Calibration and specification in policy practice: Micro-dimensions of policy design

Abstract

Three aspects of policy success – programme implementation, pol-

icy solution feasibility and political legitimacy and support – need

to be at the front of mind when policies are formulated. Many

uncertainties endemic to policy-making surround these issues and

present considerable public management challenges. Many of

these problems, however, are linked to the poor conceptualization

and understanding of policy content on the part of policy-makers,

something for which policy scholars must share some blame. This

is especially true with respect to the existing literature on the

micro-level aspects of policies; the level at which goals and policy

instruments are concretely implemented in the form of specific

policy targets and tool calibrations. While these latter subjects have

been examined in the past by luminaries such as Eleanor Ostrom,

Guy Peters, Peter Hall and Lester Salamon, their insights into this

level of policy-making have been glossed over in the mainstream

policy sciences and the significance of their work for real-world

policy analysis insufficiently appreciated. This article sets out a

framework of policy calibrations and specifications that reconciles

and incorporates these insights in order to enhance the chances of

policy success through improved policy design.