A UNIFIED VIEW OF CHANGE IN POLICY SYSTEMS

In the world of growing diversity, complexity, and accelerating change, making sense of policy development, especially in analytical settings, is increasingly challenging, not the least due to the flaws of conventional assumptions or the lack of shared tools in its study. Missing a common framework, scholars emphasize different aspects of change, painting thus a fragmented picture of policy evolution. As a result, there is a palpable openness to innovation.

The structure-in-evolution model of policy development has been advanced as a response to the need to unify the disparate interpretations of policy change, addressing, among others, the limits of theories not serving well outside of particular contexts. The structure-in-evolution model accounts for both the dynamics and the structure of change by positing that policy systems, like other technological systems, evolve according to distinct patterns and exhibit complex and adaptive properties of such systems. This approach thus offers equal insights into change in policy systems regardless of time and space.

The introduction of the structure-in-evolution approach and its conceptual and theoretical innovations

Scholars across the social sciences, including in the studies of institutions and policy, have found useful various elements of evolutionary and complexity research. Though sharing the same worldview, these streams of research emphasize different aspects of change and lack a shared set of assumptions and tools. As a result, they remain largely disconnected. Inspired by innovation research and its novel theory of change in technological systems, this article aims to bridge these gaps and advance a unified view of policy change called the structure-in-evolution approach. The structure-in-evolution analysis accounts for both the dynamics and the structure of change by positing that policy systems, like other technological systems, evolve according to distinct patterns and exhibit complex and adaptive properties of such systems. This approach, the article argues, thus promises not only to integrate our understanding of evolutionary change but also a major leap forward in our ability to study and develop public policy.

More in: Bubak, Oldrich. 2022. “The structure-in-evolution approach: a unified view of evolutionary change in policy systems.” Policy Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2021.1908534

A first empirical application of the structure-in-evolution model

The structure-in-evolution approach has been proposed as a unified model of change in policy and institutional systems but heretofore has not been applied empirically. This article provides a first such application through an empirical case study of social policy development in Denmark, a country often referenced as its model environment. The case is constructed around a historical account of the country’s employment and social policies and institutions, and a systematic analysis of sequences and regularities in their evolution. Evolutionary patterns representing the structure and dynamics of change were identified both in the broader context of welfare policy development and at lower levels of abstraction, adding further support to this unified analysis and providing a valuable alternative to the conventional understandings of change in policy.

More in: Bubak, Oldrich. 2022. “Advancing the structure-in-evolution approach: the case of social policy development in Denmark.” Policy Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2021.1941837