Enhancing Analytical Frameworks through Comparative
Public Policy
Dr. Guillaume Fontaine [1]
As qualitative methods in social sciences have been greatly improving for the past two decades, so have comparative methods. Comparative public policy is now an important field of policy studies and comparative politics, mostly based on case study and the use of small-N samples for causal explanation.
This panel aims at discussing advanced research comparing at cross-country, cross-sectorial and crosstemporal levels. Our main objective is to evaluate the contribution of comparative methods to common analytical frameworks of policy analysis, as well as the potentiality of these frameworks for comparative analysis. Therefore we seek contributions on most similar and most different systems designs combined with these frameworks to explain the policy process and policy outcomes. Our discussion will deal with the epistemological aspects related to methodological alignment, upscaling, deterministic / probabilistic and symmetrical / asymmetrical causality, as well as technical aspects such as coping with extraneousness and endogenicity. We are also interested in the operationalization of comparative variables or factors, through time series, process-tracing or discursive analysis. Participants are
expected to pay a special attention to theory-driven research design and empirical testing on policy analysis from developed and developing countries. Of peculiar interest are contributions which consider policy instruments and institutional dimensions of policy design and implementation.
 Language: English
 Chair: Dr. Guillaume Fontaine
 Co-chair: Dr. Joseluis Mendez
 Discussants: Prof. B. Guy Peters