Issues in CrossNational Policy Research

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Issues in Cross-National Policy Research
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Graham Pub. Pol. And Politics in Comparative
Perspective

• Field of Comparative Public Policy
• What govts do or do not do, regardless of where
  initiatives come from
• Process-oriented- across time and space-(e.g.
  examines how issues affecting large numbers of
  citizens enter public arena)
• Multidisciplinary (and a part of poli sci)
• Tension btw theory and practice

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Graham cntd

• Relationship between comp pols and pp
• Sensitivity to cultural context
• Development studies- pol. Development
• American focussed study focussed on technical
  details of management
• Practitioners Complex interactions between
  policy statues, target populations, implementers
  and socio-political environment
• How to get big policy changes adopted

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Importance of Institutions

• Highlights the role of bureaucracies and norms in
  structuring policy processes and the identities
  of actors everywhere
• The main contribution/positive benefit of
  combining comparative politics and policy
  studies, according to Graham
• Something to think about is this what we see as
  we examine policies cross-nationally? Do
  Institutions matter?

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Feminist Cross-Cultural Research

• Importance of cultural specificity
• -attending to cultural differences esp exclusion
  (think of powerlessness and oppression)
• -exploring/considering the possibility that women
  in different contexts have much in common
• -critically reflecting on whether our categories
  are culturally biased, unduly reflect our own
  backgrounds, frames of references

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Discuss

• Feminists doing cross-cultural research seem to
  be confronting two competing sets of
  ethics-respect for women and respect for
  culture.
• Are these really competing goals?

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