Policy Narratives and Policy Processes Shanahan, Elizabeth A.; Jones, Michael D.; McBeth, Mark K.
Policy studies journal,
August 2011, Letnik:
39, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has influenced a generation of policy scholars with its emphasis on causal drivers, testable hypotheses, and falsification. Until recently, the role of policy ...narratives has been largely neglected in ACF literature partially because much of that work has operated outside of traditional social science principles, such as falsification. Yet emerging literature under the rubric of Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) demonstrates how the role of policy narratives in policy processes is studied using the same rigorous social science standards initially set forth by Paul A. Sabatier. The NPF identifies theories specifying narrative elements and strategies that are likely useful to ACF researchers as classes of variables that have yet to be integrated. Examining this proposition, we provide seven hypotheses related to critical ACF concepts including advocacy coalitions and policy beliefs, policy learning, public opinion, and strategy. Our goal is to stay within the scientific, theoretical, and methodological tradition of the ACF and show how NPF's empirical, hypotheses, and causal driven work on policy narratives identifies theories applicable to ACF research while also offering an independent framework capable of explaining the policy process through the power of policy narratives. In doing so, we believe both ACF and NPF scholarship can contribute to the advancement of our understanding of the policy process.
Which kind of decisions are passed by Cabinet in coalition governments? What motivates ministerial action? How much leeway do coalition parties give their governmental representatives?
This book ...focuses on a comparative study of ministerial behaviour in Germany, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. It discredits the assumption that ministers are 'policy dictators' in their spheres of competence, and demonstrates that ministers are consistently and extensively constrained when deciding on policies. The first book in a new series at the forefront of research on social and political elites, this is an invaluable insight into the capacity and power of coalition government across Europe.
Looking at policy formation through coalition agreements and the effectiveness of such agreements, Coalition Government and Party Mandate will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, governance and European politics.
Coalition building depends on citizens having a ‘compromising mindset’: they must accept that parties need to compromise in order to gain influence and that this entails deviating from the original ...policy positions. In this study, we show that European citizens understand that compromise is essential for democratic governance and that they, holding everything else constant, prefer political parties that express a willingness to compromise. This finding appears to be independent from specific forms of coalition politics and to be widespread across different levels of political interest, formal education and even ideological extremity. Our analysis compares observational data from the Austrian National Election Survey (AUTNES) 2020 and an original survey from Denmark in 2021. We also present results from a conjoint experiment fielded in Denmark, which evaluates the effect of willingness to compromise on vote choice. Our finding is good news for European democracies where coalition politics and thus compromise is a necessity for governance. Yet, for vote‐seeking politics, the situation is complex as citizens might sometimes punish parties for compromising, but sometimes also punish them for not compromising.
Abstract
This article examines the rapid transformations in the salience of sectarian boundaries despite seemingly deeply entrenched polarization. Lebanon provides an interesting case study where ...sectarian dichotomies moved relatively quickly from a predominantly “Christian–Muslim” divide to a more recent “Sunni–Shia” split within the context of tumultuous street mobilizations. While this sectarian dichotomy is resonant with the regional intra-Muslim divide, its local dynamics and mechanisms remain unknown. Based on recent literature pointing to street mobilization as an important channel for ethnic politics, this article focuses on co-mobilization—or coalition formation in protests—as a mechanism of sectarianization. It builds on an original and exclusive protest event catalogue (2000–2010), network analysis, and in-depth interview to ask: how does the salience of sectarian dichotomies shift in tandem with transformations in street politics? Through an analysis of momentous street mobilizations and coalition formations, the article traces how sectarian and political fault-lines are (re-)drawn and crystalized. The findings suggest that sectarian polarization emerges when political parties (re-)alignments overlap with the boundaries of sectarian cleavages, thus allowing interchangeability between political and sectarian categories. Contrary to common belief, this finding indicates that intra-sectarian political unity—rather than inter-sectarian divisions—shapes the processes of sectarianization and polarization.
The birth of the yellow-green 'government of change' − formed by the Five-star Movement (M5 s) and the League in 2018 − was a significant novelty in Italian politics. Concerns about its populist ...character co-existed with enthusiastic expectations concerning its capacity to overhaul politics. In what respects did the Conte I government mark a significant departure from its predecessors? To answer this question, we rely on data concerning legislative activity to analyse the executive's capacity to implement its policy agenda. Given the uneasy alliance upon which the coalition was based, we also attempt to evaluate whether or not the coalition agreement signed by the coalition partners actually worked as a focal point for government action. We find that, despite rhetorical claims about radical change, the Conte I government was less pro-active than its predecessors. We also find that the League was better able to affect the Government's policy priorities than was the M5 s.
Many political actors lack the power or competencies to impact policy outputs and outcomes on their own. This is why they join forces to multiply their impact. Following the advocacy coalition ...framework, they do so based on joint beliefs and shared policy preferences. Therefore, to understand cooperation or conflict among political actors, including the potential for policy compromises or stalemates, it seems crucial to know the allies and opponents in a political subsystem. Although many studies have investigated advocacy coalitions of like‐minded actors in various political subsystems and policy fields around the globe, not much is known about the dynamics at the origin of joint belief or common preference building. In this context, we ask: How and when do actors develop similar beliefs and joint policy preferences with others in a political subsystem? To answer this question, we investigate the early stage of policy making—a so‐called nascent subsystem—when a new issue arrives on the political agenda. We argue that it is at this stage that actors start developing joint beliefs and identifying their allies. We use expert interviews and survey data to investigate pesticide regulation, a new topic on Uganda's political agenda. We conducted a three‐step approach and selected the types of beliefs and preferences that mattered in a nascent policy setting. We then presented an extensive list of possible regulatory instruments to the stakeholders and selected those evaluated as the most relevant or conflictive. Based on this selection, we calculated belief and preference similarity and clustering to identify groups of like‐minded actors. Finally, via regression analysis, we show that joint beliefs are the result of either trust or a similar problem perception, depending on whether the actor is part of a more or less developed belief cluster.
Resumen
Muchos actores políticos carecen del poder o las competencias para impactar los productos y resultados de las políticas por sí mismos. Por eso unen fuerzas para multiplicar su impacto. Siguiendo el marco de la coalición de defensa, lo hacen sobre la base de creencias conjuntas y preferencias políticas compartidas. Por lo tanto, para comprender la cooperación o el conflicto entre los actores políticos, incluido el potencial de compromisos políticos o estancamientos, parece crucial conocer a los aliados y oponentes en un subsistema político. Aunque muchos estudios han investigado coaliciones de defensa de actores con ideas afines en varios subsistemas políticos y campos de políticas en todo el mundo, no se sabe mucho sobre la dinámica en el origen de la construcción de creencias conjuntas o preferencias comunes. En este contexto, nos preguntamos: ¿Cómo y cuándo desarrollan los actores creencias similares y preferencias políticas conjuntas con otros en un subsistema político? Para responder a esta pregunta, investigamos la etapa inicial de la formulación de políticas, el llamado subsistema naciente, cuando llega un nuevo tema a la agenda política. Argumentamos que es en esta etapa que los actores comienzan a desarrollar creencias conjuntas e identifican a sus aliados. Usamos entrevistas a expertos y datos de encuestas para investigar la regulación de pesticidas, un tema nuevo en la agenda política de Uganda. Llevamos a cabo un enfoque de tres pasos y seleccionamos los tipos de creencias y preferencias que importaban en un entorno de política incipiente. Luego presentamos una extensa lista de posibles instrumentos regulatorios a las partes interesadas y seleccionamos aquellos evaluados como los más relevantes o conflictivos. Con base en esta selección, calculamos la similitud y el agrupamiento de creencias y preferencias para identificar grupos de actores con ideas afines. Finalmente, a través del análisis de regresión, mostramos que las creencias conjuntas son el resultado de la confianza o de una percepción similar del problema, dependiendo de si el actor es parte de un grupo de creencias más o menos desarrollado.
摘要
许多政治行动者缺乏用于影响政策产出和结果的权力或能力。这解释了为何其联手以扩大影响力。根据倡导联盟框架，政治行动者基于共同的信念和政策偏好加以联手。因此，为了理解政治行动者之间的合作或冲突(包括政策妥协或僵局的可能性)，了解政治子系统中的盟友和对手一事似乎至关重要。尽管许多研究调查了全球不同政治子系统和政策领域中由志同道合的行动者组成的倡导联盟，但研究不足的是，共同信念或共同偏好建立的来源动态。我们在该情境下提出一个问题:行动者如何以及何时与政治子系统中的其他行动者发展相似的信念和共同的政策偏好?为回答这一问题，我们调查了政策制定的早期阶段(所谓的新生子系统)，即当一个新问题出现在政治议程的阶段。我们论证认为，行动者在该阶段开始形成共同的信念并确定其盟友。我们使用专家访谈和调查数据来研究农药监管，这是乌干达政治议程中的一个新话题。我们采用了由三步骤组成的方法，并选择了在新生政策背景中具有重要性的信念和偏好类型。我们随后向利益攸关方展示了一份广泛的监管工具清单，并选择了那些被评估为最相关或最具冲突性的监管工具。基于这一选择，我们计算了信念和偏好的相似性和聚类，以识别志同道合的行动者团体。最后，通过回归分析，我们表明，共同信念是信任或类似问题感知的结果，这取决于行动者是否属于有一定发展程度的信念群集的一部分。.
In May 2018, the Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan or Hope Alliance won the federal elections for the first time in the history of the country. The electoral authoritarian system is now ...in a state of transition. The electoral breakthrough was the result of longer-term socio-economic transformations, but the formation of a strong pre-electoral coalition was ultimately decisive for the victory. The article compares various coalitions and their performance during seven elections since 1990. The structured, focused comparison analyses the coalitions during this period because prior to 1990 the opposition was fragmented. On the basis of a three-level concept regarding the strength of pre-electoral coalitions, the article argues that Pakatan Harapan was successful because the coalition was sufficiently comprehensive (as indicated by the number and the competitiveness of candidates), cohesive (concerning ideological proximity and behavioural routinization) and well-rooted in society (in terms of linkages to voters/supporters and to civil society networks or organizations).
The widening of the European Union and the emergence of budget airlines have brought a host of challenges to member states like Latvia. A result of the economic polarization and its disproportionate ...effect on women is the explosion of sex tourism. East European destinations such as Rīga have become more prevalent and accessible for sex tourists particularly from Western Europe. Despite this influx of sex tourists, the Latvian government has not formulated a policy response to manage sex tourism. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework from the public policy literature, this article examines how coalitions formed around Latvian sex tourism, a women's advocacy coalition and a business advocacy coalition despite a policy silence. I find that women's coalitions are key players in the policy subsystem that share beliefs and coordinate activities related to the victimization of women, while the business coalition prioritized creating a positive image of Latvia and generating tourism revenue over trying to regulate the tourism industry. This case study also reveals how a policy subsystem tried to emerge, but when sex tourism dissipated, coalitions pivoted to other sexual regulatory policy areas dependent on their deep core and policy core beliefs.
This paper explores the possibilities and challenges of building cross‐racial solidarity between Southeast Asian American and Black communities through an ethnographic account of a community‐based ...educational space (CBES) working with low‐income Southeast Asian American and Black youth. CBESs can play a unique role in teaching youth to engage in anti‐racist work and building cross‐racial coalitions. We argue that attention to challenging anti‐Blackness is central to cross‐racial coalitions but should also recognize the distinct nature of anti‐Asian racism.
Opioid overdose deaths are dramatically increasing in the United States and disproportionately affecting minority communities, with the increasing presence of fentanyl exacerbating this crisis. ...Developing community coalitions is a long-standing strategy used to address public health issues. However, there is a limited understanding of how coalitions operate amid a serious public health crisis. To address this gap, we leveraged data from the HEALing Communities Study (HCS)—a multisite implementation study aiming to reduce opioid overdose deaths in 67 communities. Researchers analyzed transcripts of 321 qualitative interviews conducted with members of 56 coalitions in the four states participating in the HCS. There were no a priori interests in themes, and emergent themes were identified through inductive thematic analysis and then mapped to the constructs of the Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT). Themes emerged related to coalition development and highlighted the role of health equity in the inner workings of coalitions addressing the opioid epidemic. Coalition members reported seeing the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within their coalitions as a barrier to their work. However, when coalitions focused on health equity, they noted that their effectiveness and ability to tailor their initiatives to their communities’ needs were strengthened. Based on our findings, we suggest two additions to enhance the CCAT: (a) incorporating health equity as an overarching construct that affects all stages of development, and (b) ensuring that data about individuals served are included within the pooled resource construct to enable monitoring of health equity.
PDF
