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Mea Culpa? The Role of Data Collection in Public Officials Acknowledging Policy Failure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2021

Sarah James Open the ORCID record for Sarah James [Opens in a new window]
Sarah James*
Affiliation:
Government and Social Policy Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
Corresponding Author: Sarah James, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Email: sarahjames@g.harvard.edu
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Abstract

State governments, often described as “laboratories of democracy,” design and implement many public policies, but this moniker also implies course correction when initial efforts fail. But how do states learn from failure? Existing hypotheses about policy learning and broad research capacity are insufficient. Using case studies of failed juvenile justice policies in Texas and Washington, I explore when failure acknowledgment occurs at all. I argue that a state’s bureaucratic capacity to gather data—distinct from its analytical capacity—is necessary for public officials to acknowledge failure, highlighting the impact of policy and institutional design on evidence-based policy making and policy corrections.

Keywords

policy learningpolicy failurestate capacitybureaucracy
Type
Original Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 96 - 119
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Political Science Association

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