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Policy Accumulation and the Democratic Responsiveness Trap

Author

Listed:
  • Adam,Christian
  • Hurka,Steffen
  • Knill,Christoph
  • Steinebach,Yves

Abstract

The responsiveness to societal demands is both the key virtue and the key problem of modern democracies. On the one hand, responsiveness is a central cornerstone of democratic legitimacy. On the other hand, responsiveness inevitably entails policy accumulation. While policy accumulation often positively reflects modernisation and human progress, it also undermines democratic government in three main ways. First, policy accumulation renders policy content increasingly complex, which crowds out policy substance from public debates and leads to an increasingly unhealthy discursive prioritisation of politics over policy. Secondly, policy accumulation comes with aggravating implementation deficits, as it produces administrative backlogs and incentivises selective implementation. Finally, policy accumulation undermines the pursuit of evidence-based public policy, because it threatens our ability to evaluate the increasingly complex interactions within growing policy mixes. The authors argue that the stability of democratic systems will crucially depend on their ability to make policy accumulation more sustainable.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam,Christian & Hurka,Steffen & Knill,Christoph & Steinebach,Yves, 2019. "Policy Accumulation and the Democratic Responsiveness Trap," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108481199.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:cbooks:9781108481199
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Markus Hinterleitner & Fritz Sager, 2022. "Policy’s role in democratic conflict management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(2), pages 239-254, June.
    2. Steffen Hurka & Christoph Knill, 2020. "Does regulation matter? A cross‐national analysis of the impact of gun policies on homicide and suicide rates," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 787-803, October.
    3. Thomas Bolognesi & Florence Metz & Stéphane Nahrath, 2021. "Institutional complexity traps in policy integration processes: a long-term perspective on Swiss flood risk management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(4), pages 911-941, December.
    4. Christoph Knill & Yves Steinebach, 2022. "Crises as driver of policy accumulation: Regulatory change and ratcheting in German asylum policies between 1975 and 2019," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 603-617, April.
    5. Yves Steinebach, 2022. "Instrument choice, implementation structures, and the effectiveness of environmental policies: A cross‐national analysis," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 225-242, January.
    6. Jesper Dahl Kelstrup & Jonas Videbæk Jørgensen, 2024. "Explaining differences in research utilization in evidence-based government ministries," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(2), pages 257-280, June.
    7. Jan Pollex, 2022. "Simultaneous Policy Expansion and Reduction? Tracing Dismantling in the Context of Experimentalist Governance in European Union Environmental Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 604-633, May.
    8. Matt Andrews, 2021. "Successful Failure in Public Policy Work," CID Working Papers 402, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    9. Charlotte Burns & Paul Tobin, 2020. "Crisis, Climate Change and Comitology: Policy Dismantling Via the Backdoor?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 527-544, May.
    10. Steffen Hurka & Maximilian Haag, 2020. "Policy complexity and legislative duration in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(1), pages 87-108, March.
    11. Christina Steinbacher, 2024. "The pursuit of welfare efficiency: when institutional structures turn ‘less’ into ‘more’," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(2), pages 353-378, June.
    12. Kris Hartley & Michael Howlett, 2021. "Policy Assemblages and Policy Resilience: Lessons for Non-Design from Evolutionary Governance Theory," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 451-459.
    13. Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna, 2022. "The promises and perils of populism for democratic policymaking: the case of Mexico," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(4), pages 777-803, December.

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