Measuring Individual-Level Analytical, Managerial and Political Policy Capacity : A Survey Instrument
There is no denying that policy actors matter in driving policy change. Most of the policy process frameworks argued for the centrality of policy actors but have similarly contended that the occurrence of policy change is contingent upon the dynamic interaction of policy actors, organizations and institutions. But the roles played by the actors in the policy process has been typically framed in terms of the technician-politician dichotomy. The burgeoning literature on the increasing complexity of policy work, however, shows a spectrum of roles instead of a binary distinction. Policy work is comprised of functions within and outside the government that transcend the political-analytical distinction. Despite this recognition, very limited attention has been given towards systematically and comprehensively measuring the set of skills and resources necessary for policy actors to perform this various functions. This paper discusses the development of instrument to address this gap in public policy literature. It builds on the framework of policy capacity developed by Wu, Ramesh and Howlett (2015) by integrating three separately assessed dimensions of policy capacity (analytical, managerial and political) into one measurement instrument. In doing so, we hope to measure not only the levels of individual policy capacity but also the dynamic interactions of the policy actors with resources at the levels of the organization and policy system