Three lectures with Charles F. Manski. Public policy advocates routinely assert that “research has shown” a particular policy to be desirable. But how reliable is the analysis in the research they invo

BMC Health Services Research 2018 18:608, doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3436-8. Abstract BackgroundBy tradition, the Swedish health care system is based on a representative and parliamentary form of governm

"Knowing the Game: Motivations and Skills Among Partisan Policy Professionals", Journal of professions and organizations, Advance Access published September 21, 2016, doi: 10.1093/jpo/jow008 Abstract This

Journal of Health Organisation and Management. DOI:10.1108/JHOM-05-2019-0130 AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to analyse ethical competence related to healthcare governance and management tasks at t

Working Paper 2016 no.1(Published in Journal of Professions and Organization, Vol 4 (1):55-69 (2017). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/jow008) This paper focuses on “policy professionals”, i.e. people whinfluence the course of affairs, while their working-life satisfaction comes from getting their message into the media without becoming personally exposed. The key resource of policy professionals is context-dependent politically useful knowledge, in three main forms: “Problem formulation” involves highlighting and framing social problems and their possible solutions. “Process expertise” consists of understandingthe “where, how and why” of the political and policy-making processes. “Information access” is the skill to be very fast in finding reliable and relevant information. These motivations and skills underpin a particular professionalism based in an “entrepreneurial ethos”, which differs from both the ethos of elected politicians, and that of civil servants, and which has some potentially problematic implications for democratic governance.

This project examines so called "policy professionals", people who are employed in order to affect policy and politics. What is the impact of them, rather than elected officials, gaining more influence over politics?

Venue: Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13 in Stockholm, or online. Research seminar with Lena Wängnerud, Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. Her work involves t

This conference is organized by the Institute for futures studies in cooperation with the Network for evidence-based policy, a Swedish network of academics, journalists and civil servants concerned wi

Cynthia P. Schneider: Why Soft Power is not so Soft

Soft power played a critical role in the most significant socio-political transformation of the twentieth century - the breakup of the Soviet Union and the spread of democracy to Eastern Europe. Yet t

Venue: Institutet för framtidsstudier, Holländargatan 13, level 4, i Stockholm Welcome to a light brekfast before the seminar from 08.00. REGISTER HERE > Soft power played a critical role in the most s