Indirect Causes And Effects In Policy Change: The Brent Spar Case

This article discusses the occupation of an oil-related structure called the Brent Spar in the British sector of the North Sea by Greenpeace protesters in 1995. Shell intended to 'dump' the buoy in the deep North Atlantic. The aftermath of the occupation and associated publicity was a change of policy about the disposal of the Spar by Shell, Europe's largest multinational company. The article considers alternative explanations for policy change – most importantly the influential propositions by Baumgartner and Jones (1993). The general importance of their work means that the opportunity is taken to set out their themes at some length, but the particular case suggests that their notion of change stemming from a redefinition of the problem may only imperfectly fit sudden policy changes of the Brent Spar type. The article argues that their 'venue shopping' concept better illuminates the case – but the significant venue change was geographical – i.e. from Britain to Germany – rather than institutional – i.e. from a policy community to an issue network. The case study superficially accords with an influential body of literature in the 1980s and 1990s that sees outcomes as changing through the mobilization of a wider range of participants in issue networks, but it is argued that there is no automatic link between an expanded roster of participants and outcomes if the decisive decision-making power is retained in the original closed system. The case study suggests there can be an illusion of an issue network when the dominance of a policy monopoly is publicly challenged – but where decision-making power is retained among original participants.     

BEYOND POLICY NETWORKS: POLICY FRAMING AND THE POLITICS OF EXPERTISE IN THE 2001 FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE CRISIS

For the past decade, the policy community/issue network typology of pressure group interaction has been used to explain policy outcomes and the policy‐making process. To re‐examine the validity of this typology, the paper focuses on the UK government's response to the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crisis, and in particular the decision to pursue contiguous culling rather than vaccination to overcome the epidemic. Rather than illustrating the emergence of an issue network in agricultural policy, the decision‐making process of the FMD outbreak demonstrates continuity with prior crises. In addition, the politicization of scientific expertise is identified as an emerging trend in crisis management. Policy framing is used to explain the impetus behind the contiguous cull decision, concluding that the legacy of previous policy choices conditioned the crisis response to a far greater degree than contemporaneous pressure group action.     

Anti-Doping Policy in Sport: The Politics of International Policy Co-ordination

The characteristics and functioning of international policy processes are examined through the analysis of a case which explores the development of policy towards doping by athletes. Changes are traced in the dominant perception of the issue of doping in sport from a series of relatively self-contained problems which could be addressed by individual sports federations or competition organizers to one that requires extensive co-operation between federations and governments, and which has brought the issue of harmonization of policy to the forefront. The interests of the policy actors are identified and the role of two key organizations, the Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee, in facilitating closer co-ordination, is examined. It is argued that the process is best understood by using the concept of a policy network as both a metaphor and as an analytical tool. The value of the concept of an epistemic community is also considered and it is suggested that not only are doctors and scientists marginal in shaping anti-doping policy, but that there are also limited conditions under which epistemic communities can fulfil an effective role in the policy process.     

Networked and Polycentric Governance in South Korea: The Case of Dam Politics after Devolution

The South Korean intergovernmental environment has undergone drastic changes after the reintroduction of local autonomy in 1995. This study investigates how and why the governance has changed in terms of its structure and processes after devolution using the case of dam politics in South Korea. It also addresses the accountability implications of the changed governance. This study analyses two cases of dam construction initiative, which are the Youngwol dam project (1990–2000) and the Hantangang dam project (1998–2004). The analysis of these cases reveals that the governance structure concerning water resource supply has changed from a form of policy community, which can be characterized by its closed membership and stability in relationships, to a form of issue network, where the membership is enlarged to include various participants. More specifically, there are three important findings. First, the cancellation of the Youngwol dam project served as the moment to establish and empower a network of opposition against dam building, which had long been advocated and led by the policy community comprising the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea Water Resources Corporation, engineering experts, and some private companies related to dam construction. Second, as the central government plans to build 12 more dams including Hantangang dam, the network of opposition tends to be further vitalized with heated participation from local activists, some water resource management experts, and environmental activists. Third, as the pro-dam policy community and the network of opposition initiate dialogue among themselves, they are forming an issue network which works as a governance mechanism in the area of water resource supply management.     

SINGLE ISSUE LOCAL AUTHORITY ASSOCIATIONS: A NEW SPECIES FOR A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

The purpose of this article is to explore the emergence of single issue local authority associations as a response to the changing nature of the central-local government policy community in the past decade. The main theme of the article is that a gap has been created by the restructuring of local governance that neither individual local authorities nor the broad local authority associations are equipped to fill. Hence, new single issue local authority associations such as the Coalfield Communities Campaign , have been formed. They are necessitated by the unwillingness of broad local authority associations to preoccupy themselves with sectional and possibly divisive single issues and the inability of individual local authorities to command sufficient power within the policy community. As such they may well represent a fundamental change in the policy network, though it remains to be seen whether or not they will have a long-term role.     

