Kath Mackie Given the increasing sophistication and diversity of theories on public policy, it seems reasonable to ask why policy failures continue to occur. Some recent examples of federal environment policymaking offer fertile case studies to explore this question.
Jenny Stewart and Hussein Abbass What do we do when we create a public policy? One way of thinking about this issue is to say that when we create a public policy, we are creating a type of system – that is, a set of organisational linkages through which we …
Jenny Stewart In the 21st century, we need the collective power of government as never before. The trouble is, governments, no matter how hard they try, find it difficult to structure and apply this power in effective ways.
Grant Duncan Let’s start with how we measure happiness. I don’t believe we should interpret social surveys literally, but there are some interesting results all the same. The countries with the highest average happiness results tend to be among the most affluent ones, so we shouldn’t buy into the idea …
In the 21st century, we need the collective power of government as never before. The trouble is, governments, no matter how hard they try, find it difficult to structure and apply this power in effective ways.
One of the underlying problems is that those outside government don’t really know what’s going on. This makes it tough to work out better ways of working. Those who know can’t tell, and those who are allowed to tell, don’t know. There is a vast gap between the lived experience of practitioners and the academic world of commentary and debate.
