Carmen Jacqueline Ho: Benevolent policies

The event will be held online through Zoom. The registration closes one hour before the event, and the link will be sent right after on the day of the seminar

Benevolent policies

Social policies have the potential to improve the lives of many people. These policies could serve low-income groups, women, refugees, migrants. Or they could tackle malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, long covid, post-infection syndromes, poor sanitation. Yet many governments fail to expand the needed social policies. What explains this? And what could trigger government action? Drawing upon a recently published paper and an upcoming book project, this presentation will show that while governments have weak incentives to expand “benevolent policies” – policies that serve groups with limited political power on issues with low visibility – the strategic actions of bureaucrats working within the government can facilitate policy expansion.