Theoretical Approaches to Policy-Making

Policy-making is undoubtedly a complex process – often one factor that stimulates the promulgation of a public policy in one political system does not necessarily lead to the same outcome in another. For example, many countries are confronted with demographic changes. In particular, the proportion of senior citizens is growing, creating increased demands for certain public services, such as social care. Despite having common demographic changes, countries have adopted different policies for addressing this problem. Germany and Korea, for instance, have established long-term care insurance to cover the costs resulting from elderly persons’ losing their ability to look after themselves (see, e.g., Kim et al. 2013).