Testing Structuralist and Interpretative Explanations of Policy Change
The Case of Italy's Budget Reform
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6264993 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francesco Stolfi (0000-0002-0565-5888, University of Limerick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 109-132 |
| Publication date | 2010-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-1895 • E-ISSN: 1468-0491 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01469.x |
| OpenAlex | W2057859353 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 30 |
This article compares the relative explanatory power of structuralist and interpretative approaches to the study of policy change. By assessing the fit of these approaches against the actual reform of the formulation, approval, and implementation stages of Italy's budget process in the 1990s, the article shows that structural factors (such as fiscal pressures and changes in the electoral rules) played a key role in the reform of the formulation stage but not in that of the approval and implementation stages, where the content of reform followed the managerialist paradigm endorsed by the Italian reform community. Italy in the 1990s was under considerable pressure to achieve fiscal retrenchment, and the managerialist paradigm advocated measures that were largely antithetical to those that can be deduced from the changes in institutional context. Thus, the Italian case provides an excellent opportunity to assess the relative causal impact of ideas and structure on reform
Context (archaeology · Economics · Epistemology · Explanatory power · Political science · Positive economics · Power (physics · Retrenchment · Sociology · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research
Designing Social Inquiry
Governing the Commons
Public Management Reform
Fiscal Governance in Europe
The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions
Interests, Institutions, and Information
Governance in a Changing Environment
Italy and Its Discontents
Comparative Politics
Democracy, bureaucracy and public choice
The Civil Servant as Legislator
Administrative Traditions and Policy Change
Is the New Public Management a Paradigm? Does it Matter
The Europeanization of Italy's budget institutions in the 1990s
Showing Ideas as Causes
The Social Democratic Moment
Hypotheses on the Italian administrative system
Reshaping the state
Policy transfers between governments
Governance Without Government? Rethinking Public Administration
The Middle Aging of New Public Management
Anarchy is what states make of it
The agent-structure problem in international relations theory
Inside the Autonomous State
Pre-electoral coalitions in comparative perspective
The "steering state" model
Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,27 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2016 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |