The idea of policy design: Intention, process, outcome, meaning and validity

While policy design is a relatively recent term in the social science literature, the concept itself is ancient. The modernist incarnation, from the mid-20th century onwards, is grounded in the applied social sciences: the systematic calculation of prob- lems, values, practices and outcomes. But in many ways, the confidence of the faith in systematic design was not borne out by experience. It became clear that rather than finding expert designers advising authoritative decision-makers and perhaps monitoring the activities of subordinate ‘implementers’, the world of policy was populated by multiple participants in distinct organisational locations, with divergent framings, con- tinuing negotiation on practice, and ambiguity in the understanding of outcomes. There is clearly a tension between the image of policy design and the experience of the activity. The response to this tension in the literature on policy design has largely been aimed at reconciling the experience of practice with the norms of instrumental rationality. It has tended to give little attention to the interpretive significance of ‘design talk’ in the process of governing. This paper argues that ‘policy design’ is an exercise in giving meaning – framing activity in a way that makes practices and outcomes appropriate and valid – and develops a more comprehensive analysis of ‘policy design’ as a concept in use in both policy practice and the analysis of that practice

Challenge and Development: The Emerging Understanding of Policy Work

Two themes have traversed the academic and practitioner literatures on policy and policy analysis: the search for a sophisticated technology of choice in the paradigm of instrumental rationality, and a ‘puzzling’ about the relationship of this technology to practice. A great deal of conceptual development has emerged from the tension between these two themes. There has been a re-thinking of the nature of the actors in the policy process, of the significance of the organizational forms within which they are located, and of the way in which they engage with policy problems. There has been an increasing realization that while concepts of hierarchical authority and instrumental rationality are very significant in the policy process, they are inadequate as descriptions of that process, and that attention has to be given to the place of interpretation in the construction of policy. In this context, there has been a focus on the agency of the participants, and the way that policy activity has become a form of specialized and interactive practice, going well beyond classical formulations of ‘policy analysis’. This paper reviews the way in which this conceptual development has enabled a more complex and more informative analysis of the policy process, and the place of ‘policy analysis’ as part of this process

Challenge and Development: The Emerging Understanding of Policy Work

Two themes have traversed the academic and practitioner literatures on policy and policy analysis: the search for a sophisticated technology of choice in the paradigm of instrumental rationality, and a ‘puzzling’ about the relationship of this technology to practice. A great deal of conceptual development has emerged from the tension between these two themes. There has been a re-thinking of the nature of the actors in the policy process, of the significance of the organizational forms within which they are located, and of the way in which they engage with policy problems. There has been an increasing realization that while concepts of hierarchical authority and instrumental rationality are very significant in the policy process, they are inadequate as descriptions of that process, and that attention has to be given to the place of interpretation in the construction of policy. In this context, there has been a focus on the agency of the participants, and the way that policy activity has become a form of specialized and interactive practice, going well beyond classical formulations of ‘policy analysis’. This paper reviews the way in which this conceptual development has enabled a more complex and more informative analysis of the policy process, and the place of ‘policy analysis’ as part of this process

Some political implications of service provision: roads and schools and health services

This paper outlines the results of some research into three former county council services - primary education, minor roads and rural health services - taken over by the central government in 1970. It describes the organization of these services under the county councils and examines the financial relationships between the councils, and the centre, drawing attention to the way in which the system worked to encourage "crisis financing" on the part of the councils. It then considers the impact of the transfer of functions on each of the three services, and relates this to the general pattern of service provision in rural Kenya, and the interaction between local initiatives ("self-help") and government action

Participacija i profesionalizam u radu na javnim politikama: pitanja za zemlje u tranziciji

