Smokefree public places policy in Scotland: rethinking policy work in multiple streams and Punctuated Equilibrium Theory
本文通过证人研讨会和文献资料，分析苏格兰如何成为英国首个推行全面无烟公共场所立法的地区，发现多源流和间断均衡理论能解释政策窗口打开，但未充分捕捉政策制定者主动塑造咨询、证据、框架、领导力和实施等“治国术”工作，并引入生态位构建理论加以补充。
This article examines how and why Scotland became the first UK nation to introduce comprehensive smokefree public places legislation through prominent theories of policy change. To do so, it draws on a witness seminar involving former ministers, senior officials, advocates, researchers, and environmental health experts, triangulated with documentary sources. The findings broadly support accounts based on Multiple Streams Framework and Punctuated Equilibrium Theory: a policy window opened as evidence accumulated, political support aligned, and devolution created a new institutional venue. However, the witness seminar also highlights forms of policy work that these frameworks do not fully capture. Participants described how policy makers actively shaped consultation processes, curated and mobilised evidence, deployed strategic framing, coordinated political leadership, and designed implementation to maximise compliance. The article argues that, while existing theories explain agenda-setting and timing, they under-specify the practical ‘statecraft’ through which governments construct conditions for policy adoption and delivery. Building on the evolutionary roots of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, the article introduces Niche Construction Theory to explain how policy makers reshaped institutional, informational, and political environments to influence policy trajectories. This extension highlights the blurring of political and technocratic work and emphasises the value of qualitative analysis for understanding processes of policy change.