Clusters of water governance problems and their effects on policy delivery
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In: Policy and Society, Vol. 38, No. 2, 03.04.2019, p. 255-277.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Clusters of water governance problems and their effects on policy delivery
AU - Kirschke, Sabrina
AU - Franke, Christian
AU - Newig, Jens
AU - Borchardt, Dietrich
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/4/3
Y1 - 2019/4/3
N2 - Public policy problems are increasingly being characterised as wicked or tame problems, assuming that this classification is also meaningful for attempts to effective problem-solving. But do distinct ‘wicked’ or ‘tame’ problems empirically exist? We investigate 37 water-related problems in Germany, based on interview-based data on problem wickedness and official data on policy delivery. Our analysis clearly reveals four clusters of water governance problems (system complexity, uncertainty, tame and wicked problems), based on variations of three factors of wickedness (goals, uncertainty and system complexity). These clusters of problems vary in their effects on different dimensions of policy delivery (goal formulation, stages and degrees of implementation of measures), with significant effects on goal formulation and the number of measures ‘in construction’. These empirical insights may contribute to a more systematic design of governance strategies for addressing water governance problems in practice.
AB - Public policy problems are increasingly being characterised as wicked or tame problems, assuming that this classification is also meaningful for attempts to effective problem-solving. But do distinct ‘wicked’ or ‘tame’ problems empirically exist? We investigate 37 water-related problems in Germany, based on interview-based data on problem wickedness and official data on policy delivery. Our analysis clearly reveals four clusters of water governance problems (system complexity, uncertainty, tame and wicked problems), based on variations of three factors of wickedness (goals, uncertainty and system complexity). These clusters of problems vary in their effects on different dimensions of policy delivery (goal formulation, stages and degrees of implementation of measures), with significant effects on goal formulation and the number of measures ‘in construction’. These empirical insights may contribute to a more systematic design of governance strategies for addressing water governance problems in practice.
KW - Politics
KW - Cluster analysis
KW - complex problems
KW - European Water Framework Directive
KW - water pollution
KW - water quality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062707780&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14494035.2019.1586081
DO - 10.1080/14494035.2019.1586081
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 38
SP - 255
EP - 277
JO - Policy and Society
JF - Policy and Society
SN - 1449-4035
IS - 2
ER -