Where comparative public administration and comparative policy studies meet

Comparative public administration studies the capacity of government and public actors to design and implement policies. This article in the JCPA anniversary issue discusses similarities and differences between comparative public administration and comparative public policy. It does so using the concept of policy capacity, a capacity that is supplied by public actors and institutions. We show where comparative public policy and comparative public administration meet in different stages of the policy cycle and where they have built their own distinctive but complementary bodies of knowledge.