Policy design: From tools to patches

• Main Authors: HOWLETT, Michael, MUKHERJEE, Ishani
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation; Policy History, Theory, and Methods
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2523; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3780/viewcontent/Howlett_et_al_2017_Canadian_Public_Administration.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Policy design involves the purposive attempt by governments to link pol-icy instruments or tools to the goals they would like to realize. The studyof policy design focuses on these tools, their advantages and disadvan-tages and better understanding the processes around their selectio n anddeployment in order to improve policy-making efforts and outcomes.The road map for the development of this approach to the policy sciencesstretches from early works in public policy studies around the identifica-tion of policy tools and the classification of instrument types in the 1960sand early 1970s (Design 1.0), to present-day studies that strive to effec-tively formulate effective and conte xt-appropriate policy alternatives giv-en the specific historical legacies and political realities in which policyselection and implementation takes place (Design 2.0). Canadians havebeen leaders in both eras, with many well-known works on policy toolsas well as more recent works on policy design written by Canadianauthors. This contribution sets out five key sets of articles in each era inthis field, featuring a major work in the discipline and a matching articlefrom Canada in each time period examined. We have chosen to organizethe discussion below chronologically featuring the two major policydesign “eras” and the major theoretical developments that have definedthem.