Talk:
“Policy capacity as a catalyst? Power resources and transforming potential power to actual power in the policy process”
by
M. Kerem Coban
SOAS, University of London & Kadir Has University
coban.kerem@gmail.com
Date and Room Info
Friday, December 19, 2025, 12:30 p.m.
A-326 (FEASS Building)
Abstract
Theories of the policy process rarely problematise the concept of power. Likewise, policy capacity literature tends to ignore power in analyses. Yet power is a critical determinant of ‘who gets what, when, how.’ Given the fundamental role of power in the policy process and the disconnect between policy capacity literature with the concept of power, this paper brings them together by locating power in the theories of the policy process and argues that policy capacity is a catalyst in the transformation of potential power (i.e., power to) to actual power (i.e., power over). Actors rely on or need policy capacity when mobilising their power resources to transform power to act to power over other actors, thereby the policy process, to shape the outcomes and outputs of the policy process. As such, the paper presents a policy capacity-centred approach to power resources and seeks to locate power in the policy process.
Keywords: policy capacity, power resources, policy process, public policy, theories of the policy process
Short Bio
M. Kerem Coban is a Lecturer in Public Policy & Management at the School of Finance and Management, SOAS, University of London, a Global Network Scholar in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Kadir Has University, and an Associate Member of LAGAPE, University of Lausanne. He is an Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration and the Assistant Editor of Policy and Society. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of comparative public policy, regulatory governance, and international political economy.