2020/2021

What is a Good Policy?

Political Morality, Feasibility, and Democracy (GOODPOL)

Social Sciences

Principal investigators

Jakob Elster

Associate Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Cathrine Holst

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Abstract

Disagreement over policy is the normal state of politics. How we approach such disputes and which policy decisions we make are decisive for the distribution of benefits and burdens in society. This makes the task of assessing policies crucial, yet complex. Good policies should reflect what we believe to be right. At the same time they must be feasible, and the result of democratic processes.

GOODPOL will bring together philosophers and social scientists to make political philosophy that is applicable and sensitive to democratic concerns, and policy assessments that are conceptually adequate and in proper touch with moral requirements.

Fellows

Ludvig Beckman

Professor
Stockholm University
Year at CAS

Simone Chambers

Professor
University of California, Irvine
Year at CAS

Johan Christensen

Assistant Professor
Leiden University
Year at CAS

Sebastian Conte

PhD Candidate
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Keith Dowding

Professor
Australian National University
Year at CAS

Eli Feiring

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Hallvard Fossheim

Professor
University of Bergen (UiB)
Year at CAS

Torbjørn Gundersen

Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Eilev Hegstad

PhD Candidate
Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)
Year at CAS
profile image illustration

Robert Huseby

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Thea Isaksen

PhD Candidate
UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
Year at CAS

Jon Christian Fløysvik Nordrum

Associate Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Mari Teigen

Researcher
Institute for Social Research
Year at CAS

News

Our alumna of the month is Cathrine Holst. Holst is a professor of sociology at the University of Oslo (UiO) and led the CAS project ‘What is Good Policy? Political Morality, Feasibility, and Democracy (GOODPOL)’ together with fellow UiO faculty member Jakob Elster back in 2020/2021. 

What is good policy, and what is the role of morality, democracy and experts in policymaking? Scholars at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) have pursued these and other important questions as part of a multidisciplinary research project.