Claire Dunlop

University of Exeter, Politics, Faculty Member

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, School of Government and Public Policy, Alumna

SAGE, Public Policy and Administration, Editor

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http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/politics/staff/dunlop/
http://www.claireadunlop.com
http://ppa.sagepub.com/
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=j6psBcEAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-1075
Phone: + 44 (0)1392 724690
Address: Department of Politics,
University of Exeter,
Amory Building, Rennes Drive,
Exeter, Devon, UK, EX4 4RJ

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Books by Claire Dunlop

Dunlop, C.A. (ed) (2020) 'Policy Learning and Policy Failure', Bristol: Policy Press

First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this updated volume explores policy fail... more First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this updated volume explores policy failures and the valuable opportunities for learning that they offer.
Policy successes and failures offer important lessons for public officials, but often they do not learn from these experiences. The studies in this volume investigate this broken link. The book defines policy learning and failure and organises the main studies in these fields along the key dimensions of processes, products and analytical levels. Drawing together a range of experts in the field, the volume sketches a research agenda linking policy scholars with policy practice.

Dunlop, C. A. and Radaelli, C. M. (in preparation) 'Learning in Public Policy'

Dunlop, C.A., Radaelli, C.M. and Trein, J.P. (eds) (2018) 'Learning in Public Policy: Analysis, Modes and Outcomes', Palgrave

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Dunlop, C. A. and Radaelli, C. M. (eds) (2016) 'Handbook of Regulatory Impact Assessment' Cheltenham: Edward Elgar

This comparative volume provides the first-ever comprehensive account of regulatory impact assess... more This comparative volume provides the first-ever comprehensive account of regulatory impact assessment – the main instrument used by governments and regulators to appraise the likely effects of their policy proposals. 38 international experts from universities across the world and practitioners describe the substance of impact assessment, situate it in its proper theoretical traditions, and scrutinise its usage across countries, policy sectors, and policy instruments. The volume will be used in socio-legal studies, public economics, regulation and political science.

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Articles by Claire Dunlop

Dunlop, C.A., Kamkhaji, J.C., Radaelli, C.M., Taffoni, G. and Wagemann, C. (forthcoming) ‘Does Consultation Count for Corruption?’, Journal of European Public Policy

Dunlop C.A., James S. and Radaelli C.M. (2020) 'Can’t Get No Learning: the Brexit Fiasco through the Lens of Policy Learning' Journal of European Public Policy

It seems paradoxical to suggest that theories of learning might be used to explain policy failure... more It seems paradoxical to suggest that theories of learning might be used to explain policy failure. Yet the Brexit fiasco connects with recent approaches linking four varieties of policy learning to policy pathologies (Dunlop, 2017; Dunlop and Radaelli, 2013, 2018). This article sets out to explain the UK government’s (mis)management of the Brexit process from June 2016 to May 2019. Drawing on interviews with UK policy makers and stakeholders, we ask how did the UK government seek to learn during the Brexit negotiations? We consider four modes of learning: reflexivity, epistemic, hierarchical, and bargaining. By empirically tracing the policy process and scope conditions for each of these, we argue that learning through the first three modes proved highly dysfunctional. This forced the government to rely on bargaining between competing factions, producing a highly short-termist form of learning which stymied the development of a coherent Brexit strategy. We argue that the analysis of Brexit as a policy process (rather than a political event) reveals how policy dynamics play an important role in shaping the political context within which they are located. The article concludes that public policy analysis can therefore serve to endogenise existing accounts of macro political developments like Brexit.

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Dunlop, C.A., Kamkhaji, J.C. and Radaelli, C.M. (2019) ‘A Sleeping Giant Awakes? The Rise of the Institutional Grammar Tool (IGT) in Policy Research’, Journal of Chinese Governance, 4, 2: 163-180.

