LIST OF PANELS

The aim of the proposed workshop is to use policy instruments as an organizing concept, which allows to focusing attention on the process of instrumentation, namely, the set of problems posed by the choice and use of instruments (techniques, methods of operation, devices) that allow government policy to be made material and operational (Lascoumes, Le Galès 2007). This approach enables a new important set of questions to be posed in regards to evolving forms of governance within different political systems.

It questions the work done on the uses of statistics, indicators and other ranking tools (Power 1997; Espeland, Mitchell, 2008) and their effects, which are sometimes analysed in terms of “new bureaucratic revolutions” (Espeland, Sauder, 2007; Galès, Scott, 2008). Admittedly, the diffusion of such techniques, at least for the last thirty years, constitutes a fundamental trend in the restructuring of policies and governance in a number of national contexts. In relationship with the diffusion of neoliberal ideas, it also resulted into the adoption of specific instruments aimed at organizing competition, performance and sanction. Yet the sociology of numbers argues that such developments are not exclusively related to neo-liberal dynamics, but rather to the changes resulting from the rise of new technologies (computing, communication, big data). Moreover, Weberian sociologists suggest that the introduction of such techniques often results from the quest, by administrative elites, for renewed policy capabilities (Bezes et al. 2018) or in a context in which classic forms of political regulation have failed.

This workshop aims at bringing together scholars currently conducting research on policy instruments in different national contexts to examine the link between policy instrument and governance. Proposals linking the analysis of a specific case study with theoretical and / or methodological thoughts are encouraged.

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