Globalisation and public policy: bridging the disciplinary and epistemological boundaries

ABSTRACT

Globalisation, the ever increasing economic and socio-political international interactions, poses challenges to public policy theory and practice. This paper aims to (a) draw an outline of a discussion and research agenda for theorizing the policy process under globalisation, by (b) identifying some theoretical consensus across disciplines and epistemological paradigms. The literature shows a consensus on ‘constrained’ state thesis and that globalisation affects all states through structural pressures as well as the neoliberal discourse. However, policy outcomes vary across states depending on their position in the international power structure and domestic adjustment costs. The paper concludes that policy studies shall focus on the changing functions and organisational forms of the state and explicitly incorporate domestic–international interactions into the theories of the policy process.

KEYWORDS:

• Globalization
• international political economy
• comparative political economy
• public policy process
• epistemology

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Iftikhar Lodhi

Dr. Lodhi is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Prior to his current position he has taught at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His teaching and research interests include international and comparative political economy with a particular focus on collective action problem and energy and climate policy