CfP Panel: „Great Expectations, Ambiguous Goals and Multi-level Governance – The Outcome Gap Re-visited“, 2018 ECPR General Conference

Call for Papers ECPR General Conference in Hamburg 22- 25 August 2018
Panel: „Great Expectations, Ambiguous Goals and Multi-level Governance – The Outcome Gap Re-visited“. The panel is part of Section S28: Evaluating Policies of Immigrant Integration and Their Outcomes: A Critical Assessment from a Multilevel Perspective, organized by the ECPR Standing Group on Migration and Ethnicity

Abstract: Scholars of public policy have long been haunted with challenges at the implementation stage. Ever since Pressman and Wildavsky’s seminal work in 1974, „Implementation. How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland”, research on implementation is characterized by a pessimistic undertone. Many case studies tell of the „horrors of war“ as Linder and Peters (1987) muse, of the lack of control, compliance and goal attainment. Scholars of migration policy-making in particular have been preoccupied with what they characterize as outcome gaps at the phase of implementation, often drawing from principal agent theory. More recently and optimistically, we have seen a revival to grasp the degree of discretion (and possibilities for control of discretion) of „street level bureaucracy“ or the role of non-government actors at this stage in the policy cycle. With the rise of incoming refugees since 2014, many comparative studies have documented the degree of regional and even local variations, sometimes circumventing sometimes openly challenging the implementation of migration legislation.

We invite colleagues with different theoretical and methodological approaches to the issues at hand to join our panel. Please submit the details of your paper, including an abstract of no more than 250 words, the title of the paper, your email address and affiliation to
Prof. Dr. Sybille Münch (Leuphana University, Lüneburg; sybille.muench@leuphana.de)
Prof. Dr. Hannes Schammann (University of Hildesheim; hannes.schammann@unihildesheim.de)
Deadline is January 20, 2018

We shall then select your papers and pass on the structure of our panel to the organizers of the overarching section. The ECPR organizing committee will decide by February 25 on the final number of panels allocated to our section. We will keep you posted throughout the process.

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