The emergence of ‘policy analysis’ as a skilled occupation in the governmental process raised questions about the significance of this work for democratic control in government, and the relationship between the discourses of elected leadership, expert policy analysis, and public norms and understandings, in the construction of policy. The questions are even more acute in the ‘transitional polities’ of Eastern Europe, where the norms of democratic accountability are less well established, but the rules of the game are ‘under reconstruction’. This paper reviews the way the themes of professionalism and participation relate to policy work in transitional polities, the tensions that policy workers face, and the way that the diverse discourses available are mobilized in the discursive construction of policy and policy work.Pojava analize javnih politika kao kvalificiranog zanimanja u procesu vladanja otvorila je pitanja o važnosti te vrste posla za demokratsku kontrolu vlasti, te o odnosu između diskursa izabranih vođa, profesionalnih analitičara politika i javnih normi i razumijevanja u konstrukciji javnih politika. Ta su pitanja još istaknutija u ‘tranzicijskim političkim sustavima’ Istočne Europe, gdje su norme demokratske odgovornosti manje uspostavljene, a pravila igre su u izgradnji. Ovaj rad razmatra u kojem su odnosu teme profesionalizma i participacije s radom na javnim politikama u zemljama u tranziciji, zatim napetosti s kojima se suočavaju oni koji rade na javnih politikama, te na koji se način različiti dostupni diskursi mobiliziraju u diskurzivnoj konstrukciji javnih politika i rada na javnim politikama

Effects of viewing distance on ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMPs) for air- And bone-conducted stimuli at multiple sites

BACKGROUND: The ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential is otolith-dependent and has been suggested to be a manifestation of the linear vestibulo-ocular reflex (L-VOR). A characteristic feature of the translational LVOR (t-LVOR) is its dependence on the distance of a target. OBJECTIVE: To assess if viewing distance affects amplitude and latency properties of the ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMPs). METHODS: Bone- and air-conducted (BC and AC) stimuli were used to evoke oVEMPs in 10 healthy subjects. BC stimuli consisted of impulsive accelerations applied at the mastoids, AFz, Oz and Iz. AC stimuli consisted of 500 Hz tones delivered unilaterally to each ear. Target distances of 40 cm (near), 190 cm (intermediate) and 340 cm (far) were used for all stimuli. RESULTS: The largest amplitude oVEMP was obtained from Iz and the latency for AFz was shorter than for BC stimulation at other sites. We found no significant effect of target distance on oVEMP amplitudes for any of the stimuli used. There was a small but significant effect on latency with the nearest target having a longer latency (overall 12.4 ms vs 12.0 ms for the 2 more distant sites). CONCLUSIONS: Previously reported differences between latencies and stimulus sites for midline BC stimulation were confirmed. Target distance had no significant effect on oVEMP amplitude, which suggests it is not modified like other components of the t-LVOR

Vestibular-dependent inter-stimulus interval effects on sound evoked potentials of central origin

AbstractTodd et al. (2014ab) have recently demonstrated the presence of vestibular-dependent contributions to auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) when passing through the vestibular threshold as determined by vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), including a particular deflection labeled as an N42/P52 prior to the long-latency AEPs N1 and P2. In this paper we report the results of an experiment to determine the effect of inter-stimulus interval (ISI) and regularity on potentials recorded above and below VEMP threshold. Five healthy, right-handed subjects were recruited and evoked potentials were recorded to binaurally presented sound stimulation, above and below vestibular threshold, at seven stimulus rates with ISIs of 212, 300, 424, 600, 848, 1200 and 1696 ms. The inner five intervals, i.e. 300, 424, 600, 848, 1200 ms, were presented twice in both regular and irregular conditions. ANOVA on the global field power (GFP) were conducted for each of four waves, N42, P52, N1 and P2 with factors of intensity, ISI and regularity. Both N42 and P52 waves showed significant ANOVA effects of intensity but no other main effects or interactions. In contrast both N1 and P2 showed additional effects of ISI, as well as intensity, and evidence of non-linear interactions between ISI and intensity. A source analysis was carried out consistent with prior work suggesting that when above vestibular threshold, in addition to bilateral superior temporal cortex, ocular, cerebellar and cingulate sources are recruited. Further statistical analysis of the source currents indicated that the origin of the interactions with intensity may be the ISI sensitivity of the vestibular-dependent sources. This in turn may reflect a specific vestibular preference for stimulus rates associated with locomotion, i.e. rates close to 2 Hz, or ISIs close to 500 ms, where saccular afferents show increased gain and the corresponding reflexes are most sensitive