Research Series

‘Why doesn’t the government do something about this?’ is a complaint often heard in legislatures, TV debates, opinion pieces, letters to the editor and cyberspace.  Why do policymakers do nothing and what contributes to policy inaction? At a glance In paper for Policy Sciences, Allan McConnell (University of Sydney) and Paul ’t Hart (Utrecht University) […]

It is time to move away from the ‘government are from Venus, researchers are from Mars’ narrative. Instead we should focus on the challenges both parties are looking at from different but complementary angles. At a glance In paper for the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, Peter Bragge (Monash University) outlines the following ten ways to […]

Policy entrepreneurs transform policy ideas into policy innovations, disrupting the status quo of existing settings. What makes for effective policy entrepreneurship and what attributes, skills and strategies do you need? At a glance In paper for Policy Design and Practice, Michael Mintrom (Monash University) synthesises the research on policy entrepreneurship, providing insights for those who […]

Responding to the need for innovation, governments have begun experimenting with ‘design thinking’ approaches to reframe policy issues and generate new policy solutions. But what is new about design thinking and how does it compares to rational approaches to policymaking? At a glance Jenny Lewis, Michael McGann and Emma Blomkamp (University of Melbourne) examine the […]

The last decade has seen ongoing issues of gender inequity as well as arguably the golden age of female comics. From Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Amy Schumer, what can these female comics teach us about policy making and entrepreneurship? At a glance In a paper for the Australian Journal of Public Administration, Christopher […]

Like policy failures, policy successes are in the eye of the beholder. They are not mere facts but stories. To claim a public policy, program or project is a ‘success’ is effectively an act of interpretation. How can we identify and analyse examples of policy success?  Where can we find case studies on successful policy […]

Policy coordination is an age old challenge for government. As the problems confronting governments have become more complex, effective coordination is even more critical.  But

There is a pervasive sense that governments are not doing as well as they should to solve our biggest policy problems. This failure to meet

A post on the London School of Economics Impact Blog outlined why it is unrealistic for academic research to drive policy change. Yet social and behavioural

Design thinking has become a popular approach for governments seeking to address complex governance challenges. It offers novel techniques and speaks to broader questions of

In conventional economics, the concept of value creation by the public sector is largely absent. Value is created in business with the state playing a

The idea of evidence based public policy has been fundamental to policy making since it first came to prominence over 20 years ago. Events around

The increasing complexity of contemporary policy problems coupled with rising public expectations present unprecedented challenges to the capacity of governments to make and implement effective

Policy makers are increasingly drawing on knowledge outside the public service to deal with the complexity of public policy. Academic research is one source of