The institutional grammar tool (IGT) is an important and relatively recent innovation in policy t... more The institutional grammar tool (IGT) is an important and relatively recent innovation in policy theory and analysis. It is conceptualized to empirically operationalize the insights of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. In the last decade, political scientists have offered a number of applications of the IGT, mainly focused on disclosing and scrutinizing in-depth the textual configurations of policy documents. These efforts, involving micro-level analyses of syntax as well as more general classifications of institutional statements according to rule types, have underpinned empirical projects mainly in the area of environmental and common-pool resources. Applications of IGT are still in their infancy, yet the growing momentum is sufficient for us to review what has been learned so far. We take stock of this recent, fast-growing literature, analysing a corpus of 26 empirical articles employing IGTs published between 2008 and 2017. We examine these in terms of their empirical domain, hypotheses, and methods of selection and analysis of institutional statements. We find that the empirical applications do not add much to explanation, unless they are supported by research questions and hypotheses grounded in theory. We offer three conclusions. First, to exploit the IGT researchers need to go beyond the descriptive, computational approach that has dominated the field until now. Second, IGT studies grounded in explicit hypotheses have more explanatory leverage, and therefore should be encouraged when adopting the IGT outside the Western world. Third, the domain of rules is where researchers can capture findings that are more explanatory and less microscopic.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2018) 'The Lessons of Policy Learning: Types, Triggers, Hindrances and Pathologies', Policy & Politics, 46, 2: 255-272.

Policy learning is an attractive proposition, but who learns and for what purposes? Can we learn ... more Policy learning is an attractive proposition, but who learns and for what purposes? Can we learn the wrong lesson? And why do so many attempts to learn what works often fail? In this article, we provide three lessons. First, there are four different modes in which constellations of actors learn. Hence our propositions about learning are conditional on which of the four contexts we refer to. Second, policy learning does not just happen; there are specific hindrances and triggers. Thus, learning can be facilitated by knowing the mechanisms to activate and the likely obstacles. Third, learning itself is a conditional final aim: although the official aspiration of public organizations and politicians is to improve on public policy, policy learning can also be dysfunctional – for an organization, a policy, a constellation of actors or even democracy.

Dunlop, C.A. (2018) ‘The Political Economy of Politics and International Studies Impact: REF2014 Case Analysis’, British Politics, 13, 3: 270-294.

Debates about impact and relevance have long been a feature of British politics and international... more Debates about impact and relevance have long been a feature of British politics and international studies. Thanks to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), we now have large-scale and comparable empirical evidence to animate and shape these discussions. Here, we present the first systematic analysis of the case studies. Using frequency data, we report the political economy of political science and international studies impact across four broad themes: who has what impact and when; impact’s beneficiaries; impact’s evidence base; and, generating and validating impact. Analytically, we comment on the findings using insights from disciplinary histories and knowledge utilisation literatures. We conclude by discussing the ramifications of our case analysis for the discipline.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2018) ‘Does Policy Learning Meet the Standards of a Theoretical Lens on the Policy Process?’, Policy Studies Journal, 46, S1: S48-S68

Policy learning is commonplace in the public policy literature but, the question whether it quali... more Policy learning is commonplace in the public policy literature but, the question whether it qualifies as analytical framework on the policy process has not been addressed systematically yet. We therefore appraise learning as analytical framework in relation to four standards: assumptions and micro-foundations; conceptual apparatus; observable implications; normative applications. We find that policy learning meets the four standards, although its theoretical leverage varies across them. Since we are not aware of theories of the policy process that meet all the standards all the time, we conclude that policy learning fares reasonably well and it’s worth-investing intellectual resources in this field.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2017) 'Learning in the Bathtub: The Micro and Macro Dimensions of the Causal Relationship between Learning and Policy Change', Policy & Society, 36, 2: 304-319.

Whilst the literature classifies policy learning in terms of types or ontological approaches (ref... more Whilst the literature classifies policy learning in terms of types or ontological approaches (reflexive and social constructivist learning versus rational up-dating of priors), we offer a three-dimensional approach to explore the relationships between individual learning, learning in groups, and the macro-dimension. Our contribution is in terms of mapping most (although not all) lively debates in the field on a multi-dimensional space and to explore the logic of causality from micro to macro. To achieve our two aims, we draw on Coleman’s bath-tub. We map learning in the bath-tub by considering prominent studies on learning but also, in some cases, by exploring and drawing lessons from political science and behavioral sciences. By integrating findings in an eclectic way, we explain the logic of learning using a single template and suggest methods for empirical analysis. This is not a literature review but an original attempt to capture the causal architecture of the field, contributing to learning theory with findings from mainstream political science and behavioral sciences.

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Dunlop, C.A. (2017) ‘The Irony of Epistemic Learning: Epistemic Communities and Policy in Learning Europe's Hormones Saga’, Policy & Society, 36, 2: 215-232.

