How ideas and institutions shape the politics of public policy

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Ideas and institutions as explanatory factors
3. Institutionalisms and institutions
4. Political institutions and public policy
5. Policy feedback
6. From historical institutionalism to ideational analysis
7. Mapping ideas: policy paradigms and beyond
8. Ideas, actors, and the policy cycle
9. Reconsidering theories of the policy process – ideas, institutions, and actors
10. Ideas, political institutions, and transnational actors
11. Ideas, institutions, and identities
12. Ideas, power, and interests
13. Institutions and the production of expertise
14. Mechanisms of policy change
15. Structural and psychological factors
16. Conclusion.

This Element provides a critical review of existing literature on the role of ideas and institutions in the politics of public policy with the aim of contributing to the study of the politics of public policy. Because most policy scholars deal with the role of ideas or institutions in their research, such a critical review should help them improve their knowledge of crucial analytical issues in policy and political analysis. The following discussion brings together insights from both the policy studies literature and new institutionalism in sociology and political science, and stresses the explanatory role of ideas and institutions.