Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in Comparative Public Policy

Abstract

Handbooks and manuals on public policy regularly open with a discussion on whether there is such a thing as a field of policy studies. Some point to the fact that the diversity of methodological and theoretical approaches, and the more ‘craft-oriented’ than purely science-oriented character of policy studies, make the building of grand theory a vain endeavour. Others, in order to affirm that we can meaningfully speak of a field of policy studies, have assembled and sometimes integrated concepts and theoretical frameworks in order to distinguish policy studies from other research programmes in the social sciences as a subdiscipline in its own right. This volume does not engage in this type of discussion, but takes for granted that there is a research tradition going back to the work of Lasswell (1951, 1970) that we can call policy studies. Lasswell conceived of the policy sciences as being problem focused, that is, interested in the substantive societal issues and problems facing governments which they need to address through analyzing the processes of policy formulation and choices, and by evaluating implementation and policy outcomes. He advocated a multidisciplinary, multimethod and theory-driven approach. In this approach, in order to contribute to problem solving, we need theories of the policy process in order to understand the mechanisms and factors that shape policy choices and policy outcomes.