The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany and Denmark by
John L. Campbell,
Ove K. Pedersen
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014. 401pp., £19.95 (p/b), ISBN 9789780691161167
International Development: Ideas, Experience and Prospects by
Bruce Currie-Alder,
Ravi Kanbur,
David M. Malone,
Rohinton Medhora
(eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 943pp., £39.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780199671663
In The National Origins of Policy Ideas,
John Campbell and Ove Pedersen pose a central question on the role of
ideas in public policy making. The authors focus on
‘knowledge regimes’ – particularly research
organisations from which policy ideas are generated – by considering the
concept
of regime type that can either enable or constrain the
activities of such organisations through governance (p. 30). The
authors
have selected four cases – the United States, France,
Germany and Denmark – in which they define the types of knowledge regime
as competitive, statist, coordinated and negotiated,
respectively.
The United States shows the most competitive
structure of knowledge regime because research organisations are
substantially
funded by the private sector. Due to this, competition
for securing financial resources among policy research organisations
in the United States is very high. In addition, the
proliferation of such research organisations not only encourages
aggressive
competition but also affects American politics since
the research organisations span the ideological spectrum. At the same
time, political partisanship, which has become
extremely polarised since the mid-1990s, has brought the ‘crisis of
partisanship’
in the structure of knowledge regime (pp. 69–74).
The knowledge regime in France presents a more ambiguous nature (p. 85). This is because dirigisme,
which represented central state-led economic development in particular
for several decades after the Second World War, was
significantly influenced by globalisation in the
1980s. The French state lost its capacity to control firms and French
firms
had to lean on foreign equity markets. At the same
time, the state fostered a diverse set of policy research organisations.
However, this resulted in a ‘crisis of ideas’
situation where the state’s policy research organisations failed to
provide
helpful advice for stagflation and other problems.
The knowledge regime in Germany shows a
coordinated nature between the state and civil society, similar to its
production
regime, which is operated by tripartite corporatist
bargaining between the state, unions and employer associations.
Therefore,
‘a hallmark of German corporatism is the deal cut
between the state and corporatist organizations like unions and employer
associations’ (p. 169).
Finally, the knowledge regime in Denmark is
oriented towards ‘compromise and consensus’ because many research
organisations
involve negotiation with the state and society(p.
172). In terms of such cooperation, the Danish system is similar to the
German knowledge regime. Also, the Danish knowledge
regime resembles its counterpart in France, in the sense that the
central
state substantially coordinates the activities of
research organisations. However, globalisation has weakened the
political
ideologies in both left- and right-wing parties
because the parties could not simply respond to the uncertainty and
problems
of the market based on their ideologies. The authors
call this ‘a crisis of political ideology’. However, the crisis of
political
ideology, in turn, seems to enhance persuasion and
consensus among research organisations, although competition increases
at the same time. Despite the differences between the
four types of knowledge regime, the authors conclude that there is ‘no
best regime’ (p. 329).
In International Development, Bruce
Currie-Alder et al. explore how the idea of ‘development’ has changed
and transferred into practice over time in different
regions of the world. A central question for the
authors in this book is what development is. The authors maintain that
recent
thinking on development deals with the particular
local, historical and institutional context rather than grand theories.
They point out that ‘the fundamental question is
increasingly how to manage the fruits of economic growth as a means to
achieve
development by investing in health and education,
providing safety nets and social protection, and enriching democracy and
other dimensions of governance’ (p. 7).
The book consists of three parts across 52
articles. The first part discusses critical issues in development
theories. For
example, it examines problems between growth and
inequality; states and markets. The second part focuses on important
concepts
and theories in relation to state and society, peace
and security, the environment and health, and innovation and technology.
The third part deals with the differing experiences of
various countries in Asia and Africa and discusses the influence of
those institutions which have a role in shaping ideas
on development, such as the state, civil society and multilateral
institutions.
Despite the variety of development outcomes
in these regions, the book’s authors conclude that there has been
tremendous progress
on all dimensions of well-being for the past 50 years
since ‘incomes have risen, poverty has fallen, health and education
have improved for men and women’ (p. 899). For
example, East and Southeast Asia, China and India have especially shown
substantial
progress, although India and China still need to
tackle the problems of regional imbalance in many issues of development.
Interestingly, the authors point out that the role of
women and ethnic group–based identities have recently become more
important
in policy making, as civil society has been considered
within conventional debates on development, in which the state and
market used to be the main subjects discussed.
Both books will be helpful for those who
would like to learn not only about the different schools of development
theory that
have evolved over time but also about the empirical
evidence in various regions through a comparative perspective. The books
will be of great interest to students in public
policy, governance and area studies in particular.