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The politics of public policy is a vibrant research area increasingly at the forefront of intellectual innovations in the discipline. We argue that political scientists are best positioned to undertake research on the politics of public policy when they possess expertise in particular policy areas. Policy expertise positions scholars to conduct theoretically innovative work and to ensure that empirical research reflects the reality they aim to analyze. It also confers important practical advantages, such as access to a significant number of academic positions and major sources of research funding not otherwise available to political scientists. Perhaps most importantly, scholars with policy expertise are equipped to defend the value of political science degrees and research in the public sphere.

ABSTRACTThe politics of public policy is a vibrant research area increasingly at the forefront of intellectual innovations in the discipline. We argue that political scientists are best positioned to undertake research on the politics of public policy when they possess expertise in particular policy areas. Policy expertise positions scholars to conduct theoretically innovative work and to ensure that empirical research reflects the reality they aim to analyze. It also confers important practical advantages, such as access to a significant number of academic positions and major sources of research funding not otherwise available to political scientists. Perhaps most importantly, scholars with policy expertise are equipped to defend the value of political science degrees and research in the public sphere.

This paper seeks to synthesize some of the main conclusions a of those who have thought about or studied the uses and limitations of social science research for public policy. The paper is designed to provide some background for a discussion of social science and public policy by government officials, social scientists, and others who are interested in policy research. We deal with the following factors which appear to have influenced the utilization of social science research results: (1) the validity of the scientific approach to social questions, (2) the individual researcher and policy maker and their attitudes toward each other, (3) the communication between researcher and policy maker, (4) the type of research conducted, (5) the type of research organizations involved, (6) the motivation for the research effort, and (7) the nature of the topic being studied. ; Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources

This paper analyzes simultaneous voting on the wage tax rate and investment in public education with three overlapping generations and productivity differences inside each cohort. Wage tax revenue finances public education and social security benefits. The presence of productivity differences introduces a time-consistency problem with repeated voting. This can be solved by trigger strategies which do not punish upward deviations in the wage tax rate. If there are multiple equilibria, then higher tax rates are associated with more education. Surprisingly, the median voter may be a young citizen even when cohorts are of the same size.

Apart from financing retirement provision, assistance and care for elderly people ist he central issue in Swiss politics concerning elderly people. While medical care has been in focus of the discourse about health and social politics for a while, the issue of care work was often only touched upon. This book discusses legal issues concerning medical care and care work, describes the involved actors, the education, the recruitment and the wages of employees. Furthermore, self-sustained and health promoting living at a high age is an issue. It becomes evident that care work is neither legally defined nor with regards to content. Legal regulations securing quality standards, legal stability for employees as well as the integration of care work into the system of social security, are lacking in practice. In view of these conditions and changes and society, this book shows that the issue of care work needs more consideration in the political discourse concerning elderly people.

This paper proposes and analyzes a model of a "European economy" with three overlapping generations, redistributive social security, and public universities without tuition. Individuals differ ex ante. The effect of wage tax rate on occupational choice and the voting equilibrium of wage tax rate and educational investments are analyzed both under full certainty and with income risks facing the educated and the uneducated.

Javne su politike, kao višedimenzionalan i izrazito kompleksan fenomen, nužno multidisciplinaran predmet istraživanja. Cilj je rada istražiti što je specifično politološko znanje o javnim politikama, odnosno koji je jedinstveni doprinos politologa izučavanju i upravljanju javnim politikama u svrhe profiliranja te mlade politološke discipline u Jugoistočnoj Europi. Rad je nastao kao rezultat pregleda temeljnih udžbenika javnih politika u svijetu i regiji, te literature o metodologiji i pristupima istraživanju u društvenim znanostima i politologiji. Kreće se od određivanja što su javne politike i što je politički aspekt javnih politika. Propituju se pristupi istraživanju javnih politika (policy studije). Zatim se identificiraju vrste profesionalne uporabe tih istraživanja (policy analize). Ključna je pretpostavka kako je politologija prvenstveno kompetentna za analizu aktera stvaranja politika. Osnovni je nalaz da temelj profesionalnog profiliranja politologa u javnim politikama, s obzirom da jedini rabe istraživačku perspektivu usmjerenu na aktere, reprezentativnost i legitimnost stvaranja politika, može biti jedan oblik participatorne policy analize. ; Public policies, as a multi-dimensional and highly complex phenomenon, necessarily make a multidisciplinary research subject. The aim of this paper is to examine what is specific political science knowledge about public policy, and what is the unique contribution of political scientists to policy research and governance to enhance consolidating this young discipline in Southeastern Europe. This paper is a result of a review of policy textbooks in Southeastern Europe and worldwide, and literature on approaches and methodologies in social sciences and political science. It starts with determining public polices and their political aspect. Then it explores approaches of policy studies. Finally, it identifies types of professional policy research or policy analysis. The key assumption is that political science is primarily competent to analyze policy actors. The main finding of the paper is that the basis of political scientist professionalization in policy research, given that they are best in actor-centered research, and issues of representativeness and legitimacy of policy-making, can be a form of participatory policy analysis.