Epistemic communities are at their most powerful in novel and technically complex policy issues w... more Epistemic communities are at their most powerful in novel and technically complex policy issues when decision-makers’ and stakeholders’ understandings are rudimentary. A successful epistemic community reduces uncertainty through policy learning. These lessons enable policy actors to recognise their preferences thus making the issue more tractable. However, policy learning is dynamic and has various modes. Where an epistemic community’s advice points in unfavourable policy directions, rival lessons may be crafted by policy actors thus threatening an epistemic community’s place as principal teacher on an issue. What happens to the influence of epistemic communities that do not attend to these alternative interpretations? Can epistemic communities teach in the ‘wrong’ mode? Using the empirical case of the long-running hormone growth promoters saga in the European Union (EU), we show how even in complex technical issues, learning in the epistemic mode may not dominate for long. Specifically, we identify a key barrier to epistemic communities’ influence neglected in the literature: the ‘irony of epistemic learning’. In setting the foundational knowledge on novel issues, epistemic communities provide non-specialist governance actors with the resources to oppose the very knowledge these experts have created thereby curtailing their influence. We conclude with a discussion about whether epistemic communities can and should overcome this irony.

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Dunlop, C.A. (2017) ‘Policy Learning and Policy Failure: Definitions, Dimensions and Intersections’ Policy & Politics 45, 1: 3-18.

Policy failures present a valuable opportunity for policy learning, but public officials have fai... more Policy failures present a valuable opportunity for policy learning, but public officials have failed to learn valuable lessons from these experiences. The studies in this volume investigate this broken link. This introduction to the issue defines policy learning and failure, before organising the main studies in these fields along the key dimensions of: processes, products and analytical levels. We continue with an overview of the special issue articles, outlining where they sit in the wider literature and how they link learning and failure. We conclude by sketching a research agenda linking policy scholars with policy practice.

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Dunlop, C.A. (2017) ‘Pathologies of Policy Learning: What Are They and How Do They Contribute to Policy Failure?', Policy & Politics, 45, 1: 19-37.

This paper analyses policy failure as a degeneration of policy learning. Analytically the paper d... more This paper analyses policy failure as a degeneration of policy learning. Analytically the paper drills down on one ideal type of policy learning – epistemic learning. This is the realm of evidenced-based policymaking (EBPM), where experts advise decision-makers on issues of technical complexity. Empirically, the paper presents the management of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in England since 1997 as a failure of epistemic learning – where learning degenerated as the result of various weaknesses in government’s management of its relationship with an epistemic community established to advise it. Drawing on evidence from elite interviews and documentary analysis, these management failures are analysed as problems of learning about different aspects of organizational capacity. The paper concludes with some reflections on the value of learning theories as a conceptual lens for policy failure.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2016) 'Policy Learning in the Eurozone Crisis: Modes, Power and Functionality', Policy Sciences 49, 2: 107-124.

In response to the attacks on the sovereign debt of some Eurozone countries, European Union (EU) ... more In response to the attacks on the sovereign debt of some Eurozone countries, European Union (EU) leaders have created a set of preventive and corrective policy instruments to coordinate macro-economic policies and reforms. In this article, we deal with the European Semester, a cycle of information exchange, monitoring and surveillance. Countries that deviate from the targets are subjected to increasing monitoring and more severe ‘corrective’ interventions, in a pyramid of responsive exchanges between governments and EU institutions. This is supposed to generate coordination and convergence towards balanced economies via mechanisms of learning. But who is learning what? Can the EU learn in the ‘wrong’ mode? We contribute to the literature on theories of the policy process by showing how modes of learning can be operationalized and used in empirical analysis. We use policy learning as theoretical framework to establish empirically the prevalent mode of learning and its implications for both the power of the Commission and the normative question of whether the EU is learning in the ‘correct’ mode.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2016) 'Teaching Regulatory Humility: Experimenting with Student Practitioners', Politics 36, 1: 79-94.

Politics

Donald Schön’s assertion that becoming an effective professional requires more than technical rat... more Donald Schön’s assertion that becoming an effective professional requires more than technical rationality underpins the pedagogy of Masters in Public Administration (MPA) programmes. This article explores how public administrators can be taught to think reflectively and reflexively about the limits of control in the context of decision-making and regulatory policy appraisal. We report on an in-class pedagogical experiment on illusions of control used to generate a real-life experience of the cognitive and emotional dimensions of control. By doing so, we introduce the concept of ‘regulatory humility’ and contribute to the literature on experiments as pedagogical tools, and to debates on teaching methods in public administration and political science.

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Dunlop, C.A. (2015) 'Organizational Political Capacity as Learning', Policy & Society 34, 3: 259-270.

