Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: While digital policies provide significant value within contemporary governance, not many governments' digital policies are adapted to rapidly changing technologies and associated expectations. The limited adaptability can be explained by governments' focus on institutional shifts as an instrument to generate policy changes. Therefore, this article examines the impact of institutional shifts on digital policy by leveraging the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) as a lens to explore the Belgian federal government between 2000 and 2020. This is done through performing a distributional application of the PET and an explaining‐outcome congruence case study. The results highlight the role of institutional shifts in directing digital policy, but also underscore the importance of other factors (i.e., policy image, attention allocation and/or structure of the political system) and the presence of policy entrepreneurs to explain the (in)stability of digital policy.
Source: Review of Policy Research
DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12507
Authors: Inke Torfs, Ellen Wayenberg, Lieselot Danneels
Institution: Ghent University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Universiteit Gent
OpenAlex ID: W4307562889