Not Just Steering but Weaving: Relevant Knowledge and the Craft of Building Policy Capacity and Coherence

Abstract

The whole process of royal weaving is comprised -never to allow temperate natures to be separated from the brave, but to weave them together, like the warp and the woof, by common sentiments and honour and reputation, and by the giving of pledges to one another; and out of them forming one smooth and even web, to entrust to them the offices of State.(Plato 1892:517-8)This paper explores the theory and practice of building policy capacity and coherence and in particular focuses on its epistemological and ontological aspects and assumptions. It argues that designing for capacity and coherence has been overwhelmingly concerned with improving the instrumental rationality of policy-making through a more systematic and strategic use of knowledge. However, I argue that this instrumentalism has meant that designing has worked within a very tightly constructed epistemological regime which has tended to neglect non-instrumentalist approaches to policy knowledge and learning. I review some of these non-instrumentalist approaches and suggest that they provide both a critique of the dominant paradigm and offer alternative ways of framing the problem of building policy capacity and coherence.

Urban data and city dashboards: Six key issues

“…This approach has been adopted in whole or part (e.g., Boston's City Score) by a number of other US cities. For critics, this instrumental rationality promotes a technocratic form of governance that: forecloses other modes of governance and other forms of knowledge (such as phronesis -knowledge derived from practice and deliberation; and metis -knowledge based on experience) (Parsons 2004); fails to recognize that cities are complex, multifaceted, contingent, relational systems, full of contestation and wicked problems that are not easily captured or steered ;…”

Climate Change Policy Capacity at the Sub-National Government Level

“…Honadle (1981: 578) also adds that it also includes ''the ability to: anticipate and influence change; make informed, intelligent decisions about policy; develop programs to implement policy; attract and absorb resources; manage resources; and evaluate current activities to guide future action''. Others are more concerned with the ability to respond to change, the intellectual and organizational resources of the state (Cummings and Nørgaard 2004), the management of knowledge and organizational learning (Parsons 2004), or policy formulation (Goetz and Wollmann 2001). Information and analysis can also play many roles in the decision-making process (Lindquist 1988;Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1999).…”

Policy Capacity Is Necessary but Not Sufficient Comment on "Health Reform Requires Policy Capacity"

“…5 In the following decades however, that capacity was weakened with the rise of new public management and its reliance on market forces and economic efficiency to guide policy choices. 6 As new public management has slowly given way to more collaborative and networked approaches to governance, there has been a call to rebuild policy capacity, but in the broader sense described by Forest and colleagues. This is a welcomed and needed prescription, but it is insufficient to affect policy reforms because it relies on rationalism to guide a process that is inherently political.…”

“…This is a welcomed and needed prescription, but it is insufficient to affect policy reforms because it relies on rationalism to guide a process that is inherently political. The drive to redevelop policy capacity is an extension of the rational, positivistic view of policy-making, 6 in which optimal solutions can be objectively identified, selected, and implemented. It abides by Wilson's historic plea to separate politics from administration, 7 paving the way for meritocracy to replace patronage in public policy and administration.…”

“…[18][19][20] Indeed, Parsons notes that the inclusion of public experiences, knowledge, and values must complement "instrumental rationality" in democratic policy-making. 6 Policy failures have come from such inputs being "designed out" of the process, rather than being "designed in. " Thus, those building policy capacities of institutions must resist the inclination to sanitize the policy process, and instead embrace its political messiness.…”