How to ‘See’ Great Policy Successes: A Field Guide to Spotting Policy Successes in the Wild

Abstract

In this chapter, the editors make the case for positive policy evaluation. They survey classic and contemporary public policy and governance research and debates to demonstrate how they are slanted towards fault-finding, the language of disappointment, failure and crisis. They reflect on the contributions and the limitations of this state of the art and argue that it needs to be complemented by a more sustained and systematic conceptualization and empirical study of highly (and perhaps improbably) successful public policy endeavours. This chapter ends by outlining the analytical protocol used in this project, and debating the methodological strengths and limitations of the brand of positive policy evaluation applied in this volume.