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Dealing with bad guys: actor- and process-level determinants of the “devil shift” in policy making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Manuel Fischer ,
Karin Ingold ,
Pascal Sciarini  and
Frédéric Varone
Manuel Fischer
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Research and Technology Eawag and University of Berne, Switzerland E-mail: manuel.fischer@eawag.ch
Karin Ingold
Affiliation:
Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Switzerland E-mail: karin.ingold@ipw.unibe.ch
Pascal Sciarini
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland E-mail: pascal.sciarini@unige.ch
Frédéric Varone
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland E-mail: frederic.varone@unige.ch
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Abstract

Policy actors tend to misinterpret and distrust opponents in policy processes. This phenomenon, known as the “devil shift”, consists of the following two dimensions: actors perceive opponents as more powerful and as more evil than they really are. Analysing nine policy processes in Switzerland, this article highlights the drivers of the devil shift at two levels. On the actor level, interest groups, political parties and powerful actors suffer more from the devil shift than state actors and powerless actors. On the process level, the devil shift is stronger in policy processes dealing with socio-economic issues as compared with other issues. Finally, and in line with previous studies, there is less empirical evidence of the power dimension of the devil shift phenomenon than of its evilness dimension.

Keywords

conflictdevil shiftpolicy processpower
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 309 - 334
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2015 

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