First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this updated volume explores policy failures and the valuable opportunities for learning that they offer.
Policy successes and failures offer important lessons for public officials, but often they do not learn from these experiences. The studies in this volume investigate this broken link. The book defines policy learning and failure and organises the main studies in these fields along the key dimensions of processes, products and analytical levels. Drawing together a range of experts in the field, the volume sketches a research agenda linking policy scholars with policy practice.
Policy learning and policy failure: definitions, dimensions and intersections1 Claire A. Dunlop, c.a.dunlop@ex.ac.uk University of Exeter, UK Policy failures present a valuable opportunity for policy learning, but public officials often fail to learn valuable lessons from these experiences. The studies in this volume investigate this broken link. This introduction defines policy learning and failure, and then organises the main studies in these fields along the key dimensions of: processes, products and analytical levels. We continue with an overview of the
licensed on the same terms. article SPECIAL ISSUE • Practical lessons from policy theories The lessons of policy learning: types, triggers, hindrances and pathologies1 Claire A Dunlop, c.a.dunlop@exeter.ac.uk University of Exeter, UK Claudio M Radaelli, c.radaelli@exeter.ac.uk University of Exeter, UK Policy learning is an attractive proposition, but who learns and for what purposes? Can we learn the wrong lesson? And why do so many attempts to learn what works often fail? In this article, we provide three lessons. First, there are four different modes in which
problems from the outset; with costs spiralling and the timetable slipping, the policy was effectively ‘reset’ in 2013 and political pressure to abandon it mounted in the months that followed. Yet, 2013 proved to be a turning point. Looking into the precipice of the failure of a flagship reform, policy makers engaged in policy learning. Along with analysing the technical problems and capacity deficits they faced, civil servants learned from previous experiences of implementing complex policies and from similar problems in social security reform in Australia. Appointing
409 Policy & Politics vol 37 no 3 • 409-21 (2009) • 10.1332/030557309X435817 © The Policy Press, 2009 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: developmental state • flying geese hypothesis • Fukuzawa paradox • policy learning Final submission February 2009 • Acceptance February 2009 Policy learning and transfer: the experience of the developmental state in East Asia Huck-ju Kwon As late industrialisers, East Asia’s developmental states – Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan – assimilated the front runners’ policy innovations and experience, taking advantage of
87 Policy & Politics • vol 45 • no 1 • 87–101 • © Policy Press 2017 • #PPjnl @policy_politics Print ISSN 0305 5736 • Online ISSN 1470 8442 • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557316X14743685010425 Policy failures, policy learning and institutional change: the case of Australian health insurance policy change Adrian Kay, adrian.kay@anu.edu.au Australian National University, Australia This article presents an institutionalist perspective on the relationship between policy failure and policy learning. It contributes both to our understanding of different patterns
What are the conditions that constrain or promote policy learning? The objective of this study is to understand which community characteristics are associated with policy learning and how those characteristics impact policy learning. This research contributes to the scholarship on policy learning ( Howlett, 2012 ; Howlett et al, 2017 ; Dunlop and Radaelli, 2018a ; 2018b ; Nowlin, 2020 ) by examining how contextual factors can promote policy learning or inhibit it using a mixed-methods analysis. It contributes to knowledge about policy learning by
491© The Policy Press, 2012 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: policy learning • international comparisons • knowledge utilisation Policy & Politics vol 40 no 4 • 491–504 (2012) • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557312X643786 Policy learning from abroad: why it is more difficult than it seems Stefanie Ettelt,1 Nicholas Mays and Ellen Nolte This article explores the process of policy learning from abroad from a knowledge utilisation perspective, using examples of health policy making in the Department of Health in England. It argues that information about policy abroad
19 Policy & Politics • vol 45 • no 1 • 19–37 • © Policy Press 2017 • #PPjnl @policy_politics Print ISSN 0305 5736 • Online ISSN 1470 8442 • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557316X14780920269183 article Pathologies of policy learning: what are they and how do they contribute to policy failure?1 Claire A. Dunlop, c.a.dunlop@exeter.ac.uk University of Exeter, UK We analyse policy failure as a degeneration of policy learning. Analytically, we drill down on one type – epistemic learning. This is the realm of evidenced-based policymaking (EBPM), where experts advise
Introduction In public policy, learning can be understood as the process by which policy actors interact with policy related knowledge and information to update their understandings and beliefs regarding policy issues and gain insights into potential policy adjustments ( Zaki et al, 2022 ). Accordingly, policy learning is often leveraged in policy analysis to explain the how and why of policy change, or the lack thereof (for example, Bennett and Howlett, 1992 ; Dunlop and Radaelli, 2017 ). During crises, policy learning can play a substantial role, as
