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Although the literature on evaluation has theorized about the distinction between internal and external evaluation, hardly any research has compared them empirically. This article examines whether the lessons of internal evaluations differed from those of external evaluations in the case of international development aid. It analyzes internal evaluations of the Asian Development Bank for nearly 1000 sovereign interventions across 38 countries in the Asia-Pacific during 1996–2016, using computational text analysis or text mining techniques. The results show that internal evaluations focused more on micro- and meso-level characteristics, while external evaluations laid more emphasis on meso- and macro-level constructs, such as dimensions of policy and the institutional environment in the recipient country, or its level and rate of economic growth. The article concludes that internal and external evaluations can be combined to create a multilevel evaluation framework that integrates micro-, meso-, and macro-level lessons to facilitate better learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys time, temporality and timescapes in the study of public administration and public policy. While references to temporal categories, such as timing, sequence, speed, duration, time budgets, time limits or time horizons, are ubiquitous in political science, there are few systematic treatments of time in administration and policy-making. The special issue which this article introduces focuses on analyses that seek to explain policy development over time; the link between time and power; and the role that visualisation may play in helping to understand change over time. Taken together, the papers seek to advance the debate by 1. exploring different facets of time and how they affect government and public policy; 2. paying attention to time as an institution and a resource; 3. discussing the temporal features of politics and administration, such as, e.g., term limits, and of public policy-making, such as policy cycles or policy horizons; 4. exploring time from both diachronic-historical and synchronic perspectives; 5. debating the status of time in different theoretical traditions in political and policy analysis; and 6. examining time from a methodological standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complex decision-making that goes into policy choices for regulatory regimes, it would seem intuitive that such regimes might develop under distinct national styles. By revisiting several historical models of regulatory development, including Bernstein's classic life-cycle model, and then by analyzing six case studies from the US and UK, for example, we explore the possibility that regulatory regimes vary more prominently along the temporal dimension rather than along spatial ones. We conclude that regulatory regimes have similar developmental patterns, although the time spent at each stage in the process can vary significantly according to unique domestic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies by Hood have underscored the significance of the desire of decision-makers to avoid blame for poor policy initiatives, highlighting the importance to policy-making of learning about how best to avoid policy failure. This article examines several different concepts of policy failure in the literature on the subject, such as policy accidents, errors, mistakes, and anomalies, along with recent work by McConnell and his colleagues on the general types and sources of such failures. The article distinguishes between ‘thin’ (technical-strategic) and ‘thick’ (political-experiential) policy learning and links them to McConnell’s three categories of political, programme, and process failures. The analysis points to the significant and underappreciated roles played by process and political problems in the analysis of policy failure and the need to draw lessons in these areas as well as in more technically oriented programme-related ones if the prospects of policy success are to be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the developments in the care and treatment of mentally ill people who were receiving treatment from mental health services and who committed homicide. The aim of further independent inquiries into the issue is cited. The Report of the Clunis Inquiry into the matter is tackled. Several government-inspired initiatives and measures have been launched to address the shortcomings of community care services for the severely mentally ill and disordered.