Is Morality Policy Different? Testing Sectoral and Institutional Explanations of Policy Change.

We analyze morality policy change from the perspective of punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) to test whether reform dynamics in this policy sector follow a distinct pattern. First, we propose a new measurement scheme capturing changes in the intensity of morality policy output. Second, we demonstra...

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Published in:Policy Studies Journal Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 688 - 713
Main Authors: Hurka, Steffen, Adam, Christian, Knill, Christoph
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Nov2017
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2017
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        10.1111/psj.12153
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        atl: Is Morality Policy Different? Testing Sectoral and Institutional Explanations of Policy Change.
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          Hurka, Steffen
          Adam, Christian
          Knill, Christoph
      su:
        Europe
        Ethics
        Policy analysis
        Punctuated equilibrium (Social science)
        Government policy on sex work
        Government policy
        History
        Political change -- History
        Abortion policy
        Political reform -- History
        European politics & government -- 1945-
      sug:
        subj:
          Ethics
          Policy analysis
          Punctuated equilibrium (Social science)
          Government policy on sex work
          Government policy
          History
          Europe
          Political change -- History
          Abortion policy
          Political reform -- History
          European politics & government -- 1945-
      keyword:
        abortion policy
        comparative public policy
        drug policy
        morality policy
        policy change
        punctuated equilibrium
        abortion policy
        comparative public policy
        drug policy
        morality policy
        policy change
        punctuated equilibrium
      ab: We analyze morality policy change from the perspective of punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) to test whether reform dynamics in this policy sector follow a distinct pattern. First, we propose a new measurement scheme capturing changes in the intensity of morality policy output. Second, we demonstrate that morality policy change is strongly punctuated. Finally, and most importantly, we show that the degree of policy punctuations varies between different domains of morality policy, but not according to institutional features operating on the country level, supporting existing PET research, which has discovered similar domain-specific dynamics in changes of public spending. Specifically, punctuations are particularly pronounced in areas of manifest morality policy, that is, policies characterized by strong value conflicts, whereas punctuations are less pronounced for latent morality policies, that is, policies in which other dimensions of conflict are present next to the value dimension. Significant differences in reform dynamics are neither discerned for countries belonging to the religious or the secular world, nor for countries with majoritarian or consensual democracies. The analysis relies on an original dataset capturing legislative changes in five manifest (abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, pornography, and homosexuality), and three latent morality policies (drugs, gambling, and handguns) in 19 European countries (1960-2010).
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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