In this article, we examine how agencies build organizational political capacities (OPC) for repu... more In this article, we examine how agencies build organizational political capacities (OPC) for reputation management, where capacity building is treated as a challenge underpinned by the learning relationships that exist between key governance actors. This challenge requires the development of four types of OPC: absorptive capacity (ACAP); administrative capacity (ADCAP); analytical capacity (ANCAP) and communicative capacity (COMCAP). Analytically, we link each of these capacities to one particular type of policy learning – reflexive learning – which characterises politicised situations where an agencies reputation is under threat and citizens are the main governance partners. Empirically, we demonstrate how agencies learn to develop these OPCs with governance partners using the case of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which increasingly aims to engage citizens in a dialogue to combat the negative images attached to health and safety regulation. We conclude asking what a learning approach tells us about how agencies can develop OPC.

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Dunlop, C.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2015) ‘Impact Assessment in the European Union: Lessons from a Research Project’, European Journal of Risk Regulation 5, 1: 27-42.

In this article, we present some major lessons drawn from a recently completed research project. ... more In this article, we present some major lessons drawn from a recently completed research project. Our research dealt with ex-ante evaluation, mainly impact assessment (IA). We shed new light on research questions about the control of bureaucracy, the role of IA in decision-making, economics and policy learning, and the narrative dimension of appraisal. We identify how our findings stand in relation to conventional arguments about these issues, and reflect on their normative implications. We finally reason on the possible extensions of our arguments to the wider field of policy evaluation, connecting IA and ex-post evaluation.

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Dunlop, C.A., Kamkhaji, J.C. and Radaelli, C.M. (2015) 'Regulators and Reform: A Quasi-Experimental Assessment of the Effects of Training Inspectors', International Public Management Journal, 18, 2: 304-322.

International Public Management Journal

Regulators face an array of initiatives designed to boost the effectiveness of policy delivery an... more Regulators face an array of initiatives designed to boost the effectiveness of policy delivery and cut administrative burdens. A good deal of analytical attention is given to these governance tools, but we know much less about how regulators themselves understand and learn about them. We use a quasi-experiment to assess the effects of training on local government inspectors’ understandings of the Primary Authority (PA) initiative. Established in 2009 by the UK’s Better Regulation Delivery Organisation (BRDO), PA partnerships are legally binding agreements that provide businesses with a single point of regulatory contact and inspectors provide advice and reduce duplication of inspections and paperwork. The scheme is complex, and marks a significant departure from the existing inspection framework. Our findings suggest that, regardless of training, the regulatory innovation is well understood among local authority inspectors. Training may make a difference however in aspects of regulatory reform which are contentious or could be taken as counter-intuitive to professional norms. The article also highlights the value of the quasi-experimental approach for policy-relevant public management research.

Bækgaard, M., Baethge, C., Blom-Hansen, J., Dunlop, C.A., Esteve, M., Jakobsen, M., Kisida, B., Marvel, J.D., Moseley, A., Serritzlew, S., Stewart, P.A., Kjærgaard Thomsen, M. and Wolf, P.J. (2015) ‘Doing Experiments in Public Management Research: A Practical Guide’, IPMJ, 18, 2: 323-342.

This paper provides advice on how to meet the practical challenges of experimental methods within... more This paper provides advice on how to meet the practical challenges of experimental methods within public management research. We focus on lab, field, and survey experiments. For each of these types of experiments we outline the major challenges and limitations encountered when implementing experiments in practice and discuss tips, standards, and common mistakes to avoid. The paper is multi-authored in order to benefit from the practical lessons drawn by a number of experimental researchers. Observational data are routinely used in both quantitative and qualitative public management research. They can be used to study a broad range of research questions. However, it is often challenging to draw causal conclusions from studies of observational data. This is due to selection bias, omitted variables and endogeneity, which are problems that may be difficult to avoid when collecting observational data. There are various techniques that can be employed ex-post to remedy these problems. But these solutions may not always be available, and they are often challenging in terms of complexity. In contrast, the core idea of experimental methods is collect good data that do not need ex-post correction in order to be used for causal analysis. This is why experimental methods are sometimes referred to as a design-based approach to causal research. The emphasis is on building a strong research design. The quality of the data means that the ensuing analysis of the collected data can often be done in a simple and transparent way. The evidence may lie in a simple comparison of means between control and experiment groups. Experiments come in different types which each have distinct advantages and disadvantages. They are discussed in more detail by Blom-Hansen, Morton and Serritzlew (2015). In this paper we focus on the challenges of practical experimental research.

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