Failure to Learn or Failures of Learning? Policy Studies and the Public Inquiry

Alastair Stark

Political Science and International Studies

Title: ‘Failure to Learn or Failures of Learning? Political Studies and the Public Inquiry’

Respondent: Ian Hesketh

Brief abstract: Political scientists have tended to dismiss the public inquiry as an ineffectual lesson-learner. However, significant issues with inquiry scholarship suggests that it is the academy rather than the state that is failing to learn. This paper responds to these issues by examining the inquiry as policy learning mechanism within the modern state.