European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2016 | Page 183
European Policy Analysis
a central planning unit) may be less
capable of solving certain problems than
the prior, dispersed (i.e., nonintegrated)
policy arenas.
Third, from a procedural
perspective, integration duration refers
to the length of the process. Given the
inherent temporality of policies (as
previously explained), their integration
can be restricted to a certain point in
policy time, referring to a particular stage
such as agenda setting or implementation
(punctual integration), or it can extend
over a longer policy period, covering
multiple stages (enduring integration).
Such a differentiation between punctual
and enduring modes of PI (along
with the acknowledgment of possible
intermediate forms on the spectrum)
critically implies that PI is not necessarily
an all-encompassing phenomenon, but
may end at some point in the course of
policymaking.
In sum, the two concepts that
define the conceptual space for thinking
about and analyzing PI—policy and
int egration—are fairly complex and
exhibit a diverse range of meanings.
Together they constitute the “universe of
policy integration”—the conceptual space
of conceivable forms of PI constituting the
analytical PI perspective. Thereby, the PI
perspective emphasizes the multifaceted
nature and potential complexity of policy
integration, that is, the fact that different
elements of policies can be integrated in
different ways. This helps overcome the
dominating narrow and politically biased
understandings of policy integration
and allows for a finer-grained empirical
analysis of the multiple forms that policy
integration can take on in practice. In
fact, my own in-depth analysis of the
German sustainability strategy has shown
that policy integration is realized in a
much more differentiated and nuanced
way than established approaches of PI
would have been able to take into account
(Bornemann 2014). The reconstruction
of the policy arrangement that has
emerged from the German sustainability
strategy reveals a highly differentiated
and multifaceted pattern of policy
integration, which combines several
policy objects in multiple modes, on
the levels of both understandings and
manifestations. Thus, the study reveals
that policymakers follow very particular
pathways of integrative policymaking and
yield highly differentiated forms of policy
integration, which in some respects match
the normative integration requirements of
the sustainability idea.
Overall, the PI perspective comes
with a differentiated conceptual repertoire
for analyzing the combination of policies
within integrative–strategic policy fields.
A systematic analysis of IPS from the
perspective of policy integration opens
the view for the multiple forms that
integrative policy fields can take, that is,
which (aspects of) policies are integrated
and how this is done.
4.2. Political Strategy as Analytical Focus
Although strategy is an emerging
concept in political and policy studies
(Mulgan 2010), many studies of strategy
in the public sphere disseminate models
of strategic management. This might
reflect “a widely shared consensus on
contemporary strategising in the public
sector that emerged from decades of
strategic management research” (CasadoAsensio and Steurer 2014, 457; see also
Steurer and Martinuzzi 2005). However,
the adoption of models of strategic
183