LIST OF PANELS

The study of public policy is a relatively new discipline, prompted by Lasswell’s call for the establishment of a policy sciences in the 1950s. Various theories, frameworks and models, such as advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier 1988), multiple streams framework (Kingdon 1984), have been constructed to provide analytical rigor to understanding how policies are designed, implemented and evaluated. Much of these explanatory frameworks have policy systems from OECD countries in mind and public policy research in developing countries remain scant. The field of comparative public administration acknowledged the dualism between developed and developing country policy-making, but the field have withered due to decolonization. Other comparative studies appear to compare systems only relative to the US and other OECD countries.

In 2006, Colebatch and Radin called for greater scholarly work to challenge whether what we know about policy work holds true in these countries. For instance, the growing South-South policy transfer, although limited, have the potential to unpack the mechanisms behind why policies move from one system to another (Nedley, 2004). Existing public policy research in developing countries point to a pluralized, more contested policy system that may challenge the applicability of existing policy theories. However, there is also evidence of convergence of findings that show the need for nuancing these theories into developing countries.

This panel will invite papers that will extend and deepen the work on public policy-making in developing countries in two ways. First, how does existing theories apply to developing countries? These papers need to contribute to theory building and unpack the reasons why might public policy-making in developing countries be different (or the same) with developed countries.

The idea is to find ways to advance the external validity of these different theories by identifying way to reconfigure its causal logic, variables, among others. Second, papers are invited that identify frameworks, models and practices that intellectually emerged from developing countries. These papers have to describe and explain why these frameworks can contribute to better understanding how public policy-making happen in developing countries.

This panel invites research on public policy-making in developing countries. Papers need to deliberately expand our understanding about existing policy theories and frameworks and their applicability in developing countries. In particular, we invite papers that consider the following questions:

Do policy systems in developing countries use evidence differently?
Are there actors that are disproportionately more powerful in developing countries? How and in what ways do they affect policy-making and implementation?
What is the role of development aid in policy-making?

Papers with strong empirical focus are most welcomed.

Subject to the quality of papers, papers can be collected as a submission for a special issue of leading journals or an edited volume.