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The Quality of Territorial Policies in Europe’s Periphery pp 21–43Cite as

Analysing the Quality of Territorial Policies in Europe’s Periphery: The Theoretical and Methodological Framework

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Part of the Urban and Landscape Perspectives book series (URBANLAND,volume 22)

Abstract

This chapter aims to develop the theoretical and methodological framework of the research. In the theoretical section of the chapter, we clarify the explanatory objectives of the study. First, we explain the nature of public policies and how they can be analysed. Second, we introduce the institutionalisation of the governance system as an independent variable that can provide descriptive and prescriptive explanations of the quality of territorial policies from both politics- and policy-oriented perspectives. We then present a unified policy-oriented theoretical framework, explaining the analytical dimensions of both the above-mentioned variables and the relationship between them. In the methodological section of the chapter, we first address the selection of the island of Sardinia as the territorial context of the research. Second, we present the multiple-case research design of the research and explain why urban regeneration and environmental protection were chosen as the policy areas to be addressed in the study. Finally, we discuss the choice of semi-structured interviews as the qualitative method of analysis to empirically test the research hypothesis.

Keywords

  • Quality of public policies
  • Institutionalisation
  • Sardinia

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Fig. 2.1

Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Aristotle, the constitution (πολιτεία) concerns the magistrates (αρχαία), the way they are assigned, the assignment of sovereignty (τὸ κύριον) and the determination of the purpose of each association (κοινωνία). It is separate from the laws (νόμοις) laying down the rules under which the judges exercise their power (ἀρχειν) and punish offenders.

  2. 2.

    In this context, Hjern and Hull (1982) speak of methodological constitutionalism or conventional wisdom. This has led individuals in the fields of political science and public administration to often interpret regulatory architecture and constitutional powers not only as a prescriptive element of the expected social order but also (mostly) as a descriptive tool of interactions between democratic institutions.

  3. 3.

    Monocentric policy-making concepts, like those of party government (Rose 1974; Castles and Wildenmann 1986; Blondel and Cotta 1996, 2000) and bureaucratic government (Page 1985; Peters 1981), were developed based on this mainstream theory.

  4. 4.

    In the governance model, collective decisions result from negotiations and interactions between decentralised agreements among public institutions at different levels and the actual powers that control coalition, financial, professional, informational and symbolic resources. Private organisations and public authorities are connected by continuous negotiation processes that redefine the authority derived from voting, resulting in a variable balance between unilateral command acts and multilateral voluntary agreements. There is an extensive literature on the concept of governance, ranging from political science to public administration to organisational sociology. However, the purpose of our work is not to shed light on the different analytical dimensions underlying the use of this concept in the social sciences. For a general discussion of the field, see the work of Kooiman (1993), Rhodes (1996, 1997), Pierre (2000) and Peters and Savoie (2001).

  5. 5.

    See the seminal studies of Granovetter (1985) and Powell and Di Maggio (1991).

  6. 6.

    Learning has been analysed in the fields of social and political science from different perspectives. For some of the most significant contributions from these perspectives, see the work of Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1993), Hall (1993) and Huber (1991).

  7. 7.

    See De Bruijn (2002); Ingraham, Joyce and Donahue (2003); and Foweraker and Landman (2002).

  8. 8.

    See Yanow (1996; 2000) and Dryzek and Berejikian (1993).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

    Mauro Tebaldi & Marco Calaresu

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  1. Mauro Tebaldi
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Tebaldi, M., Calaresu, M. (2021). Analysing the Quality of Territorial Policies in Europe’s Periphery: The Theoretical and Methodological Framework. In: The Quality of Territorial Policies in Europe’s Periphery. Urban and Landscape Perspectives, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62647-1_2

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