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Venue Shopping, Political Strategy, and Policy Change: The Internationalization of Canadian Forest Advocacy
Abstract
A key component of any political strategy is finding a decision setting that offers the best prospects for reaching one's policy goals, an activity referred to as venue shopping. This article supports the theory of venue shopping as laid out in Baumgartner and Jones (1993), but presents a more complicated analysis of its practice than most empirical studies to date. First, venue shopping can be more experimental, and less deliberate or calculated, than is commonly perceived. Second, advocacy groups choose venues not only to advance substantive policy goals but also to serve organizational needs and identities. Finally, venue choice is shaped by policy learning. Advocacy groups choose venues not only for short-term strategic reasons, but also because they have embraced a new understanding of the nature of a policy problem. These factors shape the frequency of venue shopping and thus the pace of policy reform.
... Even though groups might want to lobby all relevant venues all the time, they often do not. Organizational factors often constrain venue strategies (Pralle 2003), especially groups' resources available for lobbying (McKay 2011;Boehmke et al. 2013). While disparities in group resources are often criticized for allowing groups to hire more lobbyists and lobby on more issues (Schlozman et al. 2018;Hojnacki et al. 2015), separation of powers gives higher-resource groups more lobbying targets on any given issue. ...
... Nonetheless, many groups confine their lobbying to a single venue. This tendency partly reflects their members' expectations about how the group should operate and the relationships groups build with specific policymakers whom they lobby repeatedly over time (Pralle 2003). External factors can also encourage groups to confine their lobbying to a single venue. ...
... We make multiple contributions to this scholarship. First, much work on venue selection uses data from a single issue to demonstrate the plausibility of a theoretical model (e.g., You 2017;Boehmke et al. 2005;Pralle 2003) or covers a limited period. Evaluating an extended timeframe and across the range of issues reported in lobbying disclosures allows us to account for variation in issue context (Grossmann 2013) and party control of venues. ...
Prior work examines how organization resources and types shape venue selection strategies. Both Congress and executive branch agencies can change policy, so interest groups must consider which of these venues to lobby on a given issue. We argue that factors in the political environment—venues’ issue priorities and the power of groups’ allies in a venue—influence how groups with different resource constraints select lobbying venues. Examining over one million issue-level lobbying disclosures filed between 2008 and 2016, we find that low-resource groups strategically lobby the venue(s) controlled by partisan allies and respond to the government’s and public’s issue priorities. Meanwhile, high-resource groups more often lobby all venues relevant to their issues regardless of the political environment, especially on issues gaining significant attention within government but not in the public. Our findings suggest that separation of powers provides high-resource groups more venues to lobby for favored policies. Conversely, low-resource groups strategically only lobby venues they have the potential to influence.
... As such, industry groups must "acquire as much information as possible on their orientation and preferences [of their political venues]" before "influencing regulatory decisions" (Coen et al., 2021, p. 327). Scholars have developed a policy-learning perspective to emphasize this process of information gathering, viewing venue shifting as a trial-and-error process through which industry groups learn which venue works best for them in the long term (Lubinski, 2022;Pralle, 2003). Such a view of policy learning as a lengthy process of self-learning suggests that nascent industry groups would be ineffective in engaging into venue shifting because of their lack of interaction experience with venues. ...
... In particular, Pralle, (2003, p. 234) advances a "policy learning" perspective, suggesting that venue shifting is not a onetime strategic decision but a learning process that extends over many years in which interest groups learn about both the policy preferences of political venues and the nature of relevant policy issues. In a case study of British Columbia's forest policy, Pralle (2003) found that environmental groups that encountered significant barriers at the local and provincial levels employed a trial-and-error process when deciding to abandon these conventional venues and move to international venues. The difficulties that the environmental groups faced include both their lack of information about the policy preferences of political venues and their lack of understanding of the nature of relevant policy issues. ...
... Despite heterogeneity in the nature of different policy proposals, interest groups do not necessarily understand the potential popularity of their specific policy proposal, especially before submitting it to the targeted political venue. In the aforementioned "policy learning" case of the British Columbia's forest protection groups, for example, part of the reason that these groups initially faced setbacks was that their lack of understanding of deforestation's root cause made them propose policies targeting the supply side rather than the demand side of forest products (Pralle, 2003). Similarly, what contributed to the initial failure of U.S. preschool education advocates' campaign at the federal level was their overly ambitious policy proposals; these groups were able to achieve policy success only after modifying these proposals to a more modest level (Karch, 2009). ...
Industry groups engage in venue shifting when they seek to overturn or alter restrictive regulations imposed by one political venue through another. A critical step in this process is resolving uncertainties surrounding the preference of the targeted venue and the nature of the relevant policy proposal. While existing studies emphasize a long-term trial-and-error process of policy learning, we focus on nascent industries and argue that ventures seek other information sources to resolve these uncertainties quickly. In particular, nascent industry groups are likely to perceive that the targeted venue will support their policy proposal if the targeted venue is ideologically distant from the venue that has enacted the restrictive regulations, if the targeted venue has recently supported other nascent industry groups’ similar policy proposals, or if the industry groups themselves are more exposed to industry peers’ success in promoting the same policy proposal in other jurisdictions. Under these conditions, the industry groups invest more to influence the targeted venue in response to restrictive regulations enacted by other venues. We find support for our theory by examining how from 2013 to 2019 the small unmanned aircraft systems industry trade associations in the United States lobbied state governments to nullify local regulations.
... In the example system, agricultural users are engaging in venue shopping by reducing the infrastructure provider's influence over the infrastructure (K 1,1 ); if there were other decision centers in the system, they may try to move that authority to a venue that favors agricultural interests. Venue shopping has gained interest as a possible mechanism through which less powerful actors can enact fundamental policy changes (Pralle, 2003). This distinction suggests that venue shopping may arise as a desirable strategy in a different context than other political strategies or that it changes the system in a fundamentally different manner from other strategies and does so in a lasting manner. ...
... Whether the resource users are extractive users of the resource also does not have an effect on stability (Fig. S3). This result thus supports that polycentrism causes governance systems to be more prone to change, likely because they offer more opportunities for actors to influence the system (Pralle, 2003). Non-government organizations may have a stabilizing effect because of their role in supporting, and thus having aligning goals, with other actors in the system, reducing contestation and helping other actors develop longer-lasting and more durable institutions (Barnes and van Laerhoven, 2015). ...
... Ultimately, we aimed to achieve a balance between a more general model that would make few assumptions about the structure of interactions but would be challenging to interpret in the context of resource governance systems and a more structured model, which limits the variety of ways in which variables are linked but provides more precise insight into governance dynamics. Finally, the model assumes a Nash equilibrium in actors' strategies, representing actors as rational and having perfect knowledge of the system and others' actions, rather than the often heuristic and myopic manner in which they actually form their strategies for navigating governance (Pralle, 2003). However, this assumption is more reasonable in stable systems, where repeated interactions in a stable environment allow actors' greater opportunity to learn about the system and fine-tune their strategies (Craig et al., 2017;Pahl-Wostl, 2009). ...
