Michael Mintrom – författare

Policy entrepreneurs engage in collaborative action to promote broad societal changes. They distinguish themselves from other political actors through their willingness to promote policy innovations that are new within specific contexts. Policy Entrepreneurship: An Asian Perspective showcases an exciting collection of new research studies. Previous studies of policy entrepreneurship within specific contexts across this vast region have confirmed the explanatory power of the concept, even though the political systems under investigation are distinct from the political system in the United States, where the notion of policy entrepreneurship was coined. This book is the first ever comprehensive compilation of research on policy entrepreneurship in Asia, and focused on policy change in China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. All the studies gathered here assess the agency of policy entrepreneurs within broader structures that present them with both opportunities and constraints. In their different ways, each chapter explores how structural changes, specific strategies used by policy entrepreneurs, and the practice of boundary spanning shape policy agendas. The scholarship on display offers an inspiring treasure trove of ideas, insights, concepts, and research strategies. This book will prompt newer scholarship on policy entrepreneurs and the crucial role they play in contemporary politics, in Asia and globally.The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Asian Public Policy.

Policy entrepreneurs engage in collaborative action to promote broad societal changes. They distinguish themselves from other political actors through their willingness to promote policy innovations that are new within specific contexts. Policy Entrepreneurship: An Asian Perspective showcases an exciting collection of new research studies. Previous studies of policy entrepreneurship within specific contexts across this vast region have confirmed the explanatory power of the concept, even though the political systems under investigation are distinct from the political system in the United States, where the notion of policy entrepreneurship was coined. This book is the first ever comprehensive compilation of research on policy entrepreneurship in Asia, and focused on policy change in China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. All the studies gathered here assess the agency of policy entrepreneurs within broader structures that present them with both opportunities and constraints. In their different ways, each chapter explores how structural changes, specific strategies used by policy entrepreneurs, and the practice of boundary spanning shape policy agendas. The scholarship on display offers an inspiring treasure trove of ideas, insights, concepts, and research strategies. This book will prompt newer scholarship on policy entrepreneurs and the crucial role they play in contemporary politics, in Asia and globally.The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Asian Public Policy.

Rapid and controversial, the spread of school choice initiatives across the United States has radically changed political debate about public education. In this book, Michael Mintrom explores the complex world of open-enrollment policies, charter schools and voucher plans to reveal how and why school choice has become a major issue, and he draws important conclusions about how innovative individuals can spur significant change in the policy arena. Policy entrepreneurs - individuals who take up a cause and make it part of the political agenda - have largely remained background figures without clear definition in the policymaking literature. This book is the first comprehensive and systematic treatment of the concept of policy entrepreneurship, providing an important foundation for explaining how policy proposals are initiated, considered, and adopted. Mintrom uses the emergence of school choice in state politics to examine how policy change originates.He shows how policy entrepreneurs have been instrumental in placing school choice onto state legislative agendas, despite the lack of compelling evidence about its merits, and how they use social networks, reframe policy issues, and attempt to shift the sites of policy debate. Blending innovative theory with both qualitative and quantitative investigation, Mintrom explains how energetic individuals made school choice a real choice. In doing so, he changes our broader understanding of how policy is formed.

Policymaking is of its very nature a people-centered business-a good reason why highly effective policy analysts display not only superb technical expertise but excellent people skills as well. Those "people skills" include the ability to manage professional relationships, to learn from others about policy issues, to give presentations, to work in teams, to resolve conflict, to write for multiple audiences, and to engage in professional networking. Training programs for policy analysts often focus on technical skills. By working to enhance their people skills, policy analysts can increase their ability to produce technical work that changes minds. Fortunately, this unique book fills the gaps in such programs by covering the "people side" of policy analysis. Beyond explaining why people skills matter, this book provides practical, easy-to-follow advice on how policy analysts can develop and use their people skills. Each chapter provides a Skill Building Checklist, discussion ideas, and suggestions for further reading. People Skills is essential reading for anyone engaged in public policymaking and public affairs as well as all policy analysts.Completely changing how we think about what it means to be an effective policy analyst, People Skills for Policy Analysts provides straightforward advice for students of policy analysis and public management as well as practitioners just starting their professional lives.

Policy entrepreneurs are energetic actors who engage in collaborative efforts in and around government to promote policy innovations. Interest in policy entrepreneurs has grown over recent years. Increasingly, they are recognized as a unique class of political actors, who display common attributes, deploy common strategies, and can propel dynamic shifts in societal practices. This Element assesses the current state of knowledge on policy entrepreneurs, their actions, and their impacts. It explains how various global forces are creating new demand for policy entrepreneurship, and suggests directions for future research on policy entrepreneurs and their efforts to drive dynamic change.

Higher education is undergoing unprecedented transformation. In the global knowledge economy universities are of paramount importance to governments worldwide. This creates a strong rationale for an element exploring how the interactions between universities and the state are being reconfigured, while highlighting the role policy analysis can play in explaining these dynamics. Specifically, this element draws on four theoretical approaches - New-Institutionalism, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Narrative Policy Framework, and Policy Diffusion and Transfer - to inform the analysis. Examples are drawn from a range of countries and areas of potential research informed by policy theory are identified. This element features a section dedicated to each of the three main missions of the university followed by an analysis of the institution as a whole. This reveals how universities, while typically seeking greater autonomy, remain subject to a multifaceted form of nation state oversight as they continue to globalise in an uncertain world.