Coalition Structures in National Policy Networks: The Domestic Context of European Politics

To understand how actors make collective policy decisions, scholars use policy and discourse network approaches to analyze interdependencies among actors. While policy networks often build on survey data, discourse networks typically use media data to capture the beliefs or policy preferences shared by actors. One of the reasons for the variety of data sources is that discourse data can be more accessible to researchers than survey data (or vice versa). In order to make an informed decision on valid data sources, researchers need to understand how differences in data sources may affect results. As this remains largely unexplored, we analyze the differences and similarities between policy and discourse networks. We systematically compare policy networks with discourse networks in respect of the types of actors participating in them, the policy proposals actors advocate and their coalition structures. For the policy field of micropollutants in surface waters in Germany, we observe only small differences between the results obtained using the policy and discourse network approaches. We find that the discourse network approach particularly emphasizes certain actor types, i.e., expanders who seek to change the policy status quo. The policy network approach particularly reflects electoral interests, since preferences for policies targeting voters are less visible. Finally, different observation periods reveal some smaller differences in the coalition structures within the discourse network. Beyond these small differences, both approaches come to largely congruent results with regards to actor types, policy preferences and coalition structures. In our case, the use of discourse and policy network approaches lead to similar conclusions regarding the study of policy processes.

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The national governance of prostitution: political rationality and the politics of discourse

10.1332/policypress/9781447324249.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Hendrik Wagenaar ◽

Helga Amesberger ◽

Sietske Altink

Keyword(s):

Sex Workers ◽

Public Discourse ◽

National Level ◽

National Policy ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Labour Law ◽

Immigration Laws ◽

Political Rationality ◽

Policy Agendas

This chapter depicts policy formulation as an ‘organised anarchy’ of agenda setting and political decision-making that expresses itself in an ongoing tension between institutionalised political rationality and public discourse. The emergence of policy agendas and the introduction of legislation are associated less with a particular identifiable phase of the policy process than with the contingent interactions of policy networks and institutions. This unruly process is strongly influenced by discourse, in both countries the worldwide neo-abolitionist discourse. In the Netherlands national policy swung from the halting legislative decision to decriminalize brothels, back to a national policy of control and containment. Austria’s policy was traditionally aimed at the control of a stigmatised activity, through measures such as compulsory STD checks, unfavorable fiscal measures, and immigration laws that prevent sex workers to have full access to the labour market. In both countries we observed that at the national level the sex trade is shaped as much, or perhaps even more, by laws that are tangential to prostitution (immigration, tax, social security and labour law) as by laws that are specifically directed at it.

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Pushing the child centred approach in Myanmar: the role of cross national policy networks and the effects in the classroom

Critical Studies in Education ◽

10.1080/17508487.2011.604072 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 52 (3) ◽

pp. 219-233 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Marie Lall

Keyword(s):

National Policy ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Cross National

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Cross-National Policy Networks and the State: EU Social Policy Transfer to Poland and Hungary

European Journal of International Relations ◽

10.1177/1354066108092309 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 455-487 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Beate Sissenich

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

National Policy ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Policy Transfer ◽

The State ◽

Cross National

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‘Who else would we speak to?’ National Policy Networks in post-devolution Britain: The case of spatial planning

Public Policy and Administration ◽

10.1177/0952076716669978 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 3-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Janice Morphet ◽

Ben Clifford

Keyword(s):

Discourse Analysis ◽

Spatial Planning ◽

National Policy ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Research Data ◽

Policy Area ◽

Specific Policy ◽

National Centre ◽

Planning Task ◽

Delivery Route

The implementation of the devolution process that started in 1999 was frequently assumed by contemporary commentators and scholars to lead to a fractured relationship with the national centre and a fragmented state as a consequence. However, discourse analysis and policy reviews in relation to spatial planning policies demonstrates that agendas and legislation implemented by central and devolved governments since devolution are characterised by marked similarities in intention and type (albeit with some differences in name and delivery route). In investigating the potential sites and sources of these policy similarities and possible mobilities, and drawing on research data, we suggest that the British Irish Council’s spatial planning task group as one of the potential candidates to be considered as a national policy community or network. Alongside a range of other factors following devolution, this has contributed to development and delivery in one specific policy area that has taken a convergent rather than divergent character.

