Rethinking path dependence in public policy research
Rethinking path dependence in public policy research
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重新思考公共政策研究中的路径依赖
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Torfing
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Torfing
路径依赖的论点对于分析和解释公共政策在面对有意的改革时的弹性和持久性具有高度相关性。然而，路径依赖的论点最初是为了解释次优解决方案在私人市场经济中的主导地位。此外，将路径依赖理论应用于政治学研究中，还存在一些尚未解决的问题。因此，本文旨在重新思考路径依赖的论点，以使其适用于公共政策改革的研究。这是通过重新审视P.A.提出的关于自我强化技术路径的经典论点来实现的。大卫和W.B.亚瑟。在批判性地回顾了对经典论证的理性主义批判，并重申了重新关注政治学中路径依赖的呼吁之后，本文确定了一系列对经典路径依赖论证的分析挑战，这些挑战必须得到解决，以便使其与公共政策研究相关。文章最后对分析挑战的理论回应和主要论点的实证说明进行了初步概述，这些主要论点是基于本特刊中提出的实证案例研究。
Path dependence arguments are highly relevant for analysing and explaining the resilience and persistence of public policies in the face of intentional reform. However, path dependence arguments were originally developed in order to explain the predominance of suboptimal solutions in the private market economy. Furthermore, there are several unresolved problems when applying path dependence arguments in the study of politics. Therefore, this article aims to rethink the path dependence arguments in order to customize them to the study of public policy reforms. This is done by revisiting the classical argument about self-reinforcing technological paths advanced by P.A. David and W.B. Arthur. After a critical review of the rationalistic critique of the classical argument and a reiteration of the call for a renewed focus on path dependence in political science, the article identifies a series of analytical challenges to the classical path dependence argument that must be addressed in order to make it relevant to public policy studies. The article concludes with a preliminary sketch of the theoretical responses to the analytical challenges and an empirical illustration of the main arguments based on the empirical case studies presented in this special issue.