The criteria for effective policy design

Character and context in policy instrument choice

Bibliographic Data

ID12911151
AuthorsMichael Howlett (0000-0003-4689-740X, National University of Singapore, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume11
Issue3
Pages245-266
Publication date2017-12-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Asian Public Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-6242 • E-ISSN: 1751-6234
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17516234.2017.1412284
OpenAlexW2771927119
LanguageEN
Citations received44
References cited123

Recent studies of policy design have grappled with such issues as policy tool use, overcoming historical policy legacies, the nature of policy mixes and issues around policy formulation and the nature of ‘design’ and ‘designing’ in policy-making. These studies have begun to establish insights into what makes a policy design ‘effective’ or likely to succeed in being adopted or implemented or both. This paper draws lessons from both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ design work to establish several basic criteria for effective design and designing. As the review of the literature shows, the kinds of lessons that can be drawn from these studies fall into two categories: those dealing with matching design activity to the context of policy-making and those which focus on the character of the tools deployed in a design. The paper sets out both these elements and shows how they can be combined to generate lessons, insights and practices for both policy scholars and practitioners alike

Character (mathematics · Context (archaeology · Economics · Management science · Matching (statistics · Policy analysis · Political science · Computer Science · Policy Transfer and Learning · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub