A framework for analyzing policy goals: introducing the SPYDER indicator

Prof. Ana Petek, PhD, Prof. Krešimir Petković, PhD, Borna Zgurić, PhD, Marjeta Šinko, PhD, Marko Kovačić, PhD, Mario Munta, PhD, Nikola Baketa, PhD and Anka Kekez, PhD are the authors of the scientific paper A framework for analyzing policy goals: introducing the SPYDER indicator. The paper is published in the journal ”Policy Design and Practice”, indexed in Q1 in the Scopus database for Political Science and International Relations (2024). It was written as part of the project ”CHANGE – How does the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism change Croatian public policies”. The CHANGE project is carried out by the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zagreb.

Abstract: To enable systematic and precise description and assessment of policy goals, an often-neglected aspect of policy design – we introduce the Structured Policy Goals Indicator (SPYDER). This original tool was developed through qualitative content analysis of more than 5,000 goals from real-world strategic documents. SPYDER captures both the thematic orientation and the technical structure of policy goals, allowing for systematic analysis of how countries, regional associations, and international organizations articulate and operationalize their policy aims. Developed in a single-country case and subsequently tested and verified using a sample of international documents, the approach provides a replicable and flexible methodological framework for grasping the elusive and complex nature of policy goals for both practical and scientific purposes.

The paper is available at the link.