The Policy Process Research track aims to bring together scholars interested in understanding how public policies are formulated, implemented, transformed, or dismantled across different political and institutional contexts.
The track welcomes theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions that examine the actors, institutions, ideas, and power dynamics shaping public policy making processes at local, regional, national, and transnational levels. Particular attention is given to the interaction between politics and public policy, including how democratic institutions, bureaucracies, interest groups, social movements, experts, or international organizations influence policy processes. The track also seeks to foster dialogue between well- known and emerging approaches in policy studies, including policy design, implementation, governance, capacities or dismantling, as well as comparative public policy analysis. In recent years, the field has increasingly engaged with challenges such as democratic backsliding, crises, inequality, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and climate change, highlighting the need to rethink policy processes in rapidly changing environments. By encouraging interdisciplinary and globally oriented perspectives, the track aims to strengthen international debates on the nature of public policies resulting from or shaping contemporary states, democracies, and societies. Some suggested themes include:
● Policy implementation and street-level bureaucracy
● Democratic backsliding and public policy
● Policy dismantling and institutional change
● Bureaucracy, political process, and public policy
● Governance and policy networks
● Public policy and inequalities
● Evidence, expertise, and policymaking
● Crisis management and policy responses
● Digital governance and algorithmic policymaking
● Comparative policy process research
● Federalism and multilevel governance
● Participation, deliberation, and co-production in the policy process
