Reflections on Our Understanding of Policy Paradigms and Policy Change

This volume seeks to contribute to the ongoing conversation among policy scholars on the subject of policy paradigms. It provides a window into the research frontier of policy dynamics and a re-evaluation of the precision and utility of existing policy paradigm orthodoxy. A ‘policy paradigm’ constitutes a theoretical tool to specify and understand the guiding principles, or ideas, for creating public policy, why the various actors involved are involved, and why they pursue the strategies they do. The book provides unique and varied insights into the current state of the art regarding how a range of scholars understand such paradigms, and public policy ideas, both conceptually and empirically. It does this by drawing together contributions from leading political science and social science researchers, to provide a multidimensional set of perspectives on how paradigm-related elements such as policy ideas, coalitions, discourses, interests, crises, anomalies and routines contribute to policy development and our understanding of that process. As academics, we are conscious that, by presenting a variety of perspectives in one book, we and our readers can learn from each other.