Is Morality Policy Different? Testing Sectoral and Institutional Explanations of Policy Change

Abstract

We analyze morality policy change from the perspective of punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) to test whether reform dynamics in this policy sector follow a distinct pattern. First, we propose a new measurement scheme capturing changes in the intensity of morality policy output. Second, we demonstrate that morality policy change is strongly punctuated. Finally, and most importantly, we show that the degree of policy punctuations varies between different domains of morality policy, but not according to institutional features operating on the country level, supporting existing PET research, which has discovered similar domain-specific dynamics in changes of public spending. Specifically, punctuations are particularly pronounced in areas of manifest morality policy, that is, policies characterized by strong value conflicts, whereas punctuations are less pronounced for latent morality policies, that is, policies in which other dimensions of conflict are present next to the value dimension. Significant differences in reform dynamics are neither discerned for countries belonging to the religious or the secular world, nor for countries with majoritarian or consensual democracies. The analysis relies on an original dataset capturing legislative changes in five manifest (abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, pornography, and homosexuality), and three latent morality policies (drugs, gambling, and handguns) in 19 European countries .

Religious tides: The time‐variant effect of religion on morality policies

“…Whether a country will adopt incremental or more far-reaching departures from the status quo strongly depends on underlying power constellations and institutional opportunity structures that are not exclusively determined by religious factors. As shown by Engeli et al (2012), for instance, the shape of national party cleavages plays a much more decisive role in this context (see also Hurka et al 2017). While this does not mean that religion any longer matters for policy outputs, other factors might be of much higher explanatory relevance at this stage.…”

“…The opposite pattern may be the case as countries move toward permissiveness at different speeds and to different degrees. Hence, while there is a clear tendency in the overall direction of policy change, countries might strongly vary in the extent to which their morality policies have shifted toward permissiveness (Knill et al 2015;Studlar & Burns 2015;Hurka et al 2017). In the following, we discuss in more detail the role of religious opposition in this regard.…”

“…Yet the crucial point in defining the novelty of these issues is that they only sporadically emerge on the agenda after long periods of silence. A distinctive feature of morality policies is that they are very strongly punctuated, with long phases of status quo preservation (Hurka et al 2017). For instance, although modern abortion regulation in many countries dates back to the 1920s or even the 19th century, the issue only reemerged 50 years later, driven by societal value change and the emergence of feminist movements (Engeli et al 2012).…”

“…However, such differences are expected to result from factors other than religion, such as socio-economic conditions or party politics. Comparative studies reveal remarkable variation in the permissiveness of moral regulation, which is not systematically associated with religious factors, such as religiosity levels or the dominance of certain religious denominations (Knill et al 2015;Studlar & Burns 2015;Hurka et al 2017; see also Brooks 1992;Gindulis 2002;Blofield 2008;Asal et al 2013). Striking intra-country variation in the regulation of different morality policies reinforces this argument.…”

Partisan effects in morality policy making

“…Compared to other policy areas, events of policy change are extremely rare, with long periods of status quo preservation dominating the empirical picture (e.g., Hurka et al 2016). Compared to other policy areas, events of policy change are extremely rare, with long periods of status quo preservation dominating the empirical picture (e.g., Hurka et al 2016).…”