The paper is devoted to the critical reconstruction of the policy network theory in contemporary political science. The number of issues that are still lacking in consensus among researchers are found in Russian policy network studies: the broad understanding of the terminology, limitations to theoretical and methodological grounds in application to Russian area of research, dominance of theoretical articles rather than empirical studies. The authors develop the definition that resolves the opaque understanding of the policy network term in Russian language. They define it as the formats of predominantly horizontal collaboration involving public bodies, private business entities, NGOs and/or uninstitutionalized citizens’ communities that participate in public governance procedures. The limitations of the policy network methodology that is caused by the crisis trends in positivist approach are also argued in the paper. The results of the meta-analysis of the policy network studies (N=37) are represented in the second part of the paper. The authors highlight three logics of the policy networks research: (1) the studies of the specific policy networks and focus on the concrete policies; (2) development of the methods of policy network analysis and their empirical tests; (3) focus on theoretical contribution to the policy network theory based on the empirical and comparative studies. Besides, the conceptualization of the approaches that may help the researchers to overcome theoretical and methodological limitations of the policy network theory is given.
Explaining the variety in smart eco city development in China-What policy network theory can teach us about overcoming barriers in implementation?
