Knowledge and Policy Change

Knowledge and learning plays an important role for policy change in advanced societies and political processes cannot be properly understood if you neglect them. To understand how learning takes place and what role knowledge plays in policy process, we need to have theoretical and methodological tools to analyse these features. The conceptual framework for this volume Knowledge and Policy Change focuses on issues such as belief systems, paradigmatic and pragmatic policy change and the role of advocacy coalitions within policy subsystems. No less important is the role various forms of knowledge can and do play in the policy formation process. The book is structured around three main themes: theories of the policy process and the role of knowledge; reform and restructuring of the welfare states; and, policy transfer, diffusion and implementation process. The chapters often have an approach that emphasizes the role of ideas and knowledge in the policy process and give new perspectives on how policy outcomes are affected. Many of the chapters deal with policy changes and reform in either the mature welfare states or policy diffusion and transfer in transition economies in East and Central Europe. The contributing authors are academic scholars in economics, economic history political science, and sociology from a variety of countries in Europe and US.