The Dynamics of Public Policy: Theory and Evidence

The idea of policy dynamics is not original; it is proclaimed in the titles of Rose ,Harrison et al. ,and Baumgartner and Jones. However, the intellectual underpinnings of dynamic analysis remain unexplored in the policy theory literature. Adrian Kay explained policy dynamics his approach in structured narratives. All decisions are made in historical contexts; they are inevitably influenced by the legacy of the past and the uncertainty of the future. Path-dependent processes may coexist with other types of processes within policy systems . Also there may be relationship between these different processes. A structured policy narrative should specify the institutions, structures and processes that are embodied in a given historical setting; identify the possibilities and constraints that these structures create for agents within those settings; and construct explanations of outcomes.