Preliminary communication

Policy and Governing: Basic Approaches

Hal K. Colebatch ; School of Social Science and International Studies, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

The concept of policy is a central element in both the practice and the analysis of governing, but it is rarely subject to much theoretical scrutiny. It forms part of an assumptive world in which it is taken for granted that governing is a coherent, hierarchical and instrumental process, and that policy is a pattern of authorised choice. This presentation of governing is subject to both empirical and theoretical critiques, which present government rather in terms of structured interaction. But these critiques do not appear to undermine the force of the dominant presentation of policy as authorised choice, and the central question for both the analysis and the practice of policy is the relationship between these confl icting presentations.
Policy has been claimed as a fi eld of study for political science, but this has been contested by economics, and various elements of both economics and political science are mobilised in the analysis of policy, each contributing to a particular framing of the policy process. Instrumental framings of policy and its evaluation have dominated the American mainstream in the policy literature, but have been challenged by an increasing focus on organization and interpretation. Drawing these strands together in an institutional framework strengthens the analysis, but calls for a reconsideration of assumptions about the place of policy in the process of governing.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

38285

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/38285

Publication date:

1.6.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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