Ideas, bargaining and flexible policy communities: policy change and the case of the Oxford Transport Strategy

Critiques of policy networks have highlighted particularly the inability of concepts such as policy communities to explain policy change. The established construction of policy community places it chiefly as a metaphor for a relatively stable network within the policy process, which emphasizes the resource dependencies between key stakeholders. Typically, a process of bargaining brings about accommodation and a state of negotiated order.
However, a key problem arises in explaining major policy change where an established policy community persists. One solution here is to appreciate that, over time, dominant ideas and associated policy meanings may shift appreciably within an otherwise durable policy community. Thus, even a seemingly insulated policy community, under certain conditions, may not be immune to idea mutation and new policy meanings. Given the central importance of policy communities, these shifts may induce significant policy change.
A case study of this type is provided by the Oxford Transport Strategy (OTS), where a dual process of change took place. On one level of analysis, a challenge to the policy community produced a typical bargaining strategy, with an emphasis on negotiated order. On another level of analysis, however, the terms of the policy debate shifted markedly, and produced a new meaning for the key concept of integrated transport within the policy community. In turn, this process induced significant policy change. The article concludes that, ironically, the survival of a policy community depends on its ability to re-create itself by visualizing a new future.     

Do donors promote corruption?: the case of Mozambique

Donors inveigh against corruption, yet give more aid to corrupt governments. Debate continues on the causes of developing country corruption, but with little consideration of the possibility that the behaviour of donors may unintentionally promote corruption. This article looks at the example of Mozambique, where corruption grew rapidly in the 1990s. It argues that the donor community is prepared to tolerate quite blatant corruption if the elite rapidly puts into place ‘market‐friendly’ policy changes. The article notes that the Mozambican elite is divided, but the group which challenged high level corruption also criticised World Bank adjustment policies; donors opted for the corrupt faction that told the donors what they wanted. Donors try to avoid the issue by concentrating on institutional reform, which the corrupt faction has so far been able to bypass. The issue is compounded by Mozambique's reputation as one of the World Bank's few success stories in Africa, and donors are reluctant to besmirch that image by publicly raising the corruption issue.     

Scottish devolution: identity and impact and the case of community care for the elderly

This article examines the emergent identity and impact of devolution in Scotland. Using the case of community care for the elderly, a model is set out for capturing the different interpretive perspectives evident in relation to a particular policy area in 1999–2001. The political story of the 'free personal care' issue, in which the Scottish Executive were unexpectedly forced into adopting a markedly different policy from the rest of the UK, is examined in some detail. Setting the episode in a broader context, four discursive thematics are identified in relation to the policy case. A model is demonstrated for examining different aspects of devolution including constitutional level and sub-system aspects of post-devolution governance. Conclusions are drawn as to the meaning which should be ascribed to the discourse associated with devolution and community care for the elderly.     

Swedish Counterterrorism Policy: An Intersection Between Prevention and Mitigation?

The aim of this article is to analyze how and why Swedish counterterrorism policy has changed since 2001. It raises the issue of how counterterrorism interacts with other factors on the governmental agenda, which priorities are made, and how these can be understood. Although much empirical evidence on the real political influence of emergent interagency networks is still lacking in the case of Sweden, an attempt is made here to analyze the importance of focusing events. In the light of the Swedish national strategy for counterterrorism, the article analyzes the content of annual reports from the Swedish Security Service. The article also explores linkages between the counterterrorism and crisis management literatures, and argues that the reassuring overtones in Swedish counterterrorism policy of late can be understood not only as the result of changes in threat perception and policy, but also in institutional change.     

Partnership and Policy Networks in Rural Local Governance: Homelessness in Taunton

In this paper we discuss the importance of 'partnership' and 'policy networks' in the new contemporary governance of rural areas. We use these notions to contextualize the representation of, and policy response to the particular issue of homelessness in the rural service centre of Taunton in Somerset. Here particular partnership networks have been brokered by the local authority which bring together a wide range of business, voluntary and community interests with a stake in the homelessness issue. Strong pre-existing discourses of homelessness in Taunton characterize the issue as one of a town centre problem of 'beggars, vagrants and drunks'. We offer evidence from the local press to suggest that these discourses have been persistently peddled by particular interests in the town. New forms of partnership were inevitably embroiled with the pursuit of these existing discourses, and contrary voices were unable to redefine existing social relations within policy networks. The evidence from Taunton suggests that where partnership merely involves attempts to repackage existing resources, it seems unlikely that it will fulfil some of the more optimistic claims for a more pluralist form of governance in the local arena.     

EXPLAINING RADICAL POLICY CHANGE: THE CASE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY POLICY UNDER THE BRITISH LABOUR GOVERNMENT 2006–10

An innovative framework combining the ‘multiple streams’ (MS) and ‘punctuated equilibrium’ (PE) models of agenda‐setting is used to explain the transformation of UK climate change and energy policy under the Labour Government between 2006 and 2010. The coupling of the problem, politics and policy streams by policy entrepreneurs (MS), and changes in policy image and institutional venues (PE), were critical in opening a policy window, disrupting the existing policy monopoly and enabling radical policy initiatives. The case study suggests two revisions to the models: (1) policy windows can remain open far longer than either model typically predicts; and (2) party politics, especially where party competition generates a ‘competitive consensus’, can be important for both initiating and prolonging policy change in parliamentary systems. An important factor typically overlooked by both models is the significant policy entrepreneurship role that government ministers can play, particularly when an issue becomes part of their ‘narrative identity’.     

