Policy and Society· 2015Q1
Policy capacity: A conceptual framework for understanding policy competences and capabilities
- 744citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
A new conceptual framework defines policy capacity as the combination of analytical, operational, and political skills (competences) at individual, organizational, and system levels (capabilities), offering a diagnostic tool for policy failures.
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Key points
- Policy capacity is defined as the combination of competences (analytical, operational, political skills) and capabilities (individual, organizational, system resources).
- Policy failures are often linked to imbalanced attention across these nine components of policy capacity.
- The proposed framework serves as a diagnostic tool to identify specific policy capacity gaps.
- Insights are provided for overcoming identified gaps in professional behavior, organizational activities, and policy systems.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Although policy capacity is among the most fundamental concepts in public policy, there is considerable disagreement over its definition and very few systematic efforts try to operationalize and measure it. This article presents a conceptual framework for analysing and measuring policy capacity under which policy capacity refers to the competencies and capabilities important to policy-making. Competences are categorized into three general types of skills essential for policy success—analytical, operational and political—while policy capabilities are assessed at the individual, organizational and system resource levels. Policy failures often result from imbalanced attention to these nine different components of policy capacity and the conceptual framework presented in the paper provides a diagnostic tool to identify such capacity gaps. It offers critical insights into strategies able to overcome such gaps in professional behaviour, organizational and managerial activities, and the policy systems involved in policy-making.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Policy and Society, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Public Administration
Public AdministrationSocial Sciences