How Solutions Chase Problems: Instrument Constituencies in the Policy Process

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Beland, Daniel; Howlett, Michael
• 署名单位: Simon Fraser University
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12179
• 发表日期: 2016
• 关键词: governance shifts; GOVERNMENT; DESIGN; formulation; INNOVATION; EVOLUTION; CRITIQUE; science; ACTORS; rise

摘要

Public policies are composed of complex arrangements of policy goals and policy means matched through some decision-making process. Exactly how this process works and which comes firstproblem or solutionis an outstanding research question in the policy sciences. This article argues the emerging concept of an instrument constituencya subsystem component dedicated to the articulation and promotion of particular kinds of solutions regardless of problem contextcan help policy scholars answer this critical question and better understand policymaking. At present, however, there is only limited empirical evidence of the existence, accuracy, and relevance of the instrument constituency concept. This article clarifies and refines the concept through cross-sectoral and cross-national case studies, demonstrating its utility in aiding our understanding of policy processes and their dynamics, including the issue of how problems and solutions are proposed and matched in the course of policy adoption.