Theorising Policy Ideas

Abstract

What is a policy idea? In 2009, the soon-to-be Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron set out an idea where the people of Britain worked out answers to big social problems, saying that ‘A big part of that answer is the Big Society. I think we are on to a really big idea’ (Cameron, 2009). Once elected into government, Cameron continued, for the first year or two at least, to set out his vision for a Big Society. The idea attracted international attention, as far afield as Australia (Whelan et al., 2012). It led many scholars to interrogate the intention and charter of this type of policy-making by big idea (Alcock, 2010; Bailey & Pill, 2011; Cotterill et al., 2012; Davies & Pill, 2012; Evans, 2011; Glasman & Norman, 2012; Kettell, 2012; Mycock & Tonge, 2011; Pattie & Johnston, 2011; Sullivan, 2012). Previous work has been largely concerned with the meaning of policy ideas like the Big Society; this chapter instead asks what these big ideas are, and explores the issues prompted by asking such a question.