Can ideas drive policy-making more than self-interest? This review examines the growing interest among scholars in understanding how ideas, rather than self-interest, shape policy-making outcomes. It offers a thorough exploration of existing literature, differentiating between various types of ideas that can influence policy, including cognitive paradigms, world views, norms, frames, and policy programs. It highlights the persistent challenges in studying the influence of ideas on policy, particularly in pinpointing causal mechanisms. The review underscores that many studies need to improve in articulating the specific causal processes through which ideas exert their effects. The review offers suggestions for future scholarship, emphasizing the importance of identifying influential actors, understanding institutional conditions that amplify or diminish influence, and analyzing how political discourse impacts the communication and translation of policy ideas into practice. This offers potential new avenues to study.
As a review article analyzing the intersection of ideas, politics, and public policy, this piece directly aligns with the focus of the Annual Review of Sociology. The journal aims to provide comprehensive overviews of key topics in sociology, and this review contributes by synthesizing the literature on a crucial area of sociological inquiry. Its focus on policy and societal outcomes further strengthens its relevance to the journal's readership.