LIST OF PANELS

Policy design is one of the most commonly discussed approaches to public policy.  Despite its common use, existing studies of policy design have several weaknesses.  One of the more important of these weaknesses is that the terms that are commonly used to describe the components of designs many not be operationalized thoroughly.  Further, those various components of design may not be integrated well but are analyzed and discussed individually.  In particular, here has been an emphasis on policy instruments are constituting virtually the entirety of design, while our conception of design is substantially more encompassing.  Thus, this panel will attempt to develop a more operational and integrated conception of policy design.  Such a conception is useful not only for academic purposes but also for the practice of design. 

This proposed panel will build on the Handbook of Policy Design edited by the two proposers, and attempt to advance thinking about dynamic approaches to policy design.  The Handbook is based on a model of design that includes four components: problems, instruments, evaluation and intervention.  The main objective of this panel is to bridge the gap between theory and practice in policy design, while operationalizing this fourfold model. We wish to address three different questions: What is the actual contribution of a policy design framework to policy studies in theory and practice? How can we improve policy design in practice?   And what can understanding practice do to improve theory?   Why is institutionalization the cornerstone of policy design?

The first session of this panel will have papers on each of those four topics, and will be designed to present the “state of the art” in thinking about policy design. This opening session is dedicated to a general discussion about theories and methods utilized to deal with problems such as complexity and wickedness, context, values, power, and so on. The participants will present the different schools of thought that have contributed to develop the policy design framework so far. They will also present the current research agenda from their own theoretical perspective.

The second session of the panel will attempt to move the  policy design framework ahead by focusing on more dynamic conceptions of design and designing.  The current way of thinking about design mainly focuses on each of the four themes, or perhaps other themes, somewhat discretely.  This pattern of thinking enables us to understand the individual aspects of design but not to understand adequately how the process unfolds over time.  Especially important in this understanding is how the identification and conceptualization of problems is related to the choice of instruments and the selection of intervention strategies.  The Participants should begin to identify the activities comprising each of these elements of design, and identify the ways in which they are connected within and across those elements. One particular aspect of these linkages to be discussed in this session is related to macro-, meso- and micro-levels of the policy design process, namely paradigmatic, strategic and operative aims and means.

The third session of the panel will focus on linking institutional design with policy design.  Although the institutional structure within which policymaking and interventions occur is crucial to success and failure of a policy, and to the very essence of the policy, these linkages are not considered adequately in most approaches to policy design.  This session will also focus on dynamic aspects of policy design, and the policies designed.  The focus will, however be more vertical within institutions and discussing how types of institutions and their interconnections will shape designs. The literature has focused on the manner in which the different types of institutions may go about designing, but scholars have addressed less the impact of institutional designs on the success or failure of policy designs (especially at the intervention level). Of particular interest for the participants in this session will be the most recent of research on institutional change and resilience, cross-sectorial coordination and political interplays in multi-level governance.