrainian refugee education needs in 2022, the framework is applicable across policy domains – including health, environment, and social services – in which local authorities exercise implementation discretion within centrally-established parameters. This measurement approach offers researchers a new tool for investigating the dynamics of local policy implementation, enabling systematic study of the relationships between institutional arrangements, implementation variation, and policy outcomes.
Drawing on Eric Neveu’s four-pronged problem framing, this study examines how citizens attempted to influence policymaking in Egypt’s electoral autocracy. Although policy theories have demonstrated conceptual flexibility and normative adaptation to capture policymaking in nondemocratic environments, few studies have focused on policymaking in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt. This study brings Egypt into the literature addressing policymaking within repressive contexts by borrowing from Neveu’s Social Movement Theory framing steps to track citizens’ attempts to contribute to policymaking in Egypt. To this end, the study expands on the issue of emergence, problem formulation, diffusion, and solution suggestion. Using triangulation of findings from open-ended and semi-structured interviews, thematic analysis of a residents’ Facebook group, and the author’s personal observations, this study contends that the residents of the Heliopolis neighborhood bypassed Egypt’s restrictive context by using discursive and communication strategies to frame the state’s decision to remove the old tram as a significant loss of Cairo’s historical heritage on social media. This framing was in line with the government’s priorities and prompted its intervention from 2018 until 2022.
This article examines how Better Regulation has introduced an enterprise logic into United Kingdom (UK) Trading Standards (TS), reshaping inspectors’ roles alongside traditional enforcement logic. It argues that enterprise logic, combined with austerity and localism, creates ambiguities and tensions that inspectors negotiate in their work with SMEs. Drawing on accounts from 18 inspectors in three English counties, the findings show that while inspectors integrate advice within enforcement practices, constrained resources, conflicting logics, and the commodification of advice generate tensions that undermine regulatory consistency and legitimacy. The study extends institutional theory and policy implementation scholarship by showing how enterprise and enforcement logics coexist, collide, and are negotiated in frontline practice, and contributes to debates on Better Regulation by highlighting its practical contradictions and implications for policy implementation and regulatory practice.
Corporatist arrangements in local governance are formal structures designed to incorporate interest groups in decision-making. Local corporatism is often dysfunctional. This may be a result of malign intent. However, where there are good faith actors, what are some conditions under which corporatist structures have been redesigned? Our paper tests theoretical expectations from institutionalist theory. Theory suggests that the dynamics of change are shaped by disruptions in the institutional context, which can create conditions that lead to the formation of new rules. Using a detailed case study, we examine rule redesign in local corporatism within a new tier of sub-national government in the UK. Macro-level disruption alone did not automatically generate participatory redesign. Instead, redesign was mobilised through the agency of multiple actors creating and amending rule specifications. We highlight that institutional change may take the form of a series of iterative mini-disruptions created by actor agency. Our research suggests that there is a need to refine expectations about critical junctures to incorporate a more nuanced model of layered, incremental institutional redesign. We conclude that a focus on local variation may offer a cautiously optimistic account of reform in a context often seen as resistant to innovation.
Following extreme climate events and the onset of armed conflict, countries have adopted a diverse mix of policies regarding the evacuation and repatriation of their nationals. What conceptual insights does this mix of policies offer to policy scholarship on the transnational policy process? Are all policies equally transnational? This article presents the first comprehensive review of repatriation and international evacuation policies of 45 countries, addressing issues of policy features and international norms. Building on this extensive empirical dataset, it introduces the concepts of transnational density and of transnational intensity, borrowing from the terminology used in concepts by Bauer and Knill (2012) and allowing for the exploration of variation in the transnational policy process.
Facial recognition technologies (FRTs) crystallize tensions between security, innovation, and fundamental rights, as their implementation follows markedly different policy arrangements across states and geopolitical blocs. This article explores how policy implementation arrangements for FRTs shape models of digital sovereignty in the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Through a comparative, most-different systems design, and structured content analysis of secondary sources (laws; guidance; enforcement; grey literature), this investigation operationalizes four dimensions: regulatory frameworks; actor networks; implementation and enforcement mechanisms; and sovereignty implications. Three distinctive pathways emerge, namely, the EU’s rule-and-regulator, the US’s liability-and-localism, and the PRC’s command-and-integration, which shape digital sovereignty attributes by reflecting broader security-related strategies. The article advances a mechanism-based account linking policy implementation to sovereignty claims and offers policy recommendations for aligning policy instruments with regulatory oversight capacity.
The past 60 years have been ones of great progress for public policy in the United States, followed by substantial decline. This period also experienced substantial development of policy theory, although that theory may not be as effective when dealing with the increased elite domination in contemporary politics. This personal reflection on these years links these two aspects of public policy.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, both academic advisors and bureaucrats were involved in Scientific Advisory Committees (SACs) or Policy Advisory Systems (PASs) in Kenya and South Africa. Despite the involvement of stakeholders, including community members, interest groups, think tanks, donors, and development partners, the academic advisors and bureaucrats were central – to varying degrees – to the policy design in each country. This study analyzed the nature and scope of the interaction between academic advisors and bureaucrats in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the two countries. The comparative case analysis of Kenya and South Africa revealed significant bureaucratic control over the roles of SACs/PASs’, demonstrating that the extent of government control can greatly influence the nature and scope of engagement between academic advisors and bureaucrats in research, policy analysis, consultancy, and as seconded experts in emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally, being internal to the government, bureaucrats dominated the policy processes and invited academic advisors as needed, largely based on an authoritative form of PAS management. There is still much ground to cover regarding the role of academic advisors in the transitional democracies policy process.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) proclaimed its metamorphosis into a climate bank in 2019. As the financing body of the European Union, the political context surrounding the bank’s announcement has garnered significant academic interest. Despite its dual nature as both a Union body and a financial entity, the business rationale behind EIB’s shift has remained underexplored. To narrow this research gap, this paper addresses two research questions: Did business interests, in addition to political motivations, influence the EIB’s pivot to climate? And was this change truly transformational? Examining lending metrics and the business model, it argues that the rapid shift to climate, although not supported by prior strategy, provided the EIB with positioning and operational opportunities. The paper finds that the pivot, while rhetorically bold, entailed limited structural changes.JEL CLASSIFICATION: L20, L31, M10, G31, G21
