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Crawford School of Public Policy · ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy
All students participate in interactive, real-time classes. 2026 dates: Jan 28; Feb 4 & 11 The increasing complexity and interconnectivity of policy problems has led to governments turning to innovative policy tools to achieve policy outcomes. This course on policy tools and mixes offers an overview of contemporary and emerging tools and tools mixes. We use the obvious, but helpful, metaphor of a tool box and explore what tools are available in the tool box, how they are chosen, and whether they work. But we will also be thinking critically about policy tools, asking; how did the tools get into the tool box in the first place, how do new tools get in, and why are some tools used more than others? The course is structured around the concepts of: - Charting policy tools; - Choosing policy tools and mixes; and - Checking the tool/s work. The course draws on case studies on two emerging tools in government – nudge and co-design – to help us to understand policy tools, but also dig beneath assumptions about policy tools, asking questions such as how do policy tools emerge into practice? How do they become popular? Can all policy tools be mixed? What does the use of different tools say about citizen/state relationships, and whose voices may be heard or silenced?
Critical reflection on policy tool/mixes (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2
Evaluating policy tool effectiveness (1500 words)
Learning outcomes 3
The standard workload for a 3 unit course is 65 hours including class time and independent study.
None Preliminary Reading Howlett, M. Designing Public Policies: Principles and Instruments. Routledge, 2019. Lascoumes, P, and Patrick Le Galès. ‘Introduction: Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation’. Governance 20, no. 1 (2007): 1–21. Howlett, M, Ishani Mukherjee, and Jun Jie Woo. ‘From Tools to Toolkits in Policy Design Studies: The New Design Orientation towards Policy Formulation Research’. Policy & Politics 43, no. 2 (2015): 291–311. Arno Simons & Jan-Peter Voß (2017): The concept of instrument constituencies: accounting for dynamics and practices of knowing governance, Policy and Society, Gunningham, Neil, and Darren Sincalir. ‘Regulatory Pluralism: Designing Policy Mixes for Environmental Protection’. Law & Policy 21 (1 January 1999): 49–76.