Issue 6: Hot takes and evergreen debates

Plus, the policy tools we choose to use - or not

WELCOME

This month’s Policycraft is interested in policy instruments: those that are available to us, those we choose to use or ignore, and how we can combine them to make better policy. We have a double dose of academic Michael Howlett, first assessing what we understand about policy instrument ‘mixes’ and then, in Policycraft’s Hot Take of the Month, making his case that the use of evidence is simply not present in the Canadian policy style. I am very interested in your thoughts on his conclusions.

Many of you responded with frustrated recognition to the concept of “everything bagel policymaking”, introduced in a previous issue of Policycraft. Think tank REFORM has released a short piece, “Everythingism: An Essay”, that details the UK experience of this phenomenon. It contains some wild examples (if you don’t already know about the bat tunnel, buckle up) but ends on an optimistic note: the authors believe that “everythingism” is not a fundamental feature of government and so a return to focus and prioritization in policymaking is possible.

If you’re a student, recent graduate, or are looking to make a career change in the policy world, I highly recommend Springboard Policy’s recent “A policy wonk’s guide to informational interviews”. It’s full of frank and practical advice to making the most out of these conversations (including how to land one in the first place).

Springboard is likely familiar to many of you as the publisher of PolicyJobsTO, a newsletter we all feign ignorance about to our managers. Last week they expanded their reach to Ottawa with the launch of PolicyJobsOTT. Come for the job listings, stay for the revelation that Ottawa has its own style of pizza(??).

THIS MONTH’S SYLLABUS

🎓 The Knowns and Unknowns of Policy Instrument Analysis: Policy Tools and the Current Research Agenda on Policy Mixes by Giliberto Capano and Michael Howlett, Sage Open

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of policy instruments, or want to think more deeply about how to use the tools available to you as a policymaker, this overview is a great place to start. As a bonus, the authors reference two concepts explored in previous Policycraft issues: greenfield policy research areas and the challenge of implementation.

💻 The Role of Standards in Shaping Effective Public Policy, A. Tomlinson, S. Johal, and N. Dragicevic, CSA Group

The Canadian Standards Association Group here makes the case for standards as a policy instrument. They argue that standards as a tool encourages evidence-based policymaking, a greater focus on outcomes, and promotes efficiency and innovation in markets, among other benefits. It may be worth considering where standards could fit in your personal policy instrument toolbox.

🎓 Words not deeds: the weak culture of evidence in the Canadian policy style by Andrea Migone, Michael Howlett, and Alexander Howlett in Policy and Society

In our second Michael Howlett article of the month, the authors argue that the rejection of evidence in policymaking isn’t a quirk or a recent development, but in fact a marker of the Canadian “policy style”. They leave us on a deeply cynical note: “Changing Canadian policy-making in a way that would enhance the use of evidence or alter the country’s evidentiary culture would require a much more directed and sustained effort on the part of all the country’s governments and administrations to put aside their interests and differences, a not impossible but highly unlikely occurrence, to say the least.”

🎤 The end of the civil service generalist is welcome, Institute for Government

A recent panel discussion hosted by the Institute for Government is bringing back the age-old generalist vs. specialist debate: Tamara Finkelstein, the Permanent Secretary at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has declared the “policy generalist” an “outdated concept” for her government. Her fellow panelists agreed, but also carved out a significant caveat - there is such a thing as “specialists in the business of government.” With improving state capacity, attempts to reduce the reliance on outside consultants, and getting government back in the business of building as hot topics of the day both in the UK and Canada, there is no more relevant time for this discussion. Is a return to specialization the future of the profession, given the anticipated seismic shifts in the way our governments need to operate? (Full disclosure: Policycraft is the product of a policy generalist/dilettante.)

📚 Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis

As an antidote to the cynicism, disagreements, and hot takes linked above, enjoy Michael Lewis’ charming new book that profiles everyday public servants whose hard work and sense of duty is what keeps the American government running. There is one notable exception, however: a chapter featuring not a human being but the Consumer Price Index, in which the author makes a stirring case for objective data and evidence in policymaking.

💻 We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It, The New Atlantis

This new series from The New Atlantis isn’t policy related per se, but is arguably directional in how policy thinkers should be enriching their practice: we live in a deep world of scientific complexity, hidden infrastructures, interlocking supply chains, and technology indistinguishable from magic - and yet most of us have no idea how this world works or how to maintain it. (See, ah, recent events). Called “How the System Works”, the first two articles in the series - on the food supply chain and drinking water - tackle the foundational infrastructures that allow our society to both survive and thrive. How much do we as policy thinkers actually understand about the functioning of the world we seek to shape?

📣 How to write a Piketty Critique, social media post by Matt Darling, Twitter/X

If you find yourself in the privileged role of reviewing a public policy book, you may want to keep in mind economist Matt Darling’s template for bad faith criticism and then do the opposite. Inspired by reviews of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, you won’t be able to un-see the pattern once you recognize it.