Comparative Policy Studies Conceptual and Methodological Challenges

The role of comparative analysis in policy studies has gained increasing importance in recent years. Comparative policy studies aims at comparing and contrasting public policy making across sectoral, regional and national boundaries in order to overcome challenges in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policy. This book is the first in its field to provide scholars and policy-makers with both compelling comparative research design and methodology in one place. In contrast to general manuals on comparative methodology, this book specifically addresses key research design and methodological challenges that comparative policy studies typically faces and draws on rich empirical illustrations. Written by an outstanding cast of contributors, this volume is essential reading for scholars and students of comparative public policy.

Isabelle Engeli is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her current explores comparative policy agendas, regulatory regimes of human biotechnology, and gendering policy change. She has recently co-directed a comparative research project on morality issue across Western Europe with C. Green-Pedersen and L. Thorup Larsen. Her work has appeared in the Journal of European Public Policy, Political Research Quarterly, Comparative European Politics, the French Political Science Review and the Swiss Political Science Review. Isabelle is the co-recipient of the 2012 APSA Best Comparative Policy Paper Award and the 2011 Carrie Chapman Catt Prize.

Christine Rothmayr Allison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal, Canada. Her fields of interest include comparative courts and politics and comparative public policy, where she studies policies in the field of biotechnology, biomedicine and higher education. Her books include The Politics of Biotechnology: Policy Networks, Institutions and Internationalization which she co-edited with E. Montpetit and F. Varone. Her work has been published, among others, in the European Journal of Political Research, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, and West European Politics.

1. Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in Comparative Public Policy; Christine Rothmayr and Isabelle Engeli
PART I: TYPES OF COMPARISONS AND THEIR METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES
2. Conceptualizing Public Policy; Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore
3. Selecting Research Cases and Inferential Types in Comparative Public Policy Research; Jeroen van der Heijden
PART II: COMPARATIVE DESIGNS
4. Case Studies and (Causal-) Process Tracing; Joachim Blatter and Markus Haverland
5. Intermediate-N Comparison: Configurational Comparative Methods; Isabelle Engeli, Benoît Rihoux, and Christine Rothmayr
6. Quantitative Methodologies in Public Policy; Christian Breunig and John Ahlquist
7. Interpretive Analysis and Comparative Research; Dvora Yanow
PART III: NEW CHALLENGES IN COMPARATIVE DESIGNS
8. Comparing Beyond Europe and North America; Joseph Wong
9. Methods for the Analysis of Policy Interdependence; Fabrizio Gilardi
10. Gendering Comparative Policy Studies: Towards Better Sciencel; Amy G. Mazur and Season Hoard
11. Mixed-Methods Designs in Comparative Public Policy: The Dismantling of Pension Policies; Adrienne Héritier and Sophie Schmitt