Capturing practice

The concept of ‘practice’ is offering a new approach to questions in public policy, especially those dealing with the process dimension of the political. But what exactly are practices? The first part of this paper focuses on the appropriate size or dimension of a political practice: What kind or range of events should be considered as the basic entity of analysis? The second part of the paper presents empirical illustrations from two research projects on committee decision making. These illustrations serve to exemplify the applicability of the concept of ‘political practice’ to public policy.