The use of placebo policies to escape from policy traps

ABSTRACT

This article provides a roadmap to help analysts approach the under-researched phenomena of policy-making driven to some extent by an attempt to show that governments and broader governing systems have a policy in place to manage tough policy issues, rather than addressing deeper causal factors of the problem. The metaphor of placebo policies is used to explore these issues, supported by a novel secondary metaphor of a ‘policy trap’ (expectations on governments and governing systems being greater than their capacity to realise). Examining the political value of ‘doing something’, it suggests that placebo responses are often the least risky means of escaping from policy traps. The framework is illustrated using a process of triangulation, though a detailed examination of the 1998 appointment of a ‘Drugs Tsar’ under the UK’s first term New Labour government.

KEYWORDS:

• Placebo policies
• symbolic policies
• token policies
• policy drivers
• policy traps

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to John Boswell, Rod Tiffen and numerous academic colleagues for helpful advice, as well as to the journal editors and anonymous reviewers for exceptionally helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Allan McConnell

Allan McConnell is Professor, Department of Government and Interntional Relations, University of Sydney.