The concept of policy paradigm, which was developed by Peter Hall in 1993, has given rise to an abundance of literature on ideas and policy dynamics. Despite its theoretical value, however, the ...original concept was insufficiently specified and has been used in problematic ways by many policy scholars, thereby undermining the validity of their descriptive and causal inferences. The main argument defended in this article is that scholars studying policy paradigms should devote as much attention to the ideas of policy makers as to the policies they adopt, while distinguishing between the two constructs as much as possible. This article reviews these issues and puts forward seven guidelines that aim to better circumscribe the concept of policy paradigm and improve research on ideas and policy dynamics.
Program take-up is a necessary condition for program effectiveness. Yet, non-take-up is a significant challenge for many social programs, including Québec's Supplement to the Work Premium (SWP), a ...refundable tax credit targeted toward long-term welfare clients. Based on interviews with 21 public actors and 46 program participants and nonparticipants, this study explains how low program awareness, the low value of the benefit and the significant administrative burden borne by potential and actual participants contribute to the non-take-up of the SWP in this sample. Moreover, four policy implications and recommendations that can inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of social programs, are derived from this study.
Most quantitative, comparative welfare state research assumes that subnational welfare regimes are irrelevant or identical to their national counterparts. Many qualitative case studies, on the other ...hand, have underlined the differences between subnational and national regimes. In this article, we attempt to build bridges between these two strands of literature by examining the case for a Quebec model, that is, a subnational welfare state regime that is distinct from its Canadian counterpart(s). We reviewed seven publications from which we extracted 188 quantitative results relevant to the distinct subnational regime hypothesis. Although not all these results are independent nor based on conclusive evidence, they generally agree that a distinct welfare regime exists in Quebec. We conclude this article by discussing the implications of the Quebec case for the study of welfare regimes at the subnational and regional levels.
Sommaire
La gestion horizontale pose des enjeux significatifs, en particulier en ce qui a trait au suivi et à l’évaluation de la performance des programmes publics. Cette étude de cas porte sur le ...Supplément à la prime au travail (SPT), une mesure sociofiscale de type interministériel, qui n’a fait l’objet d’aucune évaluation de sa performance depuis son introduction en 2008. À partir d’entretiens qualitatifs avec des acteurs publics, nous tentons d’expliquer pourquoi le SPT a pris la forme d’une mesure sociofiscale gérée par trois organisations publiques (ministère des Finances du Québec, Revenu Québec et le ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale). Nous analysons ensuite les implications de cette horizontalité pour le suivi et l’évaluation de la performance de la mesure. Nous concluons à un décalage entre les responsabilités officielles et officieuses pour l’évaluation du SPT, et entre les intérêts des organisations impliquées dans l'évaluation.
Horizontal management raises significant challenges, particularly when assessing the performance of public programs. This case study focuses on Quebec’s Supplement to the Work Premium (SWP), a social and fiscal cross‐ministerial measure, which was never subjected to any performance assessment since its introduction in 2008. We report on findings from interviews with public servants and attempt to explain how the SWP became a social and fiscal measure managed by three public organizations (ministère des Finances du Québec, Revenu Québec and the ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale). Then, we analyze the implementation and performance evaluation of the measure. We argue there is a disjuncture between official and informal responsibilities when assessing the SWP and between the interests of the organizations involved in the assessment.
Welfare reform in Canada Béland, Daniel; Daigneault, Pierre-Marc
Welfare reform in Canada,
2015, 2015, 2015-09-18
eBook
"Welfare Reform in Canada provides systematic knowledge of Canadian social assistance by assessing provincial welfare regimes and emphasizing changes since the late twentieth century. The book ...examines activation, social investment, and economic inequalities and provides nuanced perspectives on social welfare across Canada's provinces in relation to trends and issues in the country and beyond. These conceptual, international, and historical perspectives inform in-depth case studies of social assistance reform in each province. The key issues of social assistance in Canada, including gender relations, immigrants, Aboriginal peoples, and the impact of activation programs, are addressed, as is the possibility of convergence taking place in provincial welfare policy."--Publisher.
The growing interest in 'ideas' is a positive trend because they are fundamental to a better understanding of public policy (Beland 2009). However, understanding cannot be improved without clear and ...precise concepts (Daigneault and Jacob 2012). In this reply, I discuss the comments made by three distinguished scholars to my seven propositions to improve the concept of policy paradigm (see Baumgartner 2014; Daigneault 2013; Princen and 't Hart 2014; this collection). Adapted from the source document.
Systematic review and synthesis methods have gained wide acceptance within the social sciences and, as a result, many postgraduate students now consider using them for their thesis or dissertation ...research. However, students are rarely aware of all the concrete implications that their decision entails. This reflective narrative reports the experience of a political science student who began to conduct a systematic review as part of his Ph.D. dissertation but who did not complete it. The aim of this article is to identify challenges and lessons learned from this experience and to formulate recommendations for postgraduate students who wish to make an informed choice with respect to the use of these methods.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•The quantitative literature on stakeholder participation and evaluation use has never been systematically reviewed.•A total of 27 studies are included in this scoping review.•Most studies have a ...cross-sectional design and focus on North America and the education sector.•There is no consensus on what stakeholder participation means or on how to measure it.
Stakeholder participation and evaluation use have attracted a lot of attention from practitioners, theorists and researchers. A common hypothesis is that participation is positively associated with evaluation use. Whereas the number of empirical studies conducted on this topic is impressive, quantitative research has held a minority position within this scientific production. This study mobilizes systematic review methods to ‘map’ the empirical literature that has quantitatively studied participation and use. The goal is to take stock and assess the strength of evidence of this literature (but not to synthesize the findings) and, based on this assessment, to provide directions for future research.
“Ideas,” which are defined as the normative and cognitive beliefs of actors, are fundamental to a full understanding of the welfare state and, in particular, of social assistance. However, policy ...ideas have been neglected in most typologies of social assistance regimes. Based on a selective review of the literature, this article proposes a brief but systematic analysis of policy paradigms in the field of social assistance. Three ideal types that emphasize the ideational dimension of social assistance are analyzed, namely, the entitlement, workfare, and activation paradigms. The value of the typology lies in its utility for characterizing the ideational orientation of social assistance regimes. Specifically, the typology provides a yardstick for measuring the ideas of policy actors with respect to social assistance and can facilitate the conduct of case studies, comparative research, and causal analyses on this policy sector.
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