The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Explaining the Success or Failure of Policy Reform: The Police and Education Cases in Uruguay (2010-2020)
The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Explaining the Success or Failure of Policy Reform: The Police and Education Cases in Uruguay (2010-2020)

Summary/Abstract: The academic literature has recently started to underscore that the capacity of a policy entrepreneur is not only determined by his conditions as an agent but also by the context in which he/she operates. This article develops a conceptual framework to analyze this kind of context. To test this framework, wedevelop a qualitative comparative analysis between two policy fields: police and education in Uruguay (2010-2020). These cases offer a fruitful comparison to demonstrate the relevance of context to explain the probability of success of policy entrepreneurs with ambitious reform agendas. In the police sector, we show how the political entrepreneur managed to be successful as an agent of reform due to a seriesof contextual aspects that were favorably conjugated. In the education sector, this research identified several institutional and political factors that quickly conspired against the possibility to promote change, despite the presence of a reformist policy entrepreneur.

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