Premium
Pavlovian Policy Responses to Media Feeding Frenzies? Dangerous Dogs Regulation in Comparative Perspective
Author(s) -
Lodge Martin,
Hood Christopher
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.00176
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , german , politics , set (abstract data type) , political science , political economy , economics , law , geography , computer science , archaeology , artificial intelligence , programming language
The first part of this article, based on a comparative analysis of recent policies on dangerous dogs among a set of Western European states, shows that small‐scale events – like one dog‐bite – can produce circumstances that confront policy‐makers with a type of ‘forced choice‘, given a particular set of political conditions. The second part, based on a more in‐depth comparison of German and UK approaches, probes beyond the ‘Pavlovian’ level of political response to dog‐bite crises to explore how institutions mediate responses to ‘forced choices’. Dog‐bite crises may temporarily remove normal blockages and constraints on policy development, but this article shows how institutions can still shape policy responses in at least three different ways.