Date: 2002
Type: Book
Changing public policy : the role of the regions : education and environmental policy in Belgium
Bruxelles ; New York : Peter Lang, 2002
DE RYNCK, Stefaan, Changing public policy : the role of the regions : education and environmental policy in Belgium, Bruxelles ; New York : Peter Lang, 2002
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/22576
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Regional government has become a fashionable topic of analysis, but the impact of regional autonomy on public policy has so far received little attention. In this book, Stefaan De Rynck examines how the creation of regional government has affected the substance of public policies in Belgium. He explains the observed pattern of policy change by referring to shifts in regional power structures. His publication offers a political analysis of policy change, and warns against concluding that public policy is responsive to social problems or cultural differences between regional societies. The book demonstrates the importance of political action for understanding the link between political institutions and policy change. In its case-studies, Changing Public Policy: The Role of the Regions focuses on the development of education and agri-environmental policy in Flanders and Wallonia since 1988, the year in which competence for these sectors was transferred from the national to the regional level. The research material on the policy cases covers a twelve-year period. It is based on a wide range o interviews and extensive documentary analysis. This study — based on a thesis presented at the European University Institute was awarded a distinction in the annual Committee of the Regions thesi competition in 2001.
Table of Contents:
--Preface 9 By Jos CHABERT
--Acknowledgements . 11
--Introduction 13
--I. Regional Autonomy and Public Policy', 16
--IL The Goals of the Book 18
--III. Research Design 20
--CHAPTER 1. The Politics of Policy Change 27
--I. Public Policy as Social Change 29
--IL A Public Policy Typology ° 30
--III. The Distributive Logic in Policy-Making 32
--IV. Intensity and Direction of Policy Change 36
--V. The Dynamics of Policy Change 40
--VI. Summary and Conclusion - 54
--CHAPTER 2. The Structure of Education Policy in 1988 57
--I. The School Pact of 1958 57
--The Distributive Logic in 1988 61
--III. Regionalising Education in 1988 75
--IV. Summary and Conclusion 84
--CHAPTER 3. The Organisation of Education Delivery 89
--I. Restructuring Education Delivery in Flanders 89
--II, French Community: Entrenching the National System 95
--Resource Allocation to Schools 99
--IV. Policy Divergence in the Two Communities 107
--V. The Importance of Political Party Adaptation 110
--CHAPTER 4. The Regulation of Schooling and
--Curriculum Development 121
--I. National Policy at the Time of Regionalisation 121
--II. Regulation and Results-Accountability since 1989 123
--III. Accompanying Measures to Output Regulation 134
--IV. Stronger Regulation in the Flemish Community 139
--V. Policy Entrepreneurship and Resistance to Change 141
--CHAPTERS. Livestock Production: Profit versus Pollution 149
--1. Protecting Agricultural Productivity until 1988 149
--II. Attempts at Changing Farm Behaviour 153
--III. Resisting the Polluter Pays Principle since 1988 166
--IV. Political Party Logic and Policy Choice 168
--CHAPTER 6. The Politics of Policy Change Compared 179
--I. The Policy Structure in 1988 180
--IL Policy Change since RegionalisationV 183
--III. Comparing the Explanations of Policy Change \I 191
--IV, Does Regional Government Matter for Public Policy?.:i 205
--V. Conclusion 211
--Bibliography 215
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/22576
ISBN: 9789052019536
Publisher: Peter Lang
Initial version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/5166
Version: Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 2000
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