Comparative Policy Studies ― Conceptual and Methodological Challenges

The role of comparative analysis in policy studies is one that has gained increasing importance in recent years. More and more, scholars have sought to compare and contrast differing policy designs in order to overcome challenges which can arise in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policy across regional and national boundaries. Through a combination of sound methodology and strong empirical data analysis this book is the first in its field to provide scholars and policy-makers with both compelling comparative research design and methodology in one place. With this unique combination of empirical and methodological analysis in the context of comparative policy design coupled with an outstanding cast of contributors, this volume is essential reading for policy-makers as well as students and scholars of policy design.

Isabelle Engeli is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her current explores comparative policy agendas, regulatory regimes of human biotechnology, and gendering policy change. She has recently co-directed a comparative research project on morality issue across Western Europe with C. Green-Pedersen and L. Thorup Larsen. Her work has appeared in the Journal of European Public Policy, Political Research Quarterly, Comparative European Politics, the French Political Science Review and the Swiss Political Science Review. Isabelle is the co-recipient of the 2012 APSA Best Comparative Policy Paper Award and the 2011 Carrie Chapman Catt Prize.

Christine Rothmayr Allison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal, Canada. Her fields of interest include comparative courts and politics and comparative public policy, where she studies policies in the field of biotechnology, biomedicine and higher education. Her books include The Politics of Biotechnology: Policy Networks, Institutions and Internationalization which she co-edited with E. Montpetit and F. Varone. Her work has been published, among others, in the European Journal of Political Research, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, and West European Politics.