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De verhouding tussen politiek en bestuur in het Belgisch Europees beleid

Res Publica ◽

10.21825/rp.v39i3.18583 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 399-422

Author(s):

Jan Beyers

Keyword(s):

European Integration ◽

Communication Networks ◽

National Policy ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Civil Servants ◽

European Policy ◽

Political Alienation

This contribution deals with the consequences of European integration for the relation between civil servants and policians. Data of Belgian senior servants who are not involved in European policy networks are compared with data of Belgian officals who are in charge of European negotiations.This comparison shows firstly that officials are more central in European policy networks than in national policy networks. Politicians have only a limited and indirect access to these European networks. Secondly, the more civil servants are involved in these European policy networks, the less their political alienation. Furthermore, the organisational self-esteem do not affect the communication networks among civil servants and politicians. Finally, alienation and self-esteem do not affect the communication networks among civil servants and politicians. The exposure to politics and anciennity seem to be more important predictors.

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How does Teach For America engage its alumni politically? A case study in Detroit

Education Policy Analysis Archives ◽

10.14507/epaa.29.5943 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Jeremy Singer ◽

T. Jameson Brewer

Keyword(s):

Social Network ◽

National Policy ◽

State Policies ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Teach For America ◽

Policy Advocacy ◽

School Year ◽

Alumni Engagement ◽

Field Notes

We describe the alumni engagement efforts by Teach For America (TFA) in Detroit as a case study of the specific ways that the organization works to influence its alumni’s involvement in educational politics and disposition towards particular types of educational reform. During the 2019-20 school year, TFA Detroit facilitated a series of “policy workshops” for its alumni, intended to inspire TFA corps members and alumni to engage in political and policy advocacy. Combining field notes and other artifacts from the policy workshops with a social network analysis of the featured participants and central organizations, we show that TFA Detroit drew upon its local, state, and national policy networks to construct workshops that in turn would politically mobilize alumni to support their networks’ preferred city and state policies and reforms.

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Research Note: Do Virtual Policy Networks Matter? Tracing Network Structure Online

Canadian Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0008423906060161 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 391-405 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Kathleen McNutt

Keyword(s):

Information Exchange ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

National Policy ◽

Policy Networks ◽

Research Note ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Online Activity ◽

Political Behaviour ◽

Policy Dynamics ◽

Analytical Tools

Abstract.The Internet, operating as a technologically embedded laboratory of human activity, provides social scientists with a new set of analytical tools by which to test and replicate models of social and political behaviour, with data extrapolated from the regularities of online activity, organization and information exchange. This research note demonstrates that virtual policy networks, arrangements of public interaction between mutually supporting actors that form around policy activities, exist on the Web. In addition, the note considers whether or not Canadian virtual policy networks are mimicking their respective national policy communities through the application of a methodological approach referred to as link structure analysis. Four sectorally based networks, including Aboriginal policy, agriculture, banking and women-centred policy, are analyzed to assess the extent of virtual policy networks' replication of real world policy dynamics.Résumé.L'Internet, agissant comme laboratoire technologique de l'activité humaine, fournit aux chercheurs un nouvel ensemble d'outils analytiques par lesquels ils peuvent tester et recréer des modèles de comportements sociaux et politiques, à l'aide de données extrapolées à partir d'activités, d'organisations et d'échanges d'information en ligne. Cet essai montre qu'il existe sur Internet des réseaux virtuels d'action politique, à savoir des arrangements d'interaction publique entre différents acteurs sociaux se regroupant autour de certaines idées politiques. En outre, il essaie de déterminer si les réseaux virtuels canadiens imitent leurs communautés politiques nationales respectives, en utilisant une approche méthodologique désignée sous le nom d'analyse de la structure des liens. Quatre réseaux appartenant à des secteurs distincts, soit la politique autochtone, l'agriculture, les opérations bancaires et la condition féminine, sont analysés pour évaluer l'ampleur de la reproduction des dynamiques politiques et sociales du monde réel par les réseaux d'action politique virtuels.

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