Policy inaction meets policy learning: four moments of non-implementation

This article uses the concept of policy inaction to analyse data about the implementation of policy evaluations and public inquiries. Consequently, it produces outputs for two audiences. For those interested in policy learning and policy implementation the analysis identifies four ‘moments’ in which forms of inaction can influence the implementation of learned lessons in positive and negative ways. For those interested in policy inaction, these moments speak to a series of calls for further research about this emerging concept, which relate to the methodological challenges of knowing inaction, the need to explain how and why governments offload policy, and the need to explore the functional and dysfunctional effects of inaction. Taken together, these outputs contribute knowledge directly to three areas of the policy sciences: agenda management studies, policy implementation studies and, more broadly, efforts to understand policy learning.