Does learning matter for policy outcomes? The case of integrating climate finance into the EU budget

Rietig, Katharina and Perkins, Richard ORCID: 0000-0002-4963-6494 (2017) Does learning matter for policy outcomes? The case of integrating climate finance into the EU budget. Journal of European Public Policy. ISSN 1350-1763

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Abstract

A considerable body of work has invoked learning in seeking to explain observed patterns of EU policy change. This paper scrutinizes the relevance of learning for understanding policy outcomes. We apply a consolidated framework based on factual, experiential and constructiv-ist learning across the individual and organizational levels to examine the unlikely policy out-come of dedicating 20% of the EU 2014-2020 budget to climate action. Learning did play some role in the policy outcome, in that the belief that climate policy integration (CPI) was an appropriate instrument to address climate change was the result of constructivist learning over the preceding decade. However, this learning was restricted to a handful of policy entrepre-neurs in the Cabinet/DG Clima, who largely “pushed” the policy through based on pre-existing convictions. Conversely, beyond some experiential learning, there is little evidence that learning was a significant feature of the policy process amongst actors in other European institutions.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/current
Additional Information:	© 2017 Taylor & Francis
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2016 14:32
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 05:29
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/68575

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