Government policies increasingly focus on transformative innovation policy (TIP), as programmes are being reoriented towards addressing societal challenges and contributing to sustainability transitions. Evaluation practices need modification to keep up with this change. While a small number of frameworks for TIP evaluation have been proposed,…

This chapter introduces the idea of school inspectors as implementers of public policy, framing their role within the context of policy implementation and the governance of education. Using a framework for policy implementation developed by Weible and Sabatier (Handbook of public policy analysis. Taylor and Francis, London, pp. 123-136, 2006), it…

This paper suggests that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) education policy work of the last 20 years has achieved a paradigmatic shift in the thinking and framing of education; however, this process was not exclusively based and dependent upon the cold rationality of numbers. Crucially, as the article will show, it…

In the past decade, the number of EU policy activities in research and higher education has increased greatly. The governance processes in these areas are increasingly characterized as multilayered, involving actors with a variety of roles, functions and loyalties. This article focuses on the forces shaping the policy positions and strategies of…

This paper explores the practice of evidence-based policy in a Swedish healthcare context. The study focused on how policymakers in the specific working group, the Priority-Setting Group (PSG), handled the various forms of evidence and values and their competing rationalities, when producing the Swedish National Guidelines for heart diseases that…

This study, jointly conducted by the University of Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER) and SQW Ltd., discusses the UK Government's intention to accelerate the process of ceding more responsibility for delivering a range of services to the local level. The logic is that local actors are better placed to identify local priorities. This…

This paper analyses the political motives that underlie the increased educational control exercised by reinstalling and reinforcing school inspection during the periods of 2001-2003 and 2006-2008. These periods cover both social democratic and non-socialist governments, with different parties in office. The paper draws on an approach to scrutinize…

Pleads for a more complex conceptualization of the policy process that considers the factors of time, policy areas, level of government, and nation. Available from The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 3937 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104; $15.00 annually. (Author/IRT)

Higher education policy-making in France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and whether it fits the national policy styles of those countries, is investigated. Aspects of policy change, centralism, consultation, openness, conflict level, and deliberation are discussed. (Author/MLW)

The policy-making and policy implementation processes used in Swedish higher education, the most comprehensive recent reform effort, are analyzed to illuminate the larger problem of higher education reform in general. It is concluded that the experiences do not fit the standard models of public choice, nor do they conform to prevailing ideas about…

Studies on the relationship between research and development (R&D) and public policymaking processes are reviewed. Attention is directed to R&D utilization in Sweden and other countries. The publications are grouped into four categories: policymaking and knowledge utilization, research policy, higher education policy, and knowledge…

The rationale for present manpower programs and its utility for future manpower policy are discussed. The approach focuses attention on such questions as the following: Does the present de facto meaning of manpower policy, which is implicit in what is now being attempted in the so-called "manpower programs," exhaust the potential…

Examines the role of policy evaluation research and the influences on such research of political regime shifts. Using data from a number of western countries, the authors conclude that conservative or liberal shifts in political regimes do influence the nature of policy evaluation research. (JDH)

Reviews Sweden's national development strategy that strives for full employment. Discusses the implications of job training in internal labor markets for the Rehn-Meidner model of economic stabilization. (SK)

A tribute to Eskil Bjorklund is presented at his retirement as director of Sweden's Research on Higher Education Program at the National Board of Universities and Colleges. Bjorklund's work over the years is best seen in several accomplishments. He completely recast the program's mission and central contribution to public policy and higher…