Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. The two-week OxTalks freeze period starts on Monday 2nd March. During this time, there will be no facility to publish or edit events. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period. Once Oxford Events launches, you will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
Social policies have the potential to improve the lives of many people. These policies could serve low-income groups, women, refugees, migrants. Or they could tackle malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, long covid, post-infection syndromes, poor sanitation. Yet many governments fail to expand the needed social policies. What explains this? And what could trigger government action? Drawing upon a recently published paper and an upcoming book project, this presentation will show that while governments have weak incentives to expand “benevolent policies” – policies that serve groups with limited political power on issues with low visibility – the strategic actions of bureaucrats working within the government can facilitate policy expansion.
