Giliberto CAPANO (University of Bologna, Italy)

Giliberto CAPANO is a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy. He has been (2003-2009) the Dean of Bologna University's II Faculty of Political Sciences (located on the Forlì campus). He has been the Editor of the Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche (Italian Journal of Public Policy) and he is co-editor of Policy & Society. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association (2009-2014)  and the co-founder of the  International  Public Policy Association. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the  European Consortium of Political Research and of the International Public Policy Association. He specializes in public administration, public policy analysis, and comparative higher education. His research focuses on governance dynamics and performance in higher education and education, policy design and policy change, policy instruments’ impact and performance, the social role of political science, the policy impact of Covid-19, and leadership as an embedded function of policy-making.

Course: The role of typologies in Public Policy. Why they are needed, and why they must be used carefully

Typologies are useful for comparative policy research across countries, levels of government, sectors or time. They provide ways of sorting, ordering and classifying the wide range of multidimensional elements through which scholars can analyse different policy features and dynamics. In order to overcome sectoral specificities and promote cumulative knowledge building, theory-driven typologies have been elaborated and empirically operationalised. They aim to develop conceptual tools that can theoretically drive research on policy dynamics, while addressing the need to simplify and make sense of policy complexity.

These theory-driven classification efforts are based on principles of distinction and theoretical assumptions about how policies actually work. These efforts are necessary to increase the level of comparability across policy characteristics. However, they also pose a problem for the development of comparative analysis, as they raise the question of which typology should be chosen to improve comparisons. Furthermore, if not well conceptualised, typology can also be a barrier to analytical innovation.

The course will deepen students' knowledge of the use of typologies in public policy in order to show:

1. 1. 1. What their advantages and disadvantages are;
      2. If and how they can be useful not only for organising reality but also for proposing specific hypotheses and lines of research;
      3. How some typologies have been instrumental in increasing knowledge about specific policy phenomena or policy areas.

After a brief introduction to the origins of the typological tradition in public policy (with due attention to the general relevance of Lowi's and Wilson's typologies), the course will focus on those typologies that have been proposed to classify:

1. 1. 1. the modes of governance;
      2. policy change;
      3. policy instruments;
      4. welfare regimes and types of welfare policies;
      5. health systems and policies;
      6. education regimes and policies.

During the course, students will be encouraged to apply the typologies that have been analysed to their own research, or to develop conceptual proposals that will be examined and discussed together.