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Social Policy & Administration Path Dependence and Policy Layering in Australia's Childhood Obesity Response: Explaining the Persistence of Individual Responsibility
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Social Policy & Administration Path Dependence and Policy Layering in Australia's Childhood Obesity Response: Explaining the Persistence of Individual Responsibility

Susannah Nichols
Social Policy & Administration, Early View
2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.70124
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Open Access CC BY V4.0

Abstract

This article examines how individual responsibility became the dominant narrative shaping Australia's childhood obesity policy response and why this framing has persisted. Using historical institutionalism and the concept of policy layering, the analysis examines how pre-existing approaches to health and child welfare shaped the policy response when childhood obesity emerged on the policy agenda. A systematic analysis of Hansard parliamentary debates (1970–2022) traces how these inherited ideas became embedded and reinforced across health, education and sport and recreation portfolios. Three phases in the policy trajectory were identified: the origins of the narrative (1970–1989), its embedding through expanding policy activity (1990–2009) and its consolidation through continued layering (2010–2022). Across these phases, policy responses remained centred on individual and family health behaviours, despite increasing recognition of systemic and environmental determinants. The findings demonstrate how successive policy layers can expand government activity while reinforcing an established policy trajectory, constraining the capacity of alternative ideas to reshape the dominant response. This study contributes to understanding policy stability, institutional continuity, and the dynamics of incremental change in public health.

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