Policy Success, Dilemmatic Choices, and Escape Strategies: Some Empirical Evidence from Emergency Response Processes
The concept of success is widely used in policy analysis. Moreover, thanks to the spread of policy forecasting, policy makers are increasingly applying a success criterion in critical decision-making processes. However, the multi-dimensionality of the success concept has proved to be problematic whe...
Αποθηκεύτηκε σε:
| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/irpp, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Anglais |
| Έκδοση: |
International Review of Public Policy
2026
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| Θέματα: | |
| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | The concept of success is widely used in policy analysis. Moreover, thanks to the spread of policy forecasting, policy makers are increasingly applying a success criterion in critical decision-making processes. However, the multi-dimensionality of the success concept has proved to be problematic when policy analysts try to evaluate policies ex post. Analogously, it may be challenging whenever policy success is applied as a criterion of choice in critical decision-making.This article falls within the scope of this critical debate and intends to show the problematic use of the success concept as a criterion of choice in emergency policy-making processes, which are characterised by pervasive uncertainty and a lack of time. The paper offers insights that were obtained from an empirical investigation of the 17 main emergency response processes that were implemented in Italy to face the COVID-19 crisis. In-depth fieldwork revealed several dilemmatic choices and impasses, due to the multi-dimensional nature of the success concept. Faced with dilemmatic situations, policy makers had to apply different and less rational (at least from the holistic rationality perspective) choice criteria to escape from the decisional impasses. |
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