Part Two - Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
Summary
Introduction
The chapters in Part I share an interest in the exploration of meanings generated within and by ‘policy’: as a concept; as a means to draw social and economic boundaries; and as the more tangible expression of abstract values. What they also have in common, however, is recognition that policy is essentially political. As Richard Jenkins points out, in many languages ‘policy’ and ‘politics’ are described by the same word. David Phillips and Jo Britton make clear the connection between policy as values, policy as categorisation and the operative role played by politics in drawing down values and categories from the abstract to the concrete. Traditionally, policy's inherently political nature has informed the dominant structure of research and theorising in policy studies. Politics has been the mainstay of policy analysis and policy analysis has developed within the boundaries of political science. This is clear in the core texts, classic studies, theories and models widely associated with the study of policy (for example, Hogwood and Gunn, 1984; Dahl, 1961; Lukes, 1974; Lindblom, 1959, respectively). In view of this, it would be impossible to reconsider policy without reconsidering politics at the same time. Having examined policy at the conceptual level, Part Two is, therefore, intended to return readers to issues of power and process.
The chapters in Part Two represent a reappraisal of some of the boundaries and assumptions, which have hitherto underpinned traditional analyses of the policy process: first, that the language used to present and describe policy is neutral or permanent; second, that the analytical ‘rediscovery’ of the state and interest in the workings of policy communities and networks has tended to eclipse investigation of the role of capital; and, third, that the policy process is principally of interest at the national and/or local level. The need to question these features of the policy process literature arises because they correspond to three critical aspects of change in the policy arena in the twenty-first century.
First, the expansion of the technological routes by which the communication of ideas can take place means that we find ourselves in an age of significant media reliance as far as policy is concerned. The kinds of values discussed by David Phillips in Chapter Three are symbolised in the concepts and ideas cascaded down from policy ‘thinkers’ to policy ‘subjects’ in the sound bites and announcements that litter our everyday lives.
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- Policy ReconsideredMeanings, Politics and Practices, pp. 77 - 80Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2007