Child safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted wisdom, progress has been distinctly hesitant. This paper contributes to understanding both the challenges and opportunities presented through working across organisational boundaries in the context of safeguarding children. It draws on a study of relations within one of the largest Safeguarding Children partnerships in England, developing insights from Etienne Wenger regarding the potential of 'communities of practice' that innovate on the basis of everyday learning through 'boundary work'. We demonstrate how such networked approaches expose the differential power relations and sites of conflict between organisations but also provide possibilities to challenge introspective cultures and foster organisational learning. We argue that crucial in cultivating effective 'communities of practice' are: shared commitment and purpose; relations of trust; balanced exchange of information and resources; mutual respect for difference; and an open and mature dialogue over possible conflicts. Boundary crossing can open opportunities to foster increased reflexivity among policing professionals, prompting critical self-reflection on values, ongoing reassessment of assumptions and questioning of terminology. Yet, there is an inherent tension in that the learning and innovative potential afforded by emergent 'communities of practice' derives from the coexistence and interplay between both the depth of knowledge within practices and active boundaries across practices.

Socio-legal studies; Law; Criminology; Criminal justice; Action research; Scandinavia; Welfare state; Norway; Demark; Finland; Sweden; Iceland

Innerhalb von 20 Jahren wurde auf dem Arbeitsmarkt in Deutschland ein Paradigmenwechsel zur Alterserwerbstätigkeit vollzogen, der sich in zwei Schüben entfaltete: Die Politik wandte sich im letzten Jahrzehnt des alten Jahrhunderts von der Frühverrentung ab, und im ersten Jahrzehnt des neuen Jahrhunderts stieg die Alterserwerbsbeteiligung in einem - auch im europäischen Vergleich - überraschend starken Ausmaß an. Dieses Buch zeichnet den Wandel des Altersübergangs differenziert nach: In welchen Schritten hat er sich vollzogen, und wie haben die vielen Stellschrauben beim Übergang vom Erwerbsleben in die Rente ineinandergegriffen?

The Nordic Economic Policy Review is published by the Nordic Council of Ministers. This year's issue is part of the Danish presidency programme for the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2015. The review addresses policy issues in a way that is useful for in-formed non-specialists as well as for professional economists. All articles are commissioned from leading professional economists and are subject to peer review prior to publication. The review appears once a year. It is published electronically on the website of the Nordic Council of Ministers: www.norden.org/en. On that website, you can also order paper copies of the Review (enter the name of the Review in the search field, and you will find all the information you need).

This paper provides an analysis of political and institutional drivers that shape social policy in South Africa with a specific focus on social security. As elsewhere in the Global South, South Africa has a quite extensive social assistance framework, whereas social insurance is limited and inadequate. This is contrary to the experiences of the Global North, where social insurance has been the primary social security mechanism with social assistance playing a more marginal role. In order to explore the contrasting developments within social security policy, we focus our analysis on two case studies with varying policy outcomes: 1) the social cash transfer system, which is well established; and 2) the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, a recent policy, which has suffered several delays. Building on the power resource and historical institutionalism approaches, we explore how different actors seek to assert their policy preferences, and how current institutional arrangements shape actors' interests and their ability to influence policy reforms. The two cases reveal interesting differences that can explain the success of social cash transfer expansion and the sluggish progress (to date) to introduce national health insurance. While the latter has strong vested interests against reform, even though there is consensus on the need for a national health insurance scheme, the former has had no strong opponents and subsequent incremental expansions have benefited from well-established institutional arrangements, positive research evidence and civil society advocacy and litigation. Moreover, the introduction of a health insurance scheme is relatively more complex (politically, institutionally and technically), compared to expanding an already existing social cash transfer programme. In our analysis, we also explore the different ideational narratives related to the two types of policies. Social cash transfers have legitimacy as a policy addressing the needs of the most vulnerable, which are defined to be the elderly, young and people living with disabilities, but not able-bodied adults. In the case of health insurance, ideological narratives are pitted against each other: the concept of health as a common good against health as a commodity, and market-oriented strategies for delivery against state-centric approaches. ; Prepared for the UNRISD project New Directions in Social Policy: Alternatives from and for the Global South

Public participation is ubiquitous in many contemporary democratic societies – used for many purposes, and in many contexts, with particular and growing relevance for policy-making on science and technology issues. However, there is a dearth of evidence as to its qualities and benefits. We contend that the implementation and interpretation of participation faces a number of dilemmas that – together –undermine its successful adoption. In this paper, we identify and discuss six specific dilemmas that – together – may militate against the practice and development of good quality participation in science and technology policy, notably dilemmas of Timing; of Relevance; of Representation; of Evaluation; of Criticism; and of Impact. We theoretically account for these dilemmas and discuss their likely impacts. Finally, we provide some suggestions as to how the participation community might attempt to pre-empt difficulties due to these dilemmas and demonstrate participation effectiveness.

Mode of access: Internet. ; MAIN; AQ.A45 suppl.: Other supplements are bound with Its Annals for the corresponding years, except supplement Mar. 1916 Index v.1-52 which is bound separately ; BUSI; H1.A4 suppl.: All other supplements are bound with Its Annals, with call number H1.A4 BUSI

Mode of access: Internet. ; Handbooks for 1891, 1897-98, 1901, issued as Supplements to the Society's Annals