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Chapter 5, by Kai Oppermann and Klaus Brummer, addresses veto player approaches. The main contribution of veto player approaches to the study of public policy has been to provide a toolkit for the comparative analysis of the dynamics and obstacles of policy change across regime types and policy areas. Specifically, veto player approaches suggest that the possibility and conditions for policy change in a given polity depend on the veto player constellation, that is, the number of veto players and veto points, the distribution of preferences between veto players and their ability and incentives to employ veto power. While veto player arguments have already found their way into FPA, the chapter makes the case that the theoretical and empirical potential of such arguments for the study of foreign policy has not yet been systematically exploited. Against this background, the chapter first outlines the core tenets of veto player approaches and overview show they have been applied in public policy. Then, the discussion focuses on the transferability of such approaches to the field of foreign policy. This is followed by an empirical illustration of a veto player analysis of Germany’s policy regarding the foreign deployment of its armed forces.
This edited volume examines how and under which conditions foreign policy analysis can be enriched by “domestic realm” public policy approaches, concepts, and theories. Public policy scholars dealing with the analysis of domestic policy fields, such as social and economic policy, interior affairs, or environmental policy, use a broad array of heuristics, concepts, and theories, including, for example, multiple streams, advocacy coalition or punctuated equilibrium approaches. However, the possible contribution of such approaches to the analysis of foreign policy has yet to be fully explored. With this purpose in mind, this edited volume devotes a chapter each on a selection of arguably the most important domestic public policy approaches and examines their transferability and adaptability to foreign policy analysis. Thereby the book points out how bridging the intra-disciplinary divide between the analysis of public policy and foreign policy can enrich foreign policy studies and shows how exactly foreign policy analysis can benefit from broadening its instruments for analysis. The edited volume also discusses under what conditions such a transfer is less promising due to the “sui generis” character of foreign policy.
The introductory chapter outlines the rationale behind the edited volume, defines core concepts, introduces the analytical template along which the individual chapters are structured, and provides brief summaries of the individual chapters. Its point of departure is that foreign policy has in many ways become more similar to (and intertwined with) “ordinary” public policies. This is true for the actors involved in the policy-making process as well as for the scope of domestic political contestation around policy-making. Nonetheless, a divide still persists regarding the analysis of policy-making processes and substantive policies in foreign affairs on the one hand and virtually all other public policies on the other hand. Against this background, this chapter argues that FPA has much to benefit from more systematically taking on board scholarship in Public Policy. This allows to broaden the conceptual toolbox for the analysis of state policies toward external events and topics, and to capture the real-world shifts and developments in the domestic and international environment of foreign policy.