The ability to adapt to social and environmental change is an increasingly critical feature of environmental governance. However, an understanding of how specific features of governance systems influence how they respond to change is still limited. Here we focus on how system features like diversity, heterogeneity, and connectedness impact stability, which indicates a system's capacity to recover from perturbations. Through a framework that combines agent-based modeling with “generalized” dynamical systems modeling, we model the stability of thousands of governance structures consisting of groups of resource users and non-government organizations interacting strategically with the decision centers that mediate their access to a shared resource. Stabilizing factors include greater effort dedicated to venue shopping and a greater fraction of non-government organizations in the system. Destabilizing factors include greater heterogeneity among actors, a greater diversity of decision centers, and greater interdependence between actors. The results suggest that while complexity tends to be destabilizing, there are mitigating factors that may help balance adaptivity and stability in complex governance. This study demonstrates the potential in applying the insights of complex systems theory to managing complex and highly uncertain human–natural systems in the face of rapid social and environmental change.
... We assume that interest organizations have limited resources and therefore make strategic choices concerning their lobbying targets (Baumgartner and Jones 2009;Holyoke et al. 2012;Pralle 2003). In general, we expect them to address the policymaker with the greatest institutional power over a given proposal. ...
... We further assume that interest groups whose demands are not taken into account by national-level policymakers are more inclined to expand their political strategies to the subnational level. Venue choice is primarily driven by preference alignment (Holyoke et al. 2012) and the need to find a decision setting that offers the best prospects for reaching one's policy goals (Pralle 2003). Indeed, interest group studies have shown repeatedly that lobbyists target like-minded decision-makers (Hall and Deardorff 2006;Hojnacki and Kimball 1998). ...
While research on subnational lobbying has advanced considerably in recent years, much less is known about the role of lower levels in the context of multilevel lobbying. In a multilevel system, interest groups can pursue different routes for influence‐seeking. These include a domestic subnational route to seek amendments on a bill by lobbying regional governments, and a subnational‐Brussels route , based on regions' influence on EU policymaking. Investigating the case of Germany, we analyze observational and survey data on interest groups and their route choices in the context of 23 legislative proposals that were drafted in the year 2019. Our findings highlight the importance of subnational lobbying for national policymaking. It is neither an exclusive strategy of outsiders on the national level, nor one pursued exclusively by local and regional actors. Furthermore, subnational lobbying is more likely when interest groups and subnational governments share common goals.
... Parts of this literature draw on ACF research to develop integrated frameworks for empirical applications. A few examples are Litfin (2000) dealing with advocacy coalitions in the case of globalization and Canadian climate change policy; Farquharson (2003) examining global tobacco advocacy networks; Pralle (2003) 11 on the internationalization of Canadian forest, supporting the theory of 'venue shopping', too; Zippel (2004) 12 on a TAN involving advocates and policy expertise regarding sexual harassment in the EU; Carpenter (2007) studying advocates in the human rights sector, asking why some issues but not others galvanize TANs; Novak (2020) applying the lens of transnational advocacy networks to human rights litigation; and Holzscheiter et al. (2021) who examine advocacy coalition constellations and norm collisions in international drug control, human trafficking, and child labour. Hence, the last three decades have seen a growth in transnational advocacy coalition or network studies. ...
... According toPralle (2003), however, venue shopping can be more experimental, and less deliberate or calculated, than is commonly perceived; advocacy groups choose venues not only to advance substantive policy goals but also to serve organizational needs and identities; and venue choice is shaped by policy learning. Moreover, policy venues may be not only traditional governmental institutions but also include non-state governance arenas. ...
Drawing on the concepts of agenda-setting and advocacy coalition framework (ACF), this chapter argues that the Europarties should be viewed as transnational partisan actors that individually and collectively shape European integration. It discusses the ACF and its empirical applications that have largely focused on policies and interest groups. ACF emphasizes shared core beliefs and provides a useful analytical tool for capturing the transnational partisan dimension of European integration, an element of EU governance that has until now not received sufficient attention. Agenda-setting in turn is continuous and the multilevel European polity offers transnational coalitions various routes for influencing policymaking.
... Parts of this literature draw on ACF research to develop integrated frameworks for empirical applications. A few examples are Litfin (2000) dealing with advocacy coalitions in the case of globalization and Canadian climate change policy; Farquharson (2003) examining global tobacco advocacy networks; Pralle (2003) 11 on the internationalization of Canadian forest, supporting the theory of 'venue shopping', too; Zippel (2004) 12 on a TAN involving advocates and policy expertise regarding sexual harassment in the EU; Carpenter (2007) studying advocates in the human rights sector, asking why some issues but not others galvanize TANs; Novak (2020) applying the lens of transnational advocacy networks to human rights litigation; and Holzscheiter et al. (2021) who examine advocacy coalition constellations and norm collisions in international drug control, human trafficking, and child labour. Hence, the last three decades have seen a growth in transnational advocacy coalition or network studies. ...
... According toPralle (2003), however, venue shopping can be more experimental, and less deliberate or calculated, than is commonly perceived; advocacy groups choose venues not only to advance substantive policy goals but also to serve organizational needs and identities; and venue choice is shaped by policy learning. Moreover, policy venues may be not only traditional governmental institutions but also include non-state governance arenas. ...
This book analyses the role of Europarties in the deepening of integration and the debates on the future of Europe. It is guided by three fundamental research questions: What strategies do Europarties utilize to advance their visions of Europe? What is the relative influence of the actors in the networks of the Europarties? How successful have the Europarties been in shaping the future of Europe? European integration cannot be understood without accounting for the impact of the Europarties. Theoretically, the book utilizes the concepts of advocacy and agenda-setting, identifying Europarties as transnational partisan actors operating at intergovernmental and supranational levels of EU decision-making. Europarties have consolidated their organizational structures, and more importantly, have over the decades built their own networks and coalitions that enable them to wield influence in ways rarely captured by previous studies. Empirically, the book investigates the networks and positions of the Europarties, constitutional reform processes, and the role of the Europarties and their EP political groups in the broader debates on the future of Europe.
... However, it should be noted that these factors may differ for each policy venue or area, and that the searches of policy makers and advocate groups may also change. An executive can sometimes draw up regulations that affect policy quickly and sometimes significantly, but the next administration can then ignore all decisions made by previous ones (Pralle, 2003). Likewise, local or provincial governments may have different capacities from national governments to address a policy problem. ...
... It can also be analyzed from a venue shopping perspective. Because, as Pralle (2003) points out, strategic political actors seek venues both to achieve substantive policy goals, and send messages to their members and the public, and to please partners. ...
La nueva estructura de la migración internacional en el siglo XXI hace que los gobiernos locales se enfrenten a muchos desafíos. Las restricciones legales, las limitaciones presupuestarias y los determinantes sociales y estructurales juegan un papel en la respuesta de las ciudades a la migración internacional. Los municipios utilizan diferentes estrategias tanto para desarrollar respuestas a la inmigración como para hacer frente a las llamadas restricciones. Si bien la cooperación y la colaboración con organizaciones no gubernamentales son lasvías preferidas por los municipios, en este estudio estas estrategias se analizan en el contexto dela búsquedade foros. Se analizael papel de la Asociación de Solidaridad con Inmigrantes (Göçmendd),apoyada por la Municipalidad de Şişli, y el de la Asociación de Asistencia y Solidaridad para Refugiados y Solicitantes de Asilo (Mülteciler),establecida por la Municipalidad de Sultanbeyli,ambasorganizaciones representativasen los acuerdos de gobernanza migratoria de Estambul.
... Venue shopping' (Pralle, 2003) may eventually lead to a snowball eect where image and venue changes reinforce each other over time (cf. the convergent-choice model by Cook (1981) as well as the`cascading' concept that was introduced by Baumgartner and Gold (2002) and elaborated by Walgrave and Vliegenthart (2010) In fact, most agenda-setting models assume that the priorities of the public, the media and the government are somehow related (Baumgartner andJones, 1991, 1993;Elder, 1971, 1972;Cook, 1981;Downs, 1972;Jones and Baumgartner, 2005;Kingdon, 1984). Given that the aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to examine why and how defence becomes and remains a government priority, it is useful to review to which extent the media and public opinion may shape the agenda of the executive. ...
