Policy analytical capacity and "Eastern" styles of policy analysis: evidence from West Java Province, Indonesia

Abstract

An emerging body of scholarship suggests that "Western" notions of policy analysis may not be relevant in "Eastern" jurisdictions, and that non-Western countries, particularly in Asia, may have their own local policy analytical style or tradition. However, in many Asian countries, little is known about the work that public sector policy analysts do. Using data from a survey and focus groups, this article investigates policy analysis and analytical capacity in the provincial government of West Java, Indonesia. We find ample signs of policy analytical activity as it would be understood by Western scholars, with little evidence of any specific Asian style.

Energy efficiency, housing, and economic policy

“…This allows them to comparatively assess administrative, managerial, accommodative, and adversarial policy styles. While these present to distinct ways of empirically capturing policy styles, they are at the same time representative of the growing interest in policy styles (Casula & Malandrino, 2023; Howlett & Tosun, 2021; Newman et al, 2022; Schillemans et al, 2022).…”

“…我们认为，本刊的最新出版物能为延续EPA成就一事作贡献。时间的流逝形成了关于可持续性和数字化的新问题以及关于民主和治理的长期辩论，而过去的一年则将其中一些问题纳入了一期特刊，后者聚焦于可持续治理指标(SGI)及其在公共政策研究领域中的解释力。彼时，Tosun and Howlett (2022)撰写的富有远见的文章以SGI为手段，对政策风格进行了实证操作化。这篇文章的长期影响已经显而易见。本期中，Zahariadis等人(2023)以这一操作化为基础，使用不同的SGI概念作为问题解决和包容性模式的指标。此举使他们能够比较评估行政式、管理式、宽松式和对抗式政策风格。尽管这一切展示了“从实证上描述政策风格”的独特方法，但也代表了越来越多的研究聚焦于政策风格 (Casula & Malandrino, 2023; Howlett & Tosun, 2021; Newman et al, 2022; Schillemans et al, 2022)。…”

“…Esto les permite evaluar comparativamente los estilos de política administrativa, gerencial, acomodaticia y contradictoria. Si bien estos presentan formas distintas de capturar empíricamente los estilos de política, al mismo tiempo son representativos del creciente interés en los estilos de política (Casula y Malandrino 2023; Howlett y Tosun, 2021; Newman et al, 2022; Schillemans et al, 2022).…”