Policy Assemblages and Policy Resilience: Lessons for Non‐Design from Evolutionary Governance Theory

Abstract

Evolutionary governance theory (EGT) provides a basis for holistically analyzing the shifting contexts and dynamics of policymaking

in settings with functional differentiation and complex subsystems. Policy assemblages, as mixes of policy tools

and goals, are an appropriate unit of analysis for EGT because they embody the theory’s emphasis on co‐evolving elements

within policy systems. In rational practice, policymakers design policies within assemblages by establishing objectives, collecting

information, comparing options, strategizing implementation, and selecting instruments. However, as EGT implies,

this logical progression does not always materialize so tidily—some policies emerge from carefully considered blueprints

while others evolve from muddled processes, laissez faire happenstance, or happy accident. Products of the latter often

include loosely steered, unmoored, and ‘non‐designed’ path dependencies that confound linear logic and are understudied

in the policy literature. There exists the need for a more intricate analytical vocabulary to describe this underexplored

‘chaotic’ end of the policy design spectrum, as conjuring images of ‘muddles’ or ‘messes’ has exhausted its usefulness. This

article introduces a novel