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Comparing blunders in government

Author

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  • Jennings, Will
  • Lodge, Martin
  • Ryan, Matt

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to government ‘blunders’ and ‘policy disasters’. National political and administrative systems have been frequently blamed for being disproportionately prone to generating mishaps. However, little systematic evidence exists on the record of failures of policies and major public projects in other political systems. Based on a comparative perspective on blunders in government, this article suggests that constitutional features do not play a prominent role. In order to establish this finding, this article (a) develops theory-driven expectations as to the factors that are said to encourage blunders, (b) devises a systematic framework for the assessment of policy processes and outcomes, and (c) uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify sets of causal conditions associated with particular outcomes (i.e. blunders). The article applies this novel approach to a set of particular policy domains, finding that constitutional features are not a contributory factor to blunders in contrast to instrument choice, administrative capacity and hyper-excited politics

Suggested Citation

  • Jennings, Will & Lodge, Martin & Ryan, Matt, 2018. "Comparing blunders in government," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 83523, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:83523
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/83523/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Harry Annison & Lol Burke & Nicola Carr & Matthew Millings & Gwen Robinson & Eleanor Surridge, 2024. "Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 64(3), pages 726-743.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    government blunder; policy fiasco; fsQCA; large projects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

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