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Political Science
Canada
2026
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Law and Political Science
Canada
2023

D-Index & Metrics

Political Science

D-Index
92
Citations
37022
World Ranking
15
National Ranking
1

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Political Science in Canada Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Political Science in Canada Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Law and Political Science in Canada Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Political Science in Canada Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Law and Political Science in Canada Leader Award
  • 2020 - Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Social Sciences

Overview

Michael Howlett is affiliated with Simon Fraser University in Canada and has made significant contributions to the field of social sciences, focusing primarily on political science and international relations, public administration, strategy and management, sociology and political science, and general health professions.

Their research topics cover a range of key areas, including:

  • Policy Transfer and Learning
  • Public Policy and Administration Research
  • Social Policy and Reform Studies
  • Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
  • Evaluation and Performance Assessment
  • Regulation and Compliance Studies
  • Public Procurement and Policy

Michael Howlett has published numerous papers in well-known academic journals. Some recent works include:

  • "Mobilizing Policy (In)Capacity to Fight COVID-19: Understanding Variations in State Responses" (2020) in Policy and Society
  • "The Knowns and Unknowns of Policy Instrument Analysis: Policy Tools and the Current Research Agenda on Policy Mixes" (2020) in SAGE Open
  • "Procedural policy tools in theory and practice" (2021) in Policy and Society
  • "Assessing the regulatory challenges of emerging disruptive technologies" (2021) in Regulation & Governance
  • "Re-thinking the coronavirus pandemic as a policy punctuation: COVID-19 as a path-clearing policy accelerator" (2022) in Policy and Society

Frequent co-authors of Michael Howlett include:

  • Alexander Howlett
  • Andrea Migone
  • M. Ramesh
  • Ching Leong
  • Nihit Goyal

Their work has been published extensively in venues such as:

  • Policy and Society
  • Policy Design and Practice
  • SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Canadian Public Administration
  • Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine

Michael Howlett has also contributed to book publications, including:

  • "Bad Public Policy" (2025), published by Cambridge University Press
  • "Dictionary of Policy Design" (2025), published by Edward Elgar Publishing

In recognition of their academic contributions, Michael Howlett was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2020, specifically in the Academy of Social Sciences.

Best Publications

  • Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems

    Michael Howlett;M. Ramesh

  • The lessons of learning: Reconciling theories of policy learning and policy change

    Colin J. Bennett;Michael Howlett

  • Designing Public Policies: Principles and Instruments

    Michael Howlett

  • Governance modes, policy regimes and operational plans: A multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice and policy design

    Michael Howlett

  • Design Principles for Policy Mixes: Cohesion and Coherence in ‘New Governance Arrangements’

    Michael Howlett;Jeremy Rayner

  • The Dependent Variable Problem in the Study of Policy Change: Understanding Policy Change as a Methodological Problem

    Michael Howlett;Benjamin Cashore

  • Policy analytical capacity and evidence-based policy-making: Lessons from Canada

    Michael Howlett

  • Policy capacity: A conceptual framework for understanding policy competences and capabilities

    Xun Wu;M. Ramesh;Michael Howlett

  • Managing the “hollow state”: procedural policy instruments and modern governance

    Michael Howlett

  • Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case study of the Dutch energy sector

    Florian Kern;Michael Howlett;Michael Howlett

  • Punctuating Which Equilibrium? Understanding Thermostatic Policy Dynamics in Pacific Northwest Forestry

    Benjamin Cashore;Michael Howlett

  • Mobilizing Policy (In)Capacity to Fight COVID-19: Understanding Variations in State Responses

    Giliberto Capano;Michael Howlett;Darryl Stuart Jarvis;M. Ramesh

  • Policy Instruments, Policy Styles, and Policy Implementation

    Michael Howlett

  • From the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ policy design: design thinking beyond markets and collaborative governance

    Michael Howlett;Michael Howlett

  • Policy mixes for sustainability transitions: New approaches and insights through bridging innovation and policy studies

    Florian Kern;Karoline S. Rogge;Karoline S. Rogge;Michael Howlett

  • Patching vs Packaging in Policy Formulation: Assessing Policy Portfolio Design

    Michael Howlett;Jeremy Rayner

  • Do Networks Matter? Linking Policy Network Structure to Policy Outcomes: Evidence from Four Canadian Policy Sectors 1990-2000

    Michael Howlett

  • Policy formulation, governance shifts and policy influence: location and content in policy advisory systems

    Jonathan Craft;Michael Howlett

  • From tools to toolkits in policy design studies: The new design orientation towards policy formulation research

    Michael Howlett;Ishani Mukherjee;Jun Jie Woo

  • The lessons of failure: learning and blame avoidance in public policy-making:

    Michael Howlett

  • Patterns of Policy Instrument Choice: Policy Styles, Policy Learning and the Privatization Experience

    Michael Howlett;M. Ramesh

  • The Knowns and Unknowns of Policy Instrument Analysis: Policy Tools and the Current Research Agenda on Policy Mixes:

    Giliberto Capano;Michael Howlett

  • Routledge Handbook of Public Policy

    Eduardo Araral;Scott Fritzen;Michael Howlett;M. Ramesh

Frequent Co-Authors

M. Ramesh
M. Ramesh National University of Singapore
Jeremy Rayner
Jeremy Rayner University of Saskatchewan
Giliberto Capano
Giliberto Capano University of Bologna
Daniel Béland
Daniel Béland McGill University
Allan McConnell
Allan McConnell University of Sydney
Benjamin Cashore
Benjamin Cashore National University of Singapore
Pablo del Río
Pablo del Río Spanish National Research Council
Klaus H. Goetz
Klaus H. Goetz Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Wiktor L. Adamowicz
Wiktor L. Adamowicz University of Alberta
Helen Gunter
Helen Gunter University of Manchester

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