Why do actors in the world of policy do what they do? This remains a quintessential question in public policy scholarship. It is intriguing not only for academics, but also for a public often puzzled by trying to understand the “why” and “how” of government action as well as inaction. Policy learning scholarship tries to answer this question by investigating why policy actors do what they do as a function of what and how they learn about policy issues. In this view of the world, learning is u..

Zaki, Bishoy L.

International Review of Public Policy

Zaki, Bishoy

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

Jonathan C. Kamkhaji, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the sovereign debt crisis

Why do actors in the world of policy do what they do? This remains a quintessential question in public policy scholarship. It is intriguing not only for academics, but also for a public often puzzled by trying to understand the “why” and “how” of government action as well as inaction. Policy learning scholarship tries to answer this question by investigating why policy actors do what they do as a function of what and how they learn about policy issues. In this view of the world, learning is ..

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 International Review of Public Policy 5:1 | 2023Regular IssueJonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and theEuro. The EU's responses to the sovereign debtcrisisBishoy L. ZakiElectronic versionURL: https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/3298DOI: 10.4000/irpp.3298ISSN: 2706-6274PublisherInternational Public Policy AssociationPrinted versionDate of publication: 1 April 2023ISSN: 2679-3873 Electronic referenceBishoy L. Zaki, “Jonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to thesovereign debt crisis”, International Review of Public Policy [Online], 5:1 | 2023, Online since 01 April2023, connection on 14 July 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/irpp/3298 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.3298 This text was automatically generated on 14 July 2023.Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Jonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policylearning and the Euro. The EU'sresponses to the sovereign debtcrisisBishoy L. ZakiREFERENCESKamkhaji, Jonathan C., Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, 184 p., ISBN 9783031042638.Hardcover: 42.19€, E-book: 32.09€1 Why do actors in the world of policy do what they do? This remains a quintessentialquestion in public policy scholarship. It is intriguing not only for academics, but alsofor a public often puzzled by trying to understand the “why” and “how” of governmentaction as well as inaction. Policy learning scholarship tries to answer this question byinvestigating why policy actors do what they do as a function of what and how theylearn about policy issues. In this view of the world, learning is understood as a processthat “motivates action”, and the implications of researching this are considerable. Howlearning takes  place  has  been shown to  affect  how coalitions  rise  or  collapse,  howparadigms are transformed, and how policy instruments are maintained, adjusted, orscrapped. In a world of increasingly complex policy problems and crises, these learningprocesses,  when  optimal,  can  contribute  to  commendable  success;  although,  ifmisdirected, learning can lead to lingering fiascos (Dunlop, James, & Radaelli, 2019).2 In a very engaging and accessible manner, Policy Learning and the Euro adopts this lens toinvestigate  the  why  and  how  of  the  European  Union’s  crisis  governance,  and  theprocesses of European integration. In this book, Jonathan Kamkhaji offers a thoroughanalysis of policy learning within the context of fiscal policy coordination under theEconomic and Monetary Union (EMU). Specifically, the book investigates the role ofJonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the...International Review of Public Policy, 5:1 | 20231learning in the demise of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the emergence of anew European fiscal framework and economic governance architecture in response tothe 2009 sovereign debt crisis — with a focus on the Greek case. The book focuses ontwo case studies covering three periods of  fiscal  policy by presenting a stimulatingstoryline:  “The quiet  before the storm (2008-2009)”,  “crisis  contingent learning andpolity  change  (2009-2010)”,  and  “a  new  season  of  policy  change  focused  on  theepistemic  construction  of  a  new policy  paradigm (2010-2013)”.  To  do  so,  Kamkhajileverages the ground-breaking work of Dunlop & Radaelli (2013), identifying four mainmodes  by  which  policy  learning  takes  place  —  hierarchal,  bargaining-oriented,epistemic, and reflexive — as causal mechanisms of policy change. 3 The convergence between the ontological approach and the empirical case is insightful.Ontologically,  learning  is  presented  as  a  communicative  collective  information-processing activity.  Taking a rather positivist  approach,  the book cleverly positionslearning as an omnipresent ontology of policymaking that exists regardless of learningquality  or  causal  implications  (i.e.,  positing  —  reasonably —  that  informationproduction  and  dissemination  occurs  everywhere).  In  doing  so,  the  author  adeptlymanoeuvres a long-standing challenge in identifying whether learning takes place ornot. Methodologically, the book does an outstanding job of showcasing how theory-testing process tracing can be used to appraise the causal influence of policy learningon policy outcomes. It is one of the relatively few robust methodological attempts atstudying the causal influence of policy learning in recent years, particularly as it offersa clear logical mechanism of causal inference and a nuanced well-caveated approach tomeasuring learning. 