LIST OF PANELS

This workshop calls for research into the past, present, and future of policy entrepreneurship.  Research in policy entrepreneurship can be traced back to preeminent political scientists such as Ostrom (1965), William Riker (1982, 1986), the multiple streams framework of Kingdon (1984/2003) and Zahariadis (see, for example, 2007 and 2014). Recent efforts have adapted classical theories to entrepreneurship in public affairs (Mintrom and Vergari 1996, Shockley 2008, Sheingate 2003).  Many policy process theories rely on some conception of policy entrepreneurship (Baumgartner and Jones 1993, Carpenter 2001, Ingram and Ullery 1980). Mintrom and Norman (2009) outlined a set of directions for the scholarship of policy entrepreneurship, noting that “[f]urther work to integrate policy entrepreneurship into mainstream theorizations of policy change holds the potential of changing our notions of the mainstream itself” (p. 663).

This workshop seeks to clarify, deepen, extend, or update its use from a theoretical and practical perspective.  One theme of this workshop is that policy entrepreneurship can be seen as ubiquitous in all human political endeavors.  Another theme is that policy entrepreneurship emphasizes not only the descriptive power of identifying individual policy entrepreneurs (Frohlich, Oppenheimer, and Young 1971, Doig and Hargrove 1987, e.g., Carpenter 2001) but also the explanatory power of entrepreneurship in public policy (Sheingate 2003).  For this workshop we would seek papers to amplify both of these themes.  Specifying the function of policy entrepreneurship in the policy process – and the different models of the policy process – is a key objective of the workshop. 

Another theme of policy change is identified by Petridou (2014).  She concluded that policy entrepreneurship is a stand-alone lens which can be used to understand policy change. It has been used in multiple sectors (see for example, David, 2015; Olsson and Hysing, 2012; Petridou and Sparf, 2018) in non-Western environments (Hammond, 2013; Meydani, 2015) and in conjunction with social network analysis (Christopoulos, 2006; Christopoulos and Ingold, 2015). Exploring policy change is a third theme of the workshop.

A fourth theme is that of the relationship between, on the one hand, policy entrepreneurship and, on the other, power and legitimacy. In conjunction with research at the micro level in the motives of policy entrepreneurs and their goals we stand to gain normative insights the role of entrepreneurial agency as an instrument of political power.

The future of policy entrepreneurship necessitates taking stock and setting an updated research agenda for the future. First, perhaps more attention to policy entrepreneurship as a theoretical framework rather vis-à-vis the policy entrepreneur is needed. Additionally, the conceptual interrelations of entrepreneurship and leadership are not yet exhaustively theorized. Addressing the past, present, and future of policy entrepreneurship, this workshop seeks to explore these themes at a minimum.

This workshop calls for research into the past, present, and future of policy entrepreneurship.  Policy entrepreneurship has a decades-long history in political science and continues to reappear in the policy sciences.  Mintrom and Norman (2009) outline a set of directions for the scholarship of policy entrepreneurship, noting that “[f]urther work to integrate policy entrepreneurship into mainstream theorizations of policy change holds the potential of changing our notions of the mainstream itself” (p. 663).

This workshop seeks to clarify, deepen, and extend use of policy entrepreneurship from a theoretical and practical perspective.  One theme of this workshop is that policy entrepreneurship can be seen as ubiquitous in all human political endeavors.  Another theme is that policy entrepreneurship emphasizes not only the descriptive power of identifying individual policy entrepreneurs (Frohlich, Oppenheimer, and Young 1971, Doig and Hargrove 1987, e.g., Carpenter 2001) but also the explanatory power of entrepreneurship in public policy (Sheingate 2003).  Another theme of policy change is identified by Petridou (2014).  She concluded that policy entrepreneurship is a stand-alone lens which can be used to understand policy change. A fourth theme is that of the relationship between, on the one hand, policy entrepreneurship and, on the other, power and legitimacy.

These themes are non-exhaustive; we welcome any papers that fall within the general topic of policy entrepreneurship. Papers that further the policy entrepreneurship scholarship from a theoretical or empirical perspective, comparative research as well as research into innovative methodologies are also welcomed.