Issue 2: Instruction, Illustration, Rumination

And an Extremely Online meme

WELCOME

Thank you so much for the warm welcome you’ve given Policycraft. Last month I asked the void,

And hundreds of you answered, “Yes!”

In issue 2, you’ll start to see a pattern emerge for this newsletter. In each edition I aspire to include links that are a combination of:

Instruction (focused skill-building and tangible how-tos)

Illustration (case studies, examples, or research)

Rumination (philosophical or theoretical commentary and criticism)

As always, I encourage you to reply, comment, and share your thoughts on what you’ve read in Policycraft.

THIS MONTH’S SYLLABUS

📝 “Policy Profession Standards”, The Policy Profession, His Majesty’s Government

The concept of policy-as-a-profession has some precedence in the public sector, most notably the UK Civil Service’s Policy Profession function, which aims to build the skills and capabilities of their 33,000 policy professionals. In 2021, they released their Policy Profession Standards, a competency framework for their public service. The linked deck is a short but clarifying read as they understand the pillars of their profession, in their context, to be Strategy, Democracy, and Delivery.

📚 Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Palkha

Real-life colleagues of your Policycraft curator have already heard my raves about Jennifer Palkha’s book, but the gospel still hasn’t spread far enough in Canada for my liking. Although framed as a piece about implementing technology in the American public sector, what Palkha has actually done is explain in an empathetic yet clear-eyed way how and why government works - or, more often, doesn’t. It’s an absolutely essential book for understanding how to get anything done in government and, one hopes, an inspirational text for any public servants trapped in the machine but still hoping to make a difference.

Further reading: Palkha’s Substack, Eating Policy.

🎤 “How to Translate Research Findings into Policy”, transcribed speech by Doug Elmendorf, Institute for Progress

This short speech contains an eminently practical series of five recommendations for researchers and academics to have a greater impact on policymaking. Elmendorf comments not only on communication effectiveness (limit your jargon, surprise) but also how to play the long game in a way that can improve the profession itself.

🗞️ “Death by a thousand roundtables” by Alex Chalmers and Anastasia Bektimirova, Chalmermagne

A rip-roaring piece of criticism directed at the think tank and advocacy side of the profession; the authors write from a UK perspective but their comments are relevant here in Canada (your Policycraft curator has been guilty of some of these ‘genres of work’ in her career). Think of this as almost a reverse-checklist for making your policy commentary and recommendations more powerful; a ‘how-not-to’ to take your work from “conversation” to “feasibility”.

Further reading: This article comes recommended by friend of the newsletter Tom Goldsmith, who has his own Substack you should check out, Orbit Policy’s Deep Dives.

🎓 “Up-zoning New Zealand: the localisation of a globally mobile policy idea” by Eleanor West, Economic Policy Centre, Urban and Spatial Economics Hub, University of Auckland Business School

Policy ideas, like fashion, have trend cycles. (Last month’s Policycraft featured commentary on the currently back-in-vogue industrial policy). With housing crises gripping Canada and much of the Anglosphere, you’ve likely heard a lot about Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) advocacy. While it may be clear as to how a problem captures the attention of the media, public, and politicians, how does the solution spread? This case study attempts to trace a policy idea - up-zoning, enacted in New Zealand in 2020/1 - from its popular emergence on the other side of the world a dozen years earlier.

🗞️ “The Soda That Went Pop” by Now I Know

One of the best ways to learn is to do so from the mistakes of others. Now I Know, a long-running “interesting facts” newsletter, recently published an explosive example of Canadian public policy gone awry. In the early 1970s, provincial regulation aimed at environmental responsibility inadvertently turned then-newfangled 2-litre bottles of pop into incendiary devices. Policycraft confirmed this tale with a Boomer (hi, Dad!) who not-so-fondly recalls when two litres of Coca-Cola painted the inside of his pantry. The lesson? Listen to expert stakeholders, and be wary of overloading your policymaking with too many objectives (sometimes a bottle of pop should just be a bottle of pop).