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Research
Governance Programme
Policy processes are often
described as technocratic and formal
policy cycles. Policy makers are
assumed to identify problems, to
choose policy options, to make a
cost-benefit analysis for each
solution considered and to choose
the best alternative.
This framework is useful to
understand how policy is designed
and implemented technically. For
understanding empirical outcomes and
the real world complexities, however,
a governance framework is needed. In
the governance framework, the
conceptualization and implementation
of public policy is the result of a
process involving various public and
private actors. The actors are
organised in various hierarchies and
on different levels (international,
national, regional or local). Each
of these actors has its own
interests and priorities and the
hierarchy between them is flexible
and potentially changing throughout
a policy process.
The analysis of (public) policy
within a governance framework
enables researchers to understand
why the same policy instrument or
the same policy paradigm leads to
very different results across time
and location.
This framework puts the relationship
between the effectiveness and the
efficiency of a policy on the one
hand and the processes that has lead
to the design and its specific
implementation, in the very heart of
the research agenda. The related
issues form a vast and largely
unexplored research area.
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