Prototyping and the new spirit of policy-making

Abstract

This conceptual paper discusses the use of Co-Design approaches in the public realm by examining the emergence of a design practice, prototyping, in public policy-making. We argue that changes in approaches to management and organisation over recent decades have led towards greater flexibility, provisionality and anticipation in responding to public issues. These developments have co-emerged with growing interest in prototyping. Synthesising literatures in design, management and computing, and informed by our participant observation of teams inside government, we propose the defining characteristics of prototyping in policy-making and review the implications of using this approach. We suggest that such activities engender a ‘new spirit’ of policy-making. However, this development is accompanied by the further encroachment of market logics into government, with the danger of absorbing critiques of capitalism and resulting in reinforced power structures.

Keywords:

• Policy design
• prototyping
• policy-making
• systems design
• service design

Acknowledgements

We thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for guidance which substantially improved this article.

Notes

1. These examples come from activities the authors have been involved in or from interviews.

2. Although political parties are key actors in the policy ecosystem, we focus here on staff in public administrations (i.e. public servants) accountable to ministers (i.e. politicians).