Historical Analysis of Institutional Regimes in Switzerland ... - IDHEAP

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3. Target groups are social actors whose behaviour is considered by the protection or use
policy as relevant to the resolution of the problem in question. State intervention is intended
to transform or stabilise this target-group behaviour in order to achieve the desired aims.
4. Institutional arrangements define the authorities and offices responsible for the
implementation of instruments. In addition to this area of competence, they are also charged
with decisions concerning the public resources (e.g. money, infrastructure, personnel, time,
information, consensus) at the disposal of the identified implementing actors.
5. In order to realise the desired effects, each policy design is based on a rationale, which
comprises hypotheses on the effect structure behind the collective problem and the possible
forms of state action. The causal hypothesis responds to the question as to who or what is
to blame or is objectively responsible for the unacceptable use of the resource. This gives
rise to the political definition of the target group in the policy design. The intervention
hypothesis responds to the question as to how the behaviour of the target groups can be
influenced in such a way as to achieve the defined aims
Policy analysis shows that such policy designs are often incomplete or incoherent, that they are only
partly implemented and/or that the effects achieved only partly correspond to the defined aims. Thus,
it is imperative to examine the extent to which the concrete use and management of a natural
resource depends on the internal coherence and degree of implementation of such policy designs.
b) The limits of the policy approach
Like the institutional economics approach to resource use and management, policy analysis has also
some shortcomings which are described below:
• By focusing mainly on policy implementation the traditional policy analysis has an
inherent “conservatism bias”. There is a need to question the internal coherence of
policy design in order to anticipate foreseeable policy failures and to propose
innovative and effective IR.
As policy analysis mainly focuses on the implementation of existing policies, it is (at least potentially)
somewhat conservative. It may try to improve the implementation of existing policies
marginally/incrementally with its empirical-analytical conclusions and prescriptive recommendations
(e.g. adaptation of an instrument, extension of the implementation arrangement) but it does not really
question the policy design and action logic behind them. The ex ante analysis of the coherence of
certain policy designs demonstrates, however, that in many cases, implementation deficits and
undesired policy effects are or could be completely predictable from the outset. To take this into
account, policy analysis should also systematically examine the causal and intervention hypotheses of
a public policy.
• “Resource-protection” policies which are normally investigated by the traditional
policy analysis concern only one aspect of sustainability and integrated resource
management.
Environmental policies are generally conceived to protect a natural resource (or one or more parts
thereof). The concept of sustainability is ultimately concerned with taking into account, combining
and adjusting both protection and use measures. A comprehensive analysis of the public policies,
which together influence the sustainability of a natural resource, should, therefore, also include