4 The book uses several key conceptual positions as departure points. First, that policylearning is not a mutually exclusive causal explainer of European integration; rather, itis one of many processes that — alongside others — facilitate policy and governanceadjustments  within  the  complex  EU  context.  Second,  that  the  outcome  object  oflearning (i.e., the EMU) is not a monolithic body; rather, it is a coherent, complex, andmulti-layered set  of  regimes  designed to  achieve  the  supranational  coordination ofeconomic policymaking. In so doing, the arguments presented are built on a real-lifemultilevel  understanding  of  the  learning  process  and  its  relationship  with  policychange. This is something often encouraged in policy-learning literature, yet not oftenpursued with sufficient nuance. 5 One of this book’s significant contribution is that it theorizes — and empirically traces— “contingent learning” (p. 79) as a new learning mechanism. In contingent learning,under acute crisis conditions, which can be cast as “change or die scenarios”, policychange  takes place  to  avoid  imminent  harm,  before  “real”  learning  by  inferencehappens (p. 91). While this has several implications for policy analysis, I find that themost  important  is  that  it helps  future  research  to  avoid  a  significant  pitfall  ofidentifying learning. Learning is commonly identified through observing policy change:to put it simply, with some theorization, we see policy change and thus we assume thatlearning  has  already  happened  and  this  is  why  we  see  change.  This  approach  toidentifying learning has often formed our basic understanding of how learning takesplace, and what its outcomes are. However, unravelling the mechanism of contingentlearning  gives  policy-learning  scholarship  another  scenario  to  think  about:  undercertain conditions, this change that we observe, even with some ex-ante assumptionthat learning could have taken place, might not necessarily be a sign of learning. ThisJonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the...International Review of Public Policy, 5:1 | 20232constitutes a major step toward avoiding Type II errors (false positives) concerning theidentification  of  learning,  a  common  malaise  of  policy-learning  research.  Anothercontribution of this book is that — in policy learning — it  brings one of the causalexplanatory variables for the high politics of EU governance and European integrationthrough robust theorization, something that has been scarce in scholarship. 6 Policy  learning  and  the  Euro  offers  several  important  and  valuable  findings  forresearch and practice. In addition to further entrenching policy learning as one of thekey causal explainers of European integration, the book also delves deep into the roleof  epistemic  agency  and expertise  in  inducing both instrumental  and paradigmaticchanges,  particularly  in  crisis  conditions.  This  work  has  been  quite  helpful  inunderstanding the dynamics of policy change in the recent COVID-19 crisis, on both theEuropean  level  (Ladi  &  Tsarouhas,  2020)  and  the  national  level  (Zaki,  Pattyn,  &Wayenberg, 2022).7 Perhaps one of the issues that could have been further addressed in this book is thesimultaneity  of  contingent  learning  with  previously  theorised  and  often  studiedinferential learning. This refers to whether various actor groups within the EU systemexperienced the same crisis differently, and thus went through different mechanismsof learning — for example,  some inferential  and some contingent.  Additionally,  thebook could bring benefits from having more reflections on the threshold after whichscholars can ascertain whether contingent or inferential learning has taken place, ormaybe  on  whether  this  is  more  of  a  spectrum  or  a  sliding  scale  between  twomechanisms of learning. 8 In conclusion, having read this book, I find it one of the most engaging contributions onpolicy learning within the context of European integration over the past few years. It ishighly suitable for both academics and practitioners,  for those with experience andknowledge of policy-learning literature, as well as those new to the field. I believe thatthis book offers a comprehensive approach to policy learning, from a well-developedtheoretical  perspective  to  an  exceptionally  robust  methodological  framework,  anenticing case, and intriguing findings. The book’s value is enhanced by its ability toexplain, in a very accessible format, the dynamics of EU governance and integrationwithin the shadow of crises which are becoming more commonplace within the EUcontext. I look forward to seeing future scholarship build on these findings so as toexplore  the  full  potential  of  contingent  learning in  understanding the  dynamics  ofpolicy change in a world of crises across different contexts. BIBLIOGRAPHYDunlop, C. A., & Radaelli, C. M. (2013). Systematising policy learning: From monolith todimensions. Political Studies, 61(3), 599-619. Dunlop, C., James, S., & Radaelli, C. (2019). Can’t get no learning: the Brexit fiasco through thelens of policy learning. Journal of European Public Policy, 27(5), 703-722. Jonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the...International Review of Public Policy, 5:1 | 20233Kamkhaji, J. C. (2022). Policy learning and the Euro: The EU's responses to the sovereign debt crisis.Palgrave Macmillan. Ladi, S., & Tsarouhas, D. (2020). EU economic governance and Covid-19: policy learning andwindows of opportunity. Journal of European Integration, 42(8). Zaki, B. L., Pattyn, V., & Wayenberg, E. (2022). Policy learning mode shifts during creeping crises:A storyboard of COVID-19 driven learning in Belgium. European Policy Analysis, 9(2), 142-166. AUTHORSBISHOY L. ZAKI Ghent University, Belgiumbishoy.zaki@ugent.beJonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the...International Review of Public Policy, 5:1 | 20234

Jonathan C. KAMKHAJI, Policy learning and the Euro. The EU's responses to the sovereign debt crisis

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