Policy entrepreneurs are energetic actors who engage in collaborative efforts in and around government to promote policy innovations. Interest in policy entrepreneurs has grown over recent years. Increasingly, they are recognized as a unique class of political actors, who display common attributes, deploy common strategies, and can propel dynamic shifts in societal practices. This Element assesses the current state of knowledge on policy entrepreneurs, their actions, and their impacts. It ...

Human rights come into question in times of crisis. But should we wait for crises to arise before we discuss these rights? Advancing human rights should be everyone's business, not just that of a select group of public interest lawyers, conspiracy theorists or those who prefer tinfoil hats.Human rights are routinely debated in the wake of scandals. Think about the quality of care in nursing homes, the treatment of illegal immigrants, and police practices towards Indigenous people i...

Higher education is undergoing unprecedented transformation. In the global knowledge economy universities are of paramount importance to governments worldwide. This creates a strong rationale for an element exploring how the interactions between universities and the state are being reconfigured, while highlighting the role policy analysis can play in explaining these dynamics. Specifically, this element draws on four theoretical approaches – New-Institutionalism, the Advocacy Coalition Fra...

Policymaking is of its very nature a people-centered business-a good reason why highly effective policy analysts display not only superb technical expertise but excellent people skills as well. Those "people skills" include the ability to manage professional relationships, to learn from others about policy issues, to give presentations, to work in teams, to resolve conflict, to write for multiple audiences, and to engage in professional networking. Training programs for policy analysts oft...

Seizing opportunities, inventing new products, transforming markets--entrepreneurs are an important and well-documented part of the private sector landscape. Do they have counterparts in the public sphere? The authors argue that they do, and test their argument by focusing on agents of dynamic political change in suburbs across the United States, where much of the entrepreneurial activity in American politics occurs. The public entrepreneurs they identify are most often mayors, city manage...

Policy entrepreneurs engage in collaborative action to promote broad societal changes. They distinguish themselves from other political actors through their willingness to promote policy innovations that are new within specific contexts. Policy Entrepreneurship: An Asian Perspective showcases an exciting collection of new research studies. Previous studies of policy entrepreneurship within specific contexts across this vast region have confirmed the explanatory power of the concep...