The Determinants of Public Policy

What Matters and How Much

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6328348
AutoresPaul Burstein (0000-0002-9138-6150, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume48
Fascículo1
Páginas87-110
Data de publicação2020-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolicy Studies Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0190-292X • E-ISSN: 1541-0072
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/psj.12243
OpenAlexW2792541923
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas86

This article is a research synthesis addressing four questions critical to our understanding of the determinants of public policy. How often and how strongly do hypothetical determinants of policy—public opinion, interest groups, the party balance, and other factors—actually influence policy? Do some hypothetical determinants of policy have more influence than others? Does the way we measure policy affect our ability to explain it? And is there a connection between how strongly particular variables affect policy, and how much effort we devote to studying them? It turns out that variables hypothesized to influence policy more often than not have no effect. When variables do affect policy, researchers very seldom say anything about how much impact they have. Variables that convey the most information to policymakers about what the public wants have a greater impact than other variables, but it is less clear how the measurement of policy affects our findings. Researchers pay much attention to hypothetical determinants of policy unlikely to matter very much, and little attention to those likely to be the most important. Implications for future research are considered

Affect (linguistics · Balance (ability · Economic growth · Economics · Policy studies · Political science · Public economics · Public policy · Variables · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology