Knowledge, Policy-Oriented Learning, and Policy Change

Abstract

There has been a great deal of research in recent years concerning the use of substantive policy analysis in public policymaking. This article seeks to integrate those findings—e.g., the “enlightenment function” of policy research—into a more general model of policymaking over periods of a decade or more. The conceptual framework focuses on the belief systems of advocacy coalitions within policy subsystems as the critical vehicle for understanding the role of policy analysis in policy-oriented learning and the effect, in turn, of such learning on changes in governmental programs.