Guillaume Fontaine

Substance and Methods in the Comparative Study of Policy Change

The purpose of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis is to foster theory-building and theory-testing from a comparative perspective, which is important intellectually and practically as a means of learning about and improving public policy. Studying policy change is one of those research endeavors where substance and methods are tightly related. It is a comparative exercise per se since change may involve variation across time, space and policy areas. In this special issue, we present a collection of studies on Latin America, as cases of policy change and continuity over the past three decades. After supporting the choice of this region with a discussion of some its features and a presentation of the articles of this issue, in this Introduction we would discuss some questions related to policy change as well as the methodological implications for small-N comparisons in policy studies.

Explaining a Policy Paradigm Shift: A Comparison of Resource Nationalism in Bolivia and Peru

ABSTRACT Using a policy design framework based on nodality, authority, treasure and organization instruments, the article studies the resurgence of resource nationalism in Latin America as a case of policy paradigm shift. It compares the gas policies implemented by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Ollanta Humala in Peru to explain how ideas and institutions are related in this process. The findings show that policy design is a crucial test to explain how ideas actually foster institutional change, first through policy formulation by selecting and combining instruments, then through policy implementation by adjusting these instruments to new social demands and technical requirements.

¿Por qué persisten los déficits de control social?: La consulta previa, libre e informada en el marco de la política petrolera ecuatoriana.

Based on a policy design framework, a causal mechanism is identified to explain how the arrival of new authorities with a nationalist discourse generates a deficit of social accountability in the petroleum sector. The mechanism includes regulatory and institutional reforms that shape the oil policy at the operational level, giving way to a discrepancy between state and non-state actors during prior consultation processes. Finally, each part of the causal mechanism is supported by empirical evidence based on 20/21 positive tests on policy instruments.

Le mouvement écologiste contre l'exploitation d'hydrocarbures en Équateur

Cet article analyse le role du mouvement ecologiste dans les conflits lies au petrole, en Amazonie equatorienne. La these centrale est que ce mouvement exerce une influence notable sur les reformes legales et institutionnelles depuis les annees 1990, mais relativement limitee quant a la politique d’extraction de petrole. On s’efforce de montrer que cette limitation provient d’une tension entre les deux orientations qui caracterisent l’ecologisme equatorien?: la radicalisation des conflits et l’institutionnalisation des mecanismes d’influence politique (lobbying). Dans le contexte actuel, la participation du secteur activiste du mouvement ecologiste dans le gouvernement de Rafael Correa se traduit par une polarisation du debat autour de la gouvernance de l’environnement. Cette strategie peut s’averer contre-productive, a l’heure d’affronter les effets d’une nouvelle phase d’expansion des activites petrolieres avec la perspective de l’exploitation des champs Ishpingo, Tambococha et Tiputini, plus connus sous le sigle ITT.