Public policy meets morality: conceptual and theoretical challenges in the analysis of morality policy change

Abstract

This contribution examines morality policies from the perspective of the comparative public policy literature. We analyse which concepts, theories and explanatory factors are useful given the peculiarities of this policy field. We answer the question to what extent morality policies are different by analysing these central aspects from a policy change perspective. In view of the identified problems in morality policy research, we suggest an alternative concept of measurement. It is based on the assumption that the constitutive cleavage underlying morality policies refers to a single dimension on which changes occur, namely, the degree of restrictiveness of a given regulatory provision. As such, this paper contributes to the emerging field of morality policy research by outlining future venues of research along with an overview of the different existing approaches.

Keywords:

• Conceptualization
• measurement
• morality policy
• policy change
• review
• theory

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is based on the project MORAPOL (ERC Advanced Grant). Generous funding by the European Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.