Policy Learning and Public Policy Making: Analysis of the Scope of Previous Studies

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Public Administration, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

2 Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

3 Ph.D Student of Public Administration, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

10.22059/jppolicy.2025.102512

Abstract

The concept of policy learning attracted the interest of most researchers and scholars in the area of policy making in the past two decades. At its most general level, policy learning is updating policy makers' beliefs and enhancing their information and knowledge. Because of the thematic dispersion in policy learning, no comprehensive understanding of this concept has been achieved yet although many studies have been conducted on it. The present research intended to create a big picture of policy learning in governance. For this purpose, it used one of the most popular review methods – the methodological framework introduced by Arksey & O'Malley in 2005 for conducting scoping studies. A literature search was made using Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases for finding the related research, and the PRISMA-ScR checklist was used for screening. In all, 48 studies entered the study, and the PRISMA-ScR checklist was used to improve the quality of the review. The results showed that the previous research was mainly focused on policy learning in relation to the other concepts in policy making (policy learning and the different forms of policy learning, policy evaluation, the advocacy coalition framework, policy change, governance, interest groups and policy actors, policy transfer, policy failure, policy dispersion, and policy convergence). Finally, suggestions were offered for future studies.        

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Public Policy
Volume 11, Issue 2
June 2025
Pages 157-181

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