关于台湾参与国际组织的几点思考

本文分析了马英九上台后两岸关系的新形势,主张大陆方面在台湾参与国际组织问题上应作出相应的调整以维护和促进来之不易的两岸和平发展势头。文章围绕“一个中国”这一核心原则,就台湾参与国际组织的名称、身份和可控性等重要方面进行了有益的探讨并提出了相应的建议。     

Divergence in Community Participation Policy: Analysing Localism and Community Empowerment Using a Theory of Change Approach

The last two decades have witnessed a significant turn towards community participation in public policy around the globe, raising concerns that states are resorting to ‘government through community’, shifting responsibilities onto communities. In order to unpack the ambiguous rhetoric of policy statements, this article employs ideas from evaluation methodology to develop a generic theory of change for community participation policy. The model is then utilised to analyse and compare the UK Coalition Government’s Big Society/Localism agenda and the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment approach, demonstrating the ways in which these represent a clear example of policy divergence, and potentially significant alternatives to state–community relations in the context of austerity. The article also demonstrates the potential wider applicability of ‘theories of change’ methodology for policy analysis.     

Participation and independence of consumers in a health systems agency

Health Systems Agencies (HSAs) were mandated to include representation of the community, broadly conceived. The implicit intention of the law was to include consumers as important and co-equal participants with providers in health planning. This paper is an examination of consumer participation in one ESA. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, citizens in this HSA exercised independent judgment regarding the major issue to confront them. We conclude his was a function of the following: talents and skills of the consumer members; natural interest in health care policy by consumer board members, sympathetic and supportive provider board members; and the homogenous character of the population in the region served.     

British Steel And Government Since Privatization: Policy 'Framing' and the Transformation of Policy Networks

Privatization has its own distinctive dynamics, resulting particularly from the institutional restructuring which tends to transform policy networks and communities. This happens principally for two reasons. Firstly, the crucial balance of resource dependencies is changed irrevocably, and established policy communities break down. Secondly, the separation between the principal actors tends to produce a 're-framing' of major policy issues. Here, Schön and Rein's (1994) concept of issue 'framing' offers a useful metaphor for how actors give a coherent organization to a complex reality by selecting for attention a few salient features. At the same time, they argue also that the nature of 'objective' reality might be found in the world's tendency to resist our interpretations, leading to a discovery of the limitations of particular frames. The case of British Steel offers a good example of the dynamics of this process. In the days of state ownership, the British Steel Corporation and government generally shared similar 'frames' on major issues. Since privatization, however, the two actors have tended to adopt separate 'frames' and have become more independent of each other. Multi-arena politics, such as Europeanization, can drive them still further apart. Nevertheless, in recent years British Steel has come to appreciate some of the limitations of its own frame, and has sought to reconstruct its relationship with government. There is an imbalance in the resource dependencies, however, which precludes the reconstruction of a policy community     

Prostitution debates in France

Prostitution has been high on the French political agenda since the late 1990s, but the way in which it has been framed as a policy issue has undergone a radical change since the elections of 2002. This article compares competing definitions of prostitution as a political issue under the Jospin (1997-2002) and Raffarin (2002-) governments. It examines the abolitionist lobby, which dominated the debates under Jospin, joining forces with women's policy agencies to place prostitution on the policy agenda as a form of violence towards women. It discusses the changes in prostitution policy since 2002, focusing on the criminalization of soliciting and the construction of prostitutes as part-victim, part-criminal. It argues that the reframing of prostitution as a law and order issue has harsh consequences for the women in prostitution, but particularly for migrant women, who can be deported for the new offence of passive soliciting.     

Rural income and poverty in a time of radical change in Malawi

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa. There is widespread, though not universal, agreement about the shape of poverty in the country and the policy challenge this sets. Agriculture continues to be the most obvious means to stimulate broad-based rural growth and to provide levels of food security and income needed for the majority rural population. A longitudinal study over a decade during which radical policy and political changes occurred provides the data and basis for discussing the appropriate policy directions for reducing poverty.     

The development of policy actors involved in the Bologna reform in Ukraine

The Bologna Process is an international policy project for the convergence of higher education structures in the European Higher Education Area. Most of the literature on Bologna represents studies that focus on the implementation implications of the reforms. The focus on the reform process, particularly in relation to the development process of Bologna policy actors, has been under-represented in the literature. This article investigates the process of the development of the main policy actors involved in the Bologna reform in the case of Ukraine. The timeframe includes the pre-history of Bologna since Ukrainian independence in 1991 until after the introduction of the relevant policy changes in 2003, and through to the issue of 2014 Law on Higher Education. Empirical data were collected through interviews with higher education actors in Ukraine and policy document search. Both types of data were thematically analyzed. The analysis in this article is informed by the policy learning theory and demonstrates the interconnection between path-dependency and change in the development of policy actors in the Bologna reform in Ukraine. This article shