Raul Lejano is convening a panel at the IPSA Congress (Madrid July 2012) on Comparative Policy cultures, titled East versus West? Analyzing Differences in Policy Thought




Contrary to the title of the panel, we assume that it is impossible to delineate “Eastern” or “Western” policy thought and analytical frameworks, when the terms East and West are problematic to begin with.  But we also observe that the “philosophies” of policy and approaches to policy analysis do appear different from place to place, continent to continent.  Does the understanding of concepts like “rationality” or “transparency” change as one goes from place to place?  Do differing policy models underly the widely variant styles of governance found in different places?  Why is it that post-postivist models of policy are much more influential in some contexts than others?  Can we begin to draw insights about how policy analytics and policy concepts differ, and how might we characterize these differences?  The papers need not attempt grandiose analyses –e.g., while it is impossible to characterize the policy frameworks of an entire region, it may be possible to compare specific country cases such as one East Asian democracy and a Western one.  We are open to comparisons not just of policy thought vis-à-vis governance but also pedagogy (e.g., curricula in policy schools in country versus another).  One way to structure the panel is to have one section deal with “Policy: Philosophy and Theory” and another on “Policy Pedagogy”.






If you are interested in submitting a paper, go to the conference website http://www.ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/submit/paper  and submit a title and abstract, linking it to Panel:  Comparative Policy Cultures: East versus West?  Analyzing Differences in Policy Thought  (RC30 Comparative Public Policy), c.c. Raul Lejano :   rplejano@yahoo.com.  Submissions close on 17 October 2011.