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Resilience and robustness in policy design: a critical appraisal

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  • Giliberto Capano

    (Scuola Normale Superiore)

  • Jun Jie Woo

    (Nanyang Technological University
    Harvard Kennedy School)

Abstract

Resilience and robustness are exciting concepts for policy researchers. Their broad use in other disciplines has motivated social scientists and policy researchers to adopt them in analyses. In the present paper, we review definitions of these concepts and the primary theoretical and empirical challenges presented by resilience and robustness as lenses for improving the understanding of policy process and policy design. The results reveal that the two concepts differ in their potential value for public policy analysis. Despite its diffusion and ‘charme’, resilience does not appear to be useful and may be misleading, whereas robustness exhibits great potential with respect to both analysis and design.

Suggested Citation

  • Giliberto Capano & Jun Jie Woo, 2017. "Resilience and robustness in policy design: a critical appraisal," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(3), pages 399-426, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:50:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11077-016-9273-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-016-9273-x
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