The study of morality policy: analytical implications from a public policy perspective

Abstract

Morality policies generally refer to issues in which political conflicts are shaped by debates over first principle; i.e., value conflicts are more important than instrumental considerations of policy design. Yet there is still a remarkable lack of scholarly attention on morality policies, in particular with regard to general implications for the study of public policy. To stimulate further research in this area, the article discusses different concepts of morality policy and suggests a distinction between different morality policy types. Moreover, distinctive features of morality policy content and effects are discussed. The article concludes with sketching out promising areas of future research in this field of inquiry.

Keywords:

• Morality policy
• policy change
• policy types
• public policy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is based on generous funding of the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant). The project MORAPOL analyses patterns of morality policy for nine different policy subfields in 26 countries over a period of 50 years (1960–2010).