Between rule-makers and rule-takers: policy change as the interaction of design, compliance and feedback

How do policies change? The article argues that dominant public policy theories overemphasize the stage of adoption of new policies and disregard the discrepancies that often take place between formal and substantive change. But can we really speak of change if formal changes do not trigger change in actors’ behaviour? And how can policy-makers achieve substantive change? Building on the comparative political economy literature, the article conceptualizes policy change as the interaction between rule-makers and rule-takers. It is argued that (i) rule-makers can use policy design strategically to minimize reliance on non-compliant rule-takers and (ii) the scope for rule-makers to side-line non-compliant rule-takers is greater if non-compliant behaviour produces negative policy feedback. Systematic process analysis of reform of German higher education over two decades lends support to the proposed approach.