General seminar in Politics and Government with Giliberto Capano
Giliberto Capano from University of Bologna will be presenting for the September edition of the General Seminar
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Policy Capacities: Buzzword or Blueprint for Better Governance?
The study of policy capacities has become increasingly important in the fields of public policy and public administration. It offers a promising way of understanding why some governments are more effective than others at designing and implementing policies. This concept emphasises the interplay of analytical, operational and political factors, which are distributed across individual, organisational and systemic levels. This multidimensional framework has enriched theoretical debates and inspired a growing body of empirical research. However, despite this progress, key challenges remain unresolved.
Firstly, the conceptual boundaries of policy capacity are often blurred, creating a risk of conflating capacities with outcomes such as state effectiveness or governance quality. Secondly, measurement strategies remain fragmented and rely on heterogeneous indicators, which complicates the accumulation of knowledge. Thirdly, while existing studies confirm that capacities matter, they also suggest that their influence is conditional and works in conjunction with contextual, political and institutional factors. Finally, questions remain about how capacities evolve over time — whether through learning, reform or crisis — and how they interact across levels of governance and sectors.
In this presentation, I take stock of the current state of research and identify the main theoretical and empirical challenges. I also set out a research agenda to advance the study of policy capacities, with the aim of making policymaking more effective and robust.
Bio:
Giliberto CAPANO is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Bologna- He is one of the editors of the prestigious and highly-ranked journal Policy & Society. He specialises in public administration and public policy. His research focuses on governance dynamics and performance in higher education and education, policy design and policy change, the impact and performance of policy instruments, the social role of political science, agency as an embedded function of policy making, and the political and policy dimensions of crises
