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The lack of combination of policy and politics analysis may threaten to weaken an holistic comprehension of public policy processes, particularly if one considers that this may be an heuristic entry point to study the state and its action in the Global South. Furthermore, employing research methods and tools produced in and for Northen countries raises the question of their adaptability to global South’s historical and political contexts. In the light of our concern for theoretical and methodological challenges that scholars who work on policy making processes in the global South may encounter, we call for papers focusing, on one hand, on empirical findings, and the other, on methodological insights. The first type of papers ideally wish to analyze the combination of policy analysis and political analysis at each stage of the policy process, from agenda setting, to the identification of alternatives, weighing up the options, choosing the favorable solutions and implementing it. As a premise, it is worth noting that we sollicit actor-centred analysis in order to emphasise the politics surrounding public policy. Therefore, we encourage case studies on countries fron the global South that analyze : the formulation process of public policy, and more particularly the confrontational dialogue of ideas, societal projects and interests built around the debated problems, putting in perspective the national with the international political contexts; the power relations among state and non-state actors involved in the policy making process. What are the underlying power dynamics and how are they built? the methods, instruments and strategies used by state and non state actors to politicized the policy at national and local level; the relationship between the nature of the political regime and the policy process; the influence of international paradigms, expertise, and aid actors regarding the debated problem, the policy making process, as well as the networks, alliances and coalitions constructed ad hoc. Second of all, we call for papers questioning the adaptability of tools conventionally employed for public policies analysis, conceptualized by and for Northern countries’ case studies but used in the global South. Therefore, we encourage papers that, on one hand, discuss the challenges scholars face when using those Northern conceptual tools and methodologies for global South’s case studies, and on the other hand, that propose the use of new theoretical framework and methodological tools to better apprehend public action in the global South.

Policy analysis can be defined as the study of how states approach public problems and find solutions to them in different sectors of society. The study of public action also includes the analysis of both the consequences and the side effects of the decisions implementation. However, policy-making processes should never be dissociated from their politicization. More specifically, policy analysis should also take into account what occurs within the state, to say how state and non-state actors establish themselves in networks, thus negotiating inherent policy and legislation. In sum, great attention should be paid to the politics and politicking which revolves around the decision-making processes and policy implementation. Ultimately, refusing the policies sequential analysis, we propose to focus on the process through which policies are produced and eventually how related political dynamics inform the construction of public authority. Academic analysts have sometimes ignored the politics/policy linkage because of its apparent futility from the problem-solving perspective, as it makes no argument for best policy. However, the great interest of studying policy making may lie in conceiving public policies as formidable instruments of power. In addition, and most importantly, this approach may allow researchers working on the Global South to lead a heuristic renewal reshaping the methodological framework for studying the state and its action. For some considerable time, public polices have not been a major field of research in the Global South. During the 70s, the 80s and the 90s, scholars working on Global South’s public structures have ended up conceptualizing the state as patrimonialist, affected by belly politics... The state in the Global South has been seen as criminal, at best as institutionally weak, never considered as an actor able to produce public policy understood as neutral, value-free, and seeking for the best solution. In recent years, even though more studies on policy-making process have been carried out in the global South, the politics surrounding public policy has been poorly taken into consideration. Last but not least, transferability of analytical tools for policy analysis, constructed in the North by Northern epistemic communities, may also be an issue for scholars seeking to frame empirical works through the mobilization of theoretical concepts. In fact, exporting these ethnocentric tools of analysis may be even more problematic because the architecture tool kit has its historical relevance, which can hardly be ignored. Finally, rare are the systematizations and conceptualizations of existing works on the policy/politics linkages, even in Northern case studies. Consequently, by questioning policy analysis’ methods for case studies in the Global South, promising avenue for research may rise up.