1st Edition

Ideas, Political Power, and Public Policy

    176 Pages
    by Routledge

    176 Pages
    by Routledge

    Through the last couple of decades, scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have increasingly emphasized the importance of political ideas in understanding processes of change and stability in politics and public policy. Yet, surprisingly, relatively little has been done to more clearly and stringently conceptualize the relationship between political power and the role of ideas in public policy and political development. This volume addresses this major lacuna in the policy and political studies literature by bringing some of best scholars in the field, who each write about the relationship between ideas and power in politics and public policy. The contributions frame the concept of ideational power and explore ways in which ideas shape power relations, across a number of distinct countries and policy areas. The topics covered include austerity, coalition building, monetary policy, social policy, tax policy, and macroeconomic indicators. The volume features a short introduction written by the co-editors, and a final, recapitulative essay prepared by Mark Blyth, one of the most cited scholars in the field. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

    1. Ideas, political power and public policy
    Daniel Béland, Martin B. Carstensen and Leonard Seabrooke

    2. Power through, over and in ideas: conceptualizing ideational power in discursive institutionalism
    Martin B. Carstensen and Vivien A. Schmidt

    3. The power of economic ideas – through, over and in – political time: the construction, conversion and crisis of the neoliberal order in the US and UK
    Wesley Widmaier

    4. Powering ideas through expertise: professionals in global tax battles
    Leonard Seabrooke and Duncan Wigan

    5. Powerful rules governing the euro: the perverse logic of German ideas
    Matthias Matthijs

    6. The Bocconi boys go to Brussels: Italian economic ideas, professional networks and European austerity
    Oddný Helgadóttir

    7. Studying macroeconomic indicators as powerful ideas
    Daniel Mügge

    8. Ideas as coalition magnets: coalition building, policy entrepreneurs, and power relations
    Daniel Béland and Robert Henry Cox

    9. Ideas and power: four intersections and how to show them
    Craig Parsons

    10. The New Ideas Scholarship in the Mirror of Historical Institutionalism: A Case of Old Whines in New Bottles?
    Mark Blyth

    Biography

    Daniel Béland holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Policy (Tier 1) at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (University of Saskatchewan).

    Martin B. Carstensen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School.

    Leonard Seabrooke is Professor of International Political Economy and Economic Sociology at the Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School.