... Third, venue shopping may lead to policy change too (Pralle, 2003). Policy venues are institutions or groups, such as committees and commissions, with the authority to make decisions regarding an issue (Baumgartner and Jones, 1993). ...
The aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to examine the agenda-setting dynamics of defence. My key argument is that defence policy - which is often said to have an exceptional status on government agendas - has started to normalise. Defence, just like any other public policy, is increasingly constrained by structural biases and system-level dynamics, i.e. parts of the regal domain do not withdraw from the ‘traditional’ agenda-setting dynamics anymore. Three case studies constitute the core of my empirical analysis: the recruitment of service personnel, the acquisition of aircraft carriers and military operations. Based on an original data set that covers the period 1980-2018, I shed light on how these issues became and remained a government priority in France and the United Kingdom (UK), the two leading military powers in Europe. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, I reach two conclusions on agenda-building in defence. First, I demonstrate the importance of issue attributes at the subcategory level: the most concrete defence issues, such as military recruitment, follow dynamics that are very similar to those already identified for domestic issues; the most abstract defence issues, in turn, like procurement, will mobilise public opinion much less, but may nonetheless catch the attention of the media. Second, my results show that agenda-setting in defence coincides with the priorities of allied governments. More specifically, I highlight that the convergence of British and French defence programmes is inter alia due to mimicking behaviour. Consequently, I conclude that cross-national dynamics are key to understanding how government priorities in defence evolve over time.
... If coalitions are not willing to challenge the existing policies, they may not frame the crisis as a threat or evidence of a malfunctioning system but rather downplay it as an unfortunate incident not worth any political or policy repercussions (Boin, McConnell, and 't Hart 2008). This is typically reflected in the media portrayal of crises (Gamson and Modigliani 1989;Pralle 2003;Monahan and Ettinger 2017), defined by intensity (the limited amount of attention given to the incident), substantiality (the narrative linking crises to causes outside the subsystem), and sustainability of attention (of the short-lived focus on the incident) (Alimi and Maney 2018). In contrast to the first mechanism, despite some redistribution of resources between coalitions caused by the crisis, its framing will not further escalate the conflict within the adversarial policy subsystem, leading to the gradual decline of public support and interest (Nohrstedt 2022). ...
This paper examines the dynamics of policy change following crises within adversarial policy subsystems. Building on the Advocacy Coalitions Framework (ACF), the study empirically tests two mechanisms of policy change (or lack thereof), focusing on cases from the Lithuanian child rights protection domain (2016–2020). Analyzing three crises, ranging from no policy change to minor and major alterations, the research contributes to understanding crisis‐driven policy dynamics. This study highlights the importance of pre‐existing policy solutions, which can be advanced by coalitions following a crisis if the balance of resources shifts in their favor. It also suggests that negotiated agreements may arise between coalitions with similar resources. Finally, the research underscores the role of “strategic inaction” when no policy change occurs despite shifts in resources, due to the perceived costs of action outweighing the benefits. Additionally, the paper expands ACF application to the underrepresented Central and Eastern Europe region, shedding light on sustainability challenges in cases of major policy change after the crisis.
... The literature on policymaking and venue selection has mostly focused on interest organizations, and the venue shopping strategies and framings they employ to reach policy goals and achieve strategic fit (Ley & Weber, 2015;Pralle, 2003). This literature has mostly been preoccupied with formal venues and institutions where participation, roles, and procedures have been formalized by lawmakers and regulators (Culpepper, 2011). ...
The paper argues that the empirical study of public policy making almost exclusively deals with structural arrangements and power relations, while giving insufficient attention to how policy entrepreneurs in government develop policy initiatives through venue selection, framing, and dialogue. Drawing on insight from theories of public policymaking and organizational decision-making, public management, and on data from a case study of higher education merger reform in Norway, the article provides a conceptual and empirical contribution by suggesting the significance of managerial dialogue — highlighting a specific combination of dialogue, power asymmetries, managerialism, and venue selection as important elements in higher education reform policymaking.
... Schools have been targeted as a popular venue for the mobilization of interests and attention to social reactions that lead to policy reactions (Pralle, 2003). In 2001, there were claims that Vermont's queer youth center Outright Vermont's anti-LGBTQ bullying in schools was inappropriate (Greene, 2003: 932). ...
... In addition to framing and presenting solutions, venue shopping represents another strategic approach employed by policy entrepreneurs. This tactic strategically moves policy discussions to more favorable decision-making arenas to overcome institutional barriers (Pralle, 2003). Entrepreneurs can effectively circumvent resistance encountered in traditional settings by transferring the discourse to forums such as courts, international organizations, or local governments, where their proposals are more likely to be welcomed . ...
This article examines the role of policy entrepreneurs in countering regulatory capture, a phenomenon whereby regulatory bodies influenced by industry lobbying often prioritize private over public interests. The study employs an abductive process‐tracing approach to investigate the 2013 drug pricing reform in Morocco, illustrating how substantial policy shifts can occur even in authoritarian contexts susceptible to regulatory capture. The findings underscore the pivotal role of Houcine El Ouardi, the former Minister of Health, whose strategic leadership exemplified policy entrepreneurship. His capacity to navigate and surmount industry resistance was instrumental to the reform's success, culminating in a significant reduction in drug prices. This case challenges conventional wisdom regarding regulatory capture, demonstrating that individual agency can reshape regulatory outcomes despite opposition. By elucidating how policy entrepreneurs can drive transformative change in resistant regulatory environments under authoritarian regimes, the study contributes to the literature on policy entrepreneurship and regulation.
... As for opportunities, more institutional ties may mean potential for more flows of information, norms, resources, innovation, and values, which can subsequently diffuse through the governance architectures to other institutional arrangements and actors (Ostrom 2010). Fora associated with multiple institutional arrangements can also be used strategically by non-state actors, including NGOs and researchers, for venue shopping, whereby they raise agenda items and seek political buy-in to influence the policy process at different policy levers (Pralle 2003). In a region with complex geopolitics, such as the EAAF, having the opportunity for venue shopping can be advantageous, because different institutional arrangements bring together different constituencies (Gallo-Cajiao et al. 2019a). ...
A full-life cycle approach is a tenet of migratory species conservation, yet the degree to which this is achieved remains largely unassessed. This knowledge gap can be addressed using the concept of social-ecological fit, understood as the match between governance and ecological dimensions. Here, we assess the social-ecological fit for conserving migratory shorebirds in the Asia–Pacific, focusing on habitat loss and hunting. We identify the governance architectures for addressing these two threats and then assess the coordinating capacity of each architecture, measure institutional coverage for each species across their range, and determine the degree of institutional connectivity along their migratory network. We find that social-ecological fit is higher for the governance of habitat designation than for hunting management, with implications for governance practice. Analyses of social-ecological fit thus provide critical insights on the potential effectiveness of governance and therefore are a useful first step for migratory species conservation.
... Different political venues are a key part of this agenda-setting process. Actors engage in venue shopping to maximize their agenda-setting power when they try to put their preferred policy issues and instruments on a policy subsystem's agenda (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993;Jourdain et al., 2017;Pralle, 2003). Taken together, different venues are accessible to different types of actors with potentially diverging issue priorities and instrument preferences. ...
The “policy subsystem” has long been a key concept in our understanding of how policies on a given topic are produced. However, we know much less about policymaking in nascent policy subsystems. This article draws on the theories of agenda-setting and venue shopping to argue that the similarity and convergence of policy subsystems’ agendas across different institutional venues and over time are features that distinguish more nascent policy subsystems from their more established, mature counterparts. In simple terms, policy venues’ agendas converge when policy actors begin to discuss the same issues and instruments instead of talking past one another. The article illustrates this argument using textual data on Germany’s emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy: print media debates, parliamentary debates, and a government consultation from the period between November 2017 and November 2019. The insights from our analysis show that actors emphasize somewhat different policy issues and instruments related to AI in different venues. Nevertheless, the longitudinal analysis suggests that the debate does seem to converge across different venues, which indicates the formation of a subsystem-specific policy agenda regarding AI.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11077-023-09514-5.
... Edelman (1985, p. 96), notes that "the settings have a vital bearing upon actors, upon responses to acts, and especially upon the evocation of feeling." Therefore, a president may venue shop (Pralle, 2003) around the White House looking for a setting to match the message. Additional literature generally looks at connections to space and policy. ...
White House spaces and offices are not created equal. The spaces that constitute the offices of the president are distinctive, familiar, and publicly translatable assets of statecraft. Whether in the Oval Office, the Treaty Room, aboard Air Force One, or even in the Rose Garden their use is designed to deliver information and send an influential signal to the public. Many of the offices of the president have their own cognitive profiles in the public’s mind. The utilization of physical spaces establishes a repertoire of routine and ritual that informs the public about how important a potential policy issue is. The question driving this research asks: How do the physical offices of the president function as policy instruments? We argue that physical offices can be considered policy tools under categories of (1) nodality, when they are employed as a tool to publicly rally around a policy decision and (2) authority, when they serve as a heuristic regarding command-and-control to the public. In short, the physical offices of the president facilitate policy adoption by serving as devices to communicate information about the direction and gravity of a policy decision.
... We also identified an additional counterstrategy: venue-shifting which not only -as in the example included in this review [86] -refers to shifting between levels of government but can also involve shifting within institutions or between policy terrains [88]. In the tobacco control literature, venue-shifting has often been associated with industry efforts [89][90][91], but studies in other areas, including women's rights [92], HIV [93] and forestry [93,94], illustrate venue-shifting as an advocacy strategy. ...
Background: There has been remarkable tobacco control progress in many places around the globe. Tobacco industry interference (TII) has been identified as the most significant barrier to further implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Civil society has been recognised as a key actor in countering TII. While TII has been extensively studied for several decades now, there is little research that focuses on counteractions to limit it and their effectiveness to do so. This scoping review seeks to map the peer-reviewed literature on civil society’s activities of countering TII in policymaking to identify common counterstrategies and assess their effectiveness.
Methods: Data sources: We searched Embase, IBSS, JSTOR, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science using the following terms: (“Tobacco industry” OR “Tobacco compan*”) AND. (“corporate political activity” OR “CPA” OR “lobbying” OR “interference”) AND (“advoca*” OR “counter*” OR “activi*”), without time or language restrictions. Study selection: Our selection criteria included peer-reviewed studies that were written in English, German, or Spanish that drew on primary data and/or legal and policy documents and reported at least one specific example of civil society members or organisations countering tobacco industry action-based strategies. Data extraction: Advocates’ counterstrategies were analysed inductively and countered industry strategies were analysed using the Policy Dystopia Model (PDM). Perceptions of effectiveness of countering attempts were analysed descriptively.
Results: We found five common counterstrategies among 30 included papers covering five WHO regions; 1. Exposing industry conduct and false claims; 2. Accessing decision-makers; 3. Generating and using evidence; 4. Filing a complaint or taking legal action; 5. Mobilising coalition and potential supporters. These counterstrategies were used to work against a wide range of industry strategies, which are captured by five action-based strategies described in the PDM (Coalition Management, Information Management, Direct Access and Influence, Litigation, Reputation Management). While some studies reported the outcome of the countering activities, their impact remained largely underexplored.
Conclusion: The review shows that peer-reviewed literature documenting how civil society actors counter TII is scarce. It suggests that advocates employ a range of strategies to counter TII in its different forms and use them flexibly. More work is needed to better understand the effects of their actions. This could stimulate discussions about, and facilitate learning from, past experiences and help to further enhance advocates’ capacity.
... Under conditions of institutional fluidity and a weak and politicized public administration, policy entrepreneurs will be more successful in influencing policy change when they pursue the strategy of venue creation. The literature assumes that the aim of policy entrepreneurs is to navigate between favorable and unfavorable institutional venues (Pralle, 2003;Baumgartner & Jones, 1993). Instead, we claim that, in some instances, venue creation is more frequently encountered and is likely to be a more successful strategy because it enables well-connected policy entrepreneurs to steer the process more directly toward desired outcomes. ...
How do policy entrepreneurs affect policy change in environments of institutional instability? The literature has predominantly explored policy entrepreneur strategizing in contexts with established institutional settings. In this paper, we argue that under conditions of institutional fluidity and a weak and politicized public administration, venue creation is the more frequently encountered and the more likely successful strategy. We define venue creation as the entrepreneurial strategy of setting-up institutional arrangements of finite duration, predominantly in the form of committees, delegated exclusively with designing reforms. We test our hypothesis in the Greek health policy sector. We explore two policy instances: the unsuccessful attempt at a public health reform in 1992 and the successful introduction of radical policy change for public health in 2003. We employ a process tracing approach spanning thirty years, processing primary data (elite interviews and documents) applying the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF). We find that under conditions of institutional fluidity and administrative weakness, policy entrepreneurs failed in their pursuit of change using venue shopping in 1992 but succeeded through venue creation in 2003, confirming our hypothesis. We conclude with insights for contingent policy entrepreneurship success, the MSF and patterns of policymaking in Greece.
... This widening of actors with an interest in this area was also coupled with a growing media interest in local government reform, often as part of wider deliberations on political reform generally. Several proposals around political reform were published by high-profile individuals suggesting the consolidation of local government structures (see for example, Coleman, 2009;Desmond, 2011), as well as media contributions suggesting a reduction of the number of local authorities (see for example, O'Connor, 2009;Power, 2012). The narrative accompanying proposals for municipal reform, and also wider political and administrative reforms in the period following the financial crisis was that these constituted a rationalization of structures and a vehicle for ensuring greater efficiency. ...
Why are some countries able to go ahead with comprehensive top-down local government amalgamation reforms, despite the many challenges such a reform entails? So far, we have limited theoretical and empirical understanding of how central governments manage to adopt such reforms. Drawing on different theoretical frameworks around public policy as well as research into territorial reforms, this article presents key political and institutional factors that are likely to facilitate top-down municipal mergers and examines whether these theoretical propositions help to explain the adoption of comprehensive top-down municipal amalgamation in four cases: Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, and Portugal. Key political and institutional factors identified in existing frameworks provide a useful starting point for understanding and explaining top-down comprehensive municipal amalgamation reforms, such as the role played by the breaking up of existing policy monopolies and emergence of new venues for discussing the reform. At the same time, the cases also reveal some important nuances that at times run counter to theoretical expectations. Our cases also reveal further factors, including the “bundling” of amalgamation reforms with other wider initiatives, and the potential effect of “distracting events” that should be taken into account in the further development of theoretical frameworks concerning top-down amalgamations.
... Among the information on various dimensions of policy issues, policy actors only process information regarding one aspect at a time. Under these circumstances, institution-level policy actors choose a policy alternative depending on which aspects of a problem they focus on at the time (Pralle, 2003). ...
Public support is a key contributor to successful policy adoption and implementation. Given the urgency of climate change mitigation, scholars have explored various determinants that affect public support for climate change mitigation policy. However, the relative decisiveness of these factors in shaping public support is insufficiently examined. Therefore, we deploy interpretable machine learning to understand which factors, among many previously investigated, are most decisive for structuring public support for various climate change mitigation policies. In this paper, we particularly look at the decisiveness of problem definition for shaping public support among various factors. Using U.S national survey data, we find that how individuals define the issue of climate change is more decisive for structuring public support for promoting renewable energy and regulating pollutants to mitigate the risks associated with climate change. However, the results also indicate that the most decisive factors associated with public support vary depending on the types of mitigation policy. We conclude that different strategies should be utilized to increase public support for various climate change mitigation policy options. Our findings contribute to a scholarly understanding of the specific politics of problem definition in the context of environmental and climate change policy.
The newest Trump administration provides numerous opportunities to expand the scope of public policy process scholarship. While it is difficult to predict exactly what the 47th president will do, Trump's record as the 45th president as well as his extensive campaign rhetoric provide clues to his administrative style and policy agenda. This Perspective investigates the ways in which the Trump administration might expand scholarly inquiry into executive policymaking, policy feedback, federalism, identity‐based policymaking, and policy entrepreneurs. I offer guiding questions in each of these research domains as well implications for governance in the United States. In general, policy process theories are well‐positioned to study the Trump administration as any other new administration; though what we study as a scholarly community should shift with Trump's policy and institutional priorities. In particular, I argue that Trump‐47's quid‐pro‐quo style in an extremely polarized political environment should lead policy scholars to better understand politics in the policy process.
Increasingly, policymaking takes place while extraordinary events threaten fundamental societal values. During turbulent times, policy entrepreneurs emerge as pivotal figures. They are energetic actors who pursue dynamic change in public policy and, whereas we know much about how they promote innovation and change in normal policymaking, we know less about how they behave in crises, and even less about how different crises influence policy entrepreneurial action. This Element focuses on interaction between policy entrepreneurs and crises. It analyzes policy entrepreneurial action in six case studies – three fast-burning and three creeping crises – to ascertain policy entrepreneurs' strategies and effectiveness during extraordinary events. It proposes crisis policy entrepreneurial strategies, a framework to understand outcomes based on policy entrepreneurial action and type of crisis and suggests avenues for further research on policy entrepreneurs and crises, including implications for crisis managers. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Is federalism curbing the transition to renewable energies? This book delivers fundamental insights into this key question for a more sustainable future using the example of multi-level authorisation procedures for onshore wind turbines. The author begins by establishing a broadly applicable theoretical framework to evaluate the impact of decentralisation on the effectiveness of public administration authorities. Thereafter, he analyses the procedure for granting permits for wind turbines in Switzerland and Europe, using a plethora of primary data and deploying a broad array of methods. Overall, the book is the first to provide a detailed and comparative study on wind energy permits, thereby seeking to help remove this significant barrier to the expansion of renewables.
Scholarship is growing on societal transitions, describing radical societal change involving multiple sectors and scales, and transformative governance, describing how public, private, and civil society actors use tools of policy to pursue this fundamental change, aiming to build resiliency and sustainability. Much of this literature has a systems‐level focus and does not closely examine how governance participants, working individually or collectively, can steer a jurisdiction toward or away from transformativeness. This paper offers a corrective, integrating policy entrepreneurship scholarship with transformative governance research to advance understanding of how human agency underpins societal change. Drawing on accounts from 50 interviewees across eight case studies of US cities grappling with flooding hazards, we show how policy entrepreneurship can boost the political and economic resources that city officials rely upon to help propel radical shifts towards greater social, economic, and environmental equity.
The study highlights the crucial roles played by interest groups in shaping the definition and redefinition of policy issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. The study focused on selected countries to discuss strategies that were deployed to combat the COVID quandary. The selected countries are Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Tunisia. A purely qualitative research, it relied on existing literature sources to produce thematic analysis which explore the various strategies adopted by interest groups in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. The study revealed the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the already fragile healthcare system in Africa. Again, it revealed the innovative approaches such as herbal medicine and local production of ventilators developed by African countries to tackle COVID-19 including efforts of other interests groups like government agencies, private institutions and international organizations in the fight against COVID-19 in Africa.
This study contributes to a neglected aspect of health policy analysis: policy formulation processes. Context is central to the policy cycle, yet the influence of crises on policy formulation is underrepresented in the health policy literature in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper analyses a detailed case study of how the COVID-19 crisis influenced policy formulation processes for the regulation of alcohol in South Africa, as part of COVID-19 control measures, in 2020 and 2021. It provides a picture of the policy context, specifically considering the extent to which the crisis influenced the position and power of actors, and policy content. Qualitative data were collected from nine key informant interviews and 127 documents. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A policy formulation conceptual framework was applied as a lens to describe complex policy formulation processes. The study revealed that the perceived urgency of the pandemic prompted a heightened sense of awareness of alcohol-related trauma as a known, preventable threat to public health system capacity. This enabled a high degree of innovation among decision-makers in the generation of alternative alcohol policy content. Within the context of uncertainty, epistemic and experiential policy learning drove rapid, adaptive cycles of policy formulation, demonstrating the importance of historical and emerging public health evidence in crisis-driven decision-making. Within the context of centralization and limited opportunities for stakeholder participation, non-state actors mobilized to influence policy through the public arena. The paper concludes that crisis-driven policy formulation processes are shaped by abrupt redistributions of power among policy actors and the dynamic interplay of evolving economic, political and public health priorities. Understanding the complexity of the local policy context may allow actors to navigate opportunities for public health-oriented alcohol policy reforms in South Africa and other LMICs.
Advocacy groups employ narrative strategies and framing techniques to enhance societal support. However, to date, it remains unclear how the dynamics of narrative strategy evolve over time and what factors contribute to these shifts. To fill this research gap, we use the Narrative Policy Framework to analyze the competing advocacy groups' Facebook pages in Taiwan's same‐sex marriage debate from 2016 to 2019. The findings reveal that policy positions offer greater predictive power for the devil–angel shift, yet the utilization of conflict expansion and containment strategies is tied to policy issues, political events, and their intended target audience. Our findings also demonstrate that the phenomenon of policy narrative learning occurs when convergence of potential policy outcome is achieved. Furthermore, this study highlights the role of institutional mechanisms in advocacy through venue shopping, underscoring the contextual nature of advocacy groups' narrative strategies. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the utilization of narrative strategy in addressing a contentious social issue.
In the European Union, different interest groups lobby in different ways and with manifold strategies and tactics. The development of the EU multi-level system has led to highly complex decision-making processes and channels for interest representation and influence-seeking. This chapter describes the opportunities for lobbying in the EU institutions and the population of interest groups that engage in EU lobbying. It summarises the state of empirical research on lobbying in the EU with respect to political theories, lobbying strategies, lobby success and influence, and reactions to growing demands for transparency and lobby.
Despite pressure for reform and the concomitant benefits of more inclusive and participatory electoral systems, major electoral reform in Canada rarely takes place through legislative or public deliberative processes. As a result, citizens demanding electoral reform have turned to other venues to pursue their claims for democratic change. This article considers such venue shifting efforts through the use of the courts to pursue electoral reform in Canada. Using precedent tracing and content analysis approaches, it considers all the final judicial decisions citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on democratic rights in Figueroa v. Canada. It finds that courts were willing to intervene in some cases involving technical aspects of the exercise of democratic rights, but tend not to entertain more major systemic based reforms. As such, the article concludes that such pursuits for democratic reform through judicialization are likely to fail.
Interest group literature suggests reformer advocacy groups, seeking policy change and innovation, are more likely to secure policy victory in local government. Entrenched advocacy groups, favoring current policies, are better suited to win policy battles at the state level. Consequently, entrenched groups have pushed state legislatures to limit local governments' decision authorities through preemption across a wide range of public‐interest issues including tobacco use, gun control, marriage rights, and climate change. Yet few studies have considered how competing advocacy groups strategically frame their agenda in preemption debates. We draw on the “scope of conflict” literature to show that opposing camps vary in their issue definition, relational strategies, and institutional frames. For example, while entrenched advocates focus on the main issue under debate, reformer advocates link multiple issues together. Our study case is preemption legislation that prohibits local governments from banning energy fuels like natural gas in new buildings. We use computational text analysis and descriptive inference to analyze state committee testimony of 117 advocacy groups. Results raise important questions about the effectiveness of conflict expansion strategies in venues like committee systems and provide considerations for reformer advocates in their efforts to secure state support and build clean energy campaigns.
This article explores the advocacy tactics that nonprofit organizations use to influence environmental policy across five venues: legislatures, regulatory agencies, courts, ballot boxes, and governors' offices. The literature on nonprofit advocacy has grown in recent years, with studies highlighting nonprofits' use of inside and outside tactics, but studies do not consistently link tactics to venues. This article addresses this gap by exploring advocacy tactics within specific venues. Bringing venues to the forefront leads to new insights about nonprofit advocacy, along with why advocates choose certain venues and tactics. Data are based on semi‐structured interviews with 24 environmental nonprofits across three states: Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Results illuminate dynamics of nonprofit advocacy including the prevalence of nonprofit reliance on inside and hybrid tactics, insights regarding layers of outside tactics, the roles and implications of advocacy in courts and ballot measures, and nonprofits' infrequent use of venue shifting strategies.
Sub-standard living conditions among migrant workers have become a structural feature all over Europe. Although this has attracted the attention of many scholars, there is a lack of studies on the complex relations between various stakeholders in governing housing. This study fills this gap by analysing this housing issue from a governance network perspective. Through an analysis of policy documents and interviews with twenty-one stakeholders, we investigated institutional and strategic complexities. The results show that decision-making is complicated by unclear institutional accountability patterns and the diverging strategic interests of various stakeholders. The interrelationship between the loosely defined institutional setting (structure) and the varying interests of involved actors (agency) has led to a policy impasse that is difficult to breach. We argue that a reconsideration of existing accountability patterns is needed to reduce sub-standard housing conditions among migrant workers in the Netherlands.
Transnational public–private governance initiatives (TGIs) have become key elements in global governance, especially in the governance of sustainability. Pertinent research has concentrated on why TGIs have emerged as well as on their impacts on political outcomes and questions related to their legitimacy. This instructive literature has predominantly focused on TGIs as entities in their own right. This explorative study contributes to the literature by advocating a complementary analytical perspective that pays attention to domestic‐level patterns of participation in TGIs and national factors that determine which types of organizations (public, business, or civil society) participate in TGIs. It is shown for six Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) that there exists cross‐country variation in the composition patterns in 29 TGIs on sustainability, suggesting that national conditions matter for how organizations participate in them. By improving the knowledge of the national conditions, a more complete analysis of participation and the effectiveness of TGIs can be provided in global sustainability governance. In this spirit, in a last step, an agenda is developed for guiding future research on this topic.
In this chapter, we investigate if institutional settings do have an influence on norm emergence and norm implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). We argue that there is a connection between the institutional setting and the status of the norm. The discussion of R2P has taken place in different institutional settings over time. Due to three characteristics of those arenas—membership, procedures of decision-making and voting procedures—the respective arena contributes to a challenge or confirms the norm of R2P. A broad membership, a high degree of formality in decision-making procedures and equal voting procedures strengthened the acceptance of the R2P norm. In contrast, a small forum, a high degree of informality and conditions favouring unequal voting may have challenged the norm of R2P.
The majority of the world's largest carbon emitters are either federations or have adopted systems of decentralised governance. The realisation of the world's climate mitigation objectives therefore depends in large part on whether and how governments within federal systems can cooperate to reduce carbon emissions and catalyse the emergence of low-carbon societies. This volume brings together leading experts to explore whether federal or decentralised systems help or hinder efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It reviews the opportunities and challenges federalism offers for the development and implementation of climate mitigation and adaption policies and identifies the conditions that influence the outcomes of climate governance. Including in-depth case studies of 14 different jurisdictions, this is an essential resource for academics, policymakers and practitioners interested in climate governance, and the best practices for enhancing climate action. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
What happens once the government has outlined its spending priorities in the budget bill? Can it protect them against the intervention of the two chambers of the Italian parliament? To what extent is the European Commission able to induce changes to the nationally agreed allocation of expenditure? This chapter assesses the balance of power between the three fundamental actors intervening during the budgetary decision-making process by measuring the degree of expenditure reallocation across budget categories between the budget bill and the budget law of the same year. Findings show a blatant pattern of power concentration in the government’s hands to the detriment of the parliamentary prerogatives. The result is that the Italian budget is now nearly unmanageable even for a strong majority. Theoretically, the government would have all the tools to steer a long-term budget policy. Practically, the cognitive frictions of governing policy-makers crush any potential achievements.
Wisconsin’s Campus Free Speech Act provides a unique case study to examine the intersection of venue shopping and the multiple streams framework. After some initial traction, entrepreneur ran into roadblocks in the state legislature; then, shifted their attention to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, where they were able to take advantage of an open policy window. When these events are considered holistically, they illustrate how manipulating institutional structures and fragmented authorities can help entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
A pervasive aspect of human communication and sociality is argumentation: the practice of making and criticizing reasons in the context of doubt and disagreement. Argumentation underpins and shapes the decision-making, problem-solving, and conflict management which are fundamental to human relationships. However, argumentation is predominantly conceptualized as two parties arguing pro and con positions with each other in one place. This dyadic bias undermines the capacity to engage argumentation in complex communication in contemporary, digital society. This book offers an ambitious alternative course of inquiry for the analysis, evaluation, and design of argumentation as polylogue: various actors arguing over many positions across multiple places. Taking up key aspects of the twentieth-century revival of argumentation as a communicative, situated practice, the polylogue framework engages a wider range of discourses, messages, interactions, technologies, and institutions necessary for adequately engaging the contemporary entanglement of argumentation and complex communication in human activities.
In der Europäischen Union lobbyieren unterschiedliche Interessengruppen auf verschiedenen Wegen und mit mannigfachen Strategien, wie z. B. Inside- und Outside-Lobbying, Mehrebenenstrategien, Venue-Shopping und Bündnispolitik. Während Unternehmensinteressen lange Zeit den Ton in der EU-Politik angeben konnten, haben sich zivilgesellschaftliche Lobbygruppen in jüngerer Zeit zu erfolgreichen Konkurrenten entwickelt. Der Beitrag fasst den Stand der empirischen Forschung zu diesen Aspekten des Lobbyismus in der EU zusammen und zeigt weiteren Forschungsbedarf auf.
In complex polycentric systems, decisions regarding governance of certain subsystems (e.g., watersheds) are often determined by networks of diverse actors who participate across a range of forums tackling interconnected collective actions issues (e.g., water quality, biodiversity, flood management). Compounding this structural complexity are the multifaceted interdependencies that exist between forums across a system. Drawing on the Ecology of Games Theory (EGT), this article investigates the impact of different types of network linkages on outcome interdependence between forums. Using a series of spatial autoregressive models on data collected in a Tampa Bay water governance system, I find evidence that co‐membership and organizational networks serve as pathways for outcome spillovers between forums. Building theory that helps elucidate how different types of network relationships may influence outcomes across a system is critical toward continued development of EGT and the governance of polycentric systems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The implementation of urban sustainability policy efforts often require collaboration across multiple semi-independent units within a single government organization. The settings where representatives from relevant units interact, provide a potential mechanism for mitigating functional collective action (FCA) challenges, yet little research has examined how different venues shape the collaborative behavior of administrative units within a single government entity. Using detailed unit-level data collected from Kansas City, Missouri's government, this paper advances research on intra-organizational collaboration by applying methods of network analysis to examine the role that different types of venues play in facilitating cross-departmental interaction and the resolution of FCA problems. Results suggest that co-participation in structured decision institutions and informal policy arenas are both associated with increases in units’ collaboration around sustainability initiatives. However, variation in the size and robustness of impact is evident across venues, providing initial insights for how they may be structured to maximize collaborative effect.
Dieses Kapitel liefert einen Überblick über Theorie und Arbeitsweise der Punctuated Equilibrium Theorie (PET). PET umfasst ein Policy-Prozessmodell, das auf Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebung beruht und eine Erklärung dafür gibt, warum oft lange wenig in einem Politikfeld passiert, dann aber plötzlich eine grundlegende Veränderung stattfindet. Das PET-Modell geht von der Annahme aus, dass individuelle Entscheidungsfindung auf begrenzter Rationalität beruht. Auf der Ebene von Organisationen und Institutionen identifiziert PET zwei Phasen: Policy-Inkrementalismus und weitreichenden Wandel. Inkrementalismus ist durch beständige Institutionen, begrenzte Policy-Monopole und dominante Policy-Ideen gekennzeichnet. Weitreichender Wandel findet hingegen statt, wenn sich makropolitische Aufmerksamkeit verschiebt, es zu einer Institutionenverlagerung kommt und sich das Erscheinungsbild eines Themas verändert. Dieses ursprüngliche Modell wird dann in einer Weiterentwicklung zusammengefasst, die sich auf disproportionale Informationsverarbeitung und institutionelle Friktion konzentriert. Schließlich werden Arbeitsweisen und vergleichende empirische Untersuchungen von Policy-Agendas vorgestellt.
Advocacy organizations are viewed as actors motivated primarily by principled beliefs. This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, proposing a model of NGOs as collective actors that seek to fulfil normative concerns and instrumental incentives, face collective action problems, and compete as well as collaborate with other advocacy actors. The analogy of the firm is a useful way of studying advocacy actors because individuals, via advocacy NGOs, make choices which are analytically similar to those that shareholders make in the context of firms. The authors view advocacy NGOs as special types of firms that make strategic choices in policy markets which, along with creating public goods, support organizational survival, visibility, and growth. Advocacy NGOs' strategy can therefore be understood as a response to opportunities to supply distinct advocacy products to well-defined constituencies, as well as a response to normative or principled concerns.
Confusion over how forces from beyond state borders affect domestic policy occurs because analysts often conflate different nondomestic factors, or focus on particular sources of influence to the exclusion of others. To remedy this problem, the authors make a distinction between the structural economic forces associated with rising levels of trade, finance and investment (globalization), and the increased activities or influence of transnational actors and international institutions, and the ideas they promote (internationalization). A focus on how transnational actors and international institutions influence domestic policy reveals four distinct pathways through which internationalization produces policy change - the use of markets, international rules, normative discourse and infiltration of domestic policy-making processes. The authors develop hypotheses to show the conditions under which influence is successfully achieved along each path. The case of ecoforestry policy change in the 1990s in Canada's Pacific Coast province, British Columbia, is used to illustrate the validity of the hypotheses.
In recent years, transnational and domestic nongovernmental organizations have created non–state market–driven (NSMD) governance systems whose purpose is to develop and implement environmentally and socially responsible management practices. Eschewing traditional state authority, these systems and their supporters have turned to the market’s supply chain to create incentives and force companies to comply.
This paper develops an analytical framework designed to understand better the emergence of NSMD governance systems and the conditions under which they may gain authority to create policy. Its theoretical roots draw on pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy granting distinctions made within organizational sociology, while its empirical focus is on the case of sustainable forestry certification, arguably the most advanced case of NSMD governance globally. The paper argues that such a framework is needed to assess whether these new private governance systems might ultimately challenge existing state–centered authority and public policy–making processes, and in so doing reshape power relations within domestic and global environmental governance.
Research on social movements in both political science and sociology was radically renewed by the movements of the 1960s. The 1970s saw the growth in the United States of the resource mobilization approach and in Western Europe of the study of “new movements.” Although political factors were present in both approaches, the connections between politics and movements remained obscure in each. Research in the 1980s has restored politics to its central role in the origins, the dynamics, and the outcomes of social movements. Three important political concepts and the problems they raise for research on movements are explored in this review: the social movements sector, the political opportunity structure, and cycles of protest.
With its emphasis on shared beliefs and the advocacy use of knowledge within policy subsystems, the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) is ideally suited to the study of environmental policy. Yet the ACF has generally been applied in a domestic context. This article argues that the twin phenomena of economic globalization and the internationalization of environmental affairs are blurring the distinction between some policy subsystems and the international arena. Thus, advocacy coalitions should be understood as operating increasingly along “the domestic-foreign frontier.” In the case of Canada's efforts to develop a coherent climate change policy, the boundaries between political levels have been blurred as local and provincial actors come to understand themselves as players in a global game. This dynamic is exacerbated by Canada's unique constitutional division of authority, which delegates significant autonomy to the provinces on natural resource and energy issues.
Much has been written about legal questions surrounding Indian water rights; this book now places them in the political framework that also includes water development. McCool analyzes the two conflicting doctrines relating to water use one based on federal case law governing the rights of Indians on reservations, the other sanctioned by legislation and applied to non-Indians based on the "iron triangles" of bureaucrats, legislators, and interest groups that dominate policy issues. He examines the way federal and BIA water development programs have reacted to conflict, competition, and opportunity from the turn of the century to the 1980s and updates the situation in an introduction written for this edition.
Forestry issues have become the focus of intense conflicts between environment interest groups and forest products companies in a number of countries. The efforts of groups in the U.K., Germany and the United States to organise a boycott against Canada's largest forest company, MacMillan Bloedel, are described. The boycott against the company focused on the logging of old growth forests in beautiful Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Local environment groups extended their geographic reach and increased the pressure on MacMillan Bloedel, and indirectly on the provincial government, by spurring their counterparts in other countries to boycott the company's products. Assessment of the consequences of the threatened boycotts is difficult, first because it is impossible to disentangle the effects of different pressure techniques, and secondly because some of the most important effects on forest companies may be indirect and delayed.
To what extent do national forest policy decisions reflect a balance between the interests of environmentalists and the timber industries? National forest policy making from 1960 through 1995 was analyzed using the advocacy coalition framework developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith. The authors found that forest policy shifted in a more ecologically sensitive direction beginning in the late 1980s. Changes were largely attributable to the ability of the environmental coalition to manipulate new information to influence key decision makers within Congress and to take advantage of more favorable decisional venues to overcome structural biases built into existing forest policy-making arrangements.
This article synthesizes the ideas of image and venue, the notion that governments act as interest groups and lobby within the federal system, and inside/outside interest group strategies with neoinstitutionalism. This is necessary to explain the active, entrepreneurial behavior of institutional venues, which until now have been assumed to be passive in nature. It is well known that public administrators not only serve the public interest, but also their institutional interests. To do so, administrators must be aware that their success or failure depends on their ability to adopt a policy that is arena-specific. For purposes of illustration, the authors use two case studies that demonstrate how cities actively attempt to block base closure and defense downsizing threats to their locales.
In this classic work of sociology, Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the black protest movement in the United States. Moving from theoretical concerns to empirical analysis, he focuses on the crucial role of three institutions that foster protest: black churches, black colleges, and Southern chapters of the NAACP. He concludes that political opportunities, a heightened sense of political efficacy, and the development of these three institutions played a central role in shaping the civil rights movement. In his new introduction, McAdam revisits the civil rights struggle in light of recent scholarship on social movement origins and collective action. "[A] first-rate analytical demonstration that the civil rights movement was the culmination of a long process of building institutions in the black community."--Raymond Wolters, Journal of American History "A fresh, rich, and dynamic model to explain the rise and decline of the black insurgency movement in the United States."--James W. Lamare, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Obra que reconstruye el origen y evolución de las actuales redes transnacionales que, con la utilización de las nuevas tecnologías informativas como recurso organizador y aglutinador, han logrado constituirse en movimientos más o menos presionadores en la defensa de los derechos humanos, de la protección ambiental y de una mayor equidad de género, entre otros.
Multiple knowledges are available for utilisation in policy choice. The rank ordering of knowledges for use in decisionmaking is thus a fundamental predecision. This article shows how this predecision necessarily constrains the processes associated with a politics of ideas, using cases from American international commodity policy. Even when the supposed preconditions of this sort of politics are present, policy change did not occur when the proposed ideas arose from a knowledge accorded secondary status in policymaking circles. Several implications are discussed for the influence and the study of ideational politics. Ultimately, the politics of ideas, so often portrayed through cases of innovation, may be quite conservative, contained by knowledge hierarchies which reflect prior politicaxl circumstances.
The evolution of public policies in the United States has been characterized as a process involving long periods of
stability followed by abrupt episodes of substantial change. In this project, we identify strands in the literature and
synthesize policy theories into a policy regime model useful in explaining both stability and change. This model
focuses on power arrangements, policy paradigms and organization - factors that operate to maintain long periods of
stability. We demonstrate how stressors - catastrophic events, economic crises, demographic changes, shifts in modes
of production, and others - impact policy regimes and create pressures for change. We argue that the process of policy
regime change - the abrupt episodes of substantial change - occurs with changes in the policy paradigm, alterations
in patterns of power and shifts in organizational arrangements. The old policy regime disintegrates and the new one
emerges with a new policy paradigm, new patterns of power and new organizational arrangements that operate to
maintain long periods of stability.
Short courses, books, and articles exhort administrators to make decisions more methodically, but there has been little analysis of the decision-making process now used by public administrators. The usual process is investigated here-and generally defended against proposals for more "scientific" methods. Decisions of individual administrators, of course, must be integrated with decisions of others to form the mosaic of public policy. This integration of individual decisions has become the major concern of organization theory, and the way individuals make decisions necessarily affects the way those decisions are best meshed with others'. In addition, decision-making method relates to allocation of decision-making responsibility-who should make what decision. More "scientific" decision-making also is discussed in this issue: "Tools for Decision-Making in Resources Planning."
This article examines the concepts of issue definition and conflict expansion through an analysis of the debate over tort reform in the general aviation industry. More specifically, the article studies the efforts of the general aviation manufacturers to define the issue of tort reform in ways that strengthened their unlikely coalition with important consumer groups and minimized opposition from organized labor, which typically sides with the plaintiffs bar in the tort reform debate. The case is intriguing because it provides more than just a snapshot of the industry's efforts. The analysis begins by examining some of the manufacturers’ less successful strategies and traces the evolution of their campaign, which culminates in the rather clever use of issue definition and conflict expansion strategies for which the trial lawyers were unprepared to match. In the end, effective use of these strategies overcame what appeared to most observers to he a classic political mismatch.
In sharp contrast with its international reputation and self-image as a leading national advocate of environmental protection initiatives, Canada has, in the 1990s, reduced its environmental expenditures and initiatives. The most dramatic and visible retreat has been in terms of expenditures, especially at the federal level and in Ontario, the largest and most industrialized province. In addition, again especially in Ontario, following the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the provincial election of 1995, environmental protection has been explicitly and openly curtailed. Possible explanations for the decline of environmental protection in Canada include: a) the effects of globalization on a trade-oriented middle power, b) counterwaves of environmental and economic concern among the public, and c) excessive decentralization of political authority with regard to environmental protection.
Network and regime approaches to policy studies are both organized around the idea of a policy-specific subsystem. The problem with this sectoral focus is that it overlooks a potentially important source of policy: the intersection of one sector with another. This article analyses one example of policy change through sec-tor intersection: the case of Clayoquot Sound on the western side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Prior to the late 1980s, B.C. forest policy was conducted through a traditional regime emphasizing the mutually compatible interests of industry and government. Aboriginal policy, such as it was, was made in a relatively distinct policy regime. As a result of a critical combination of conditions in the early 1990s, these two policy regimes intersected, producing dramatic policy changes. This article analyses the separate regimes for forest and aboriginal policy in British Columbia and how the two regimes have been transformed in recent years and become increasingly entangled. The focus is then turned to Clayoquot Sound, a crucible of change, where these developments have been taken to their greatest extreme. The article concludes by examining the implications of these developments beyond Clayoquot Sound and for theories of public policy.
Compared to other economically advanced democracies, the United States is uniquely prone to adversarial, legalistic modes of policy formulation and implementation, shaped by the prospect of judicial review. While adversarial legalism facilitates the expression of justice-claims and challenges to official dogma, its costs are often neglected or minimized. A survey of existing research, together with a case study of environmental regulation in the Port of Oakland, indicates the extent to which adversarial legalism causes (or threatens) enormous dispute-resolving costs and procedural delays, which in turn distort policy outcomes. Adversarial legalism, moreover, has increased in recent decades, as Americans have attempted to implement the ambitious, socially transformative policies of activist government through political structures, forms of legislation, and legal procedures that reflect deep suspicion of governmental authority.
Politics and the Architecture of Choice draws on work in political science, economics, cognitive science, and psychology to offer an innovative theory of how people and organizations adapt to change and why these adaptations don't always work. Our decision-making capabilities, Jones argues, are both rational and adaptive. But because our rationality is bounded and our adaptability limited, our actions are not based simply on objective information from our environments. Instead, we overemphasize some factors and neglect others, and our inherited limitationsâsuch as short-term memory capacityâall act to affect our judgment. Jones shows how we compensate for and replicate these limitations in groups by linking the behavioral foundations of human nature to the operation of large-scale organizations in modern society. Situating his argument within the current debate over the rational choice model of human behavior, Jones argues that we should begin with rationality as a standard and then study the uniquely human ways in which we deviate from it.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--MIT, 1987. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 624-647). Photocopy.
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