King Trends and the Future of Public Policy

by Hugh Compston

Where is public policy in EU countries heading? This study answers this question by building a synoptic picture of the future directions in which public policy is likely to move by using contemporary theories of policy-making to deduce the implications for public policy of king trends: those technological, economic, environmental and social trends that can be empirically verified, affect the lives of large numbers of people and are expected by relevant experts to continue for at least the next 20 years or so. The resulting 12 general policy implications can be loosely summarized as more assertive security policies, more business-friendly economic policies, more liberal social policies and increased public spending. Taken together these enable us, for the first time, to construct a holistic picture of the long-term parameters of policy change that need to be taken into account in any serious thinking about where public policy is going or ought to go.

358 pages, ebook

First published July 28, 2006