Policy Paradigms and the Structure of the State Apparatus: Embedding Neoliberalism

摘要

This contribution explores the resilience of neoliberal policy ideas within the state by situating the process of manufacturing policy advice within the context of the prevailing policy paradigm. The central question informing this work is despite evident failure, neoliberal ideas continue to prevail within the state policy process. Why and how this is the case, despite the lived experience and evidence, is the subject interrogated here. While the study of conventional public policy tends to be presented as a technical, evidence-based discipline, this ignores, or at best minimizes the highly hierarchical and politicized nature of evidence, expertise and knowledge employed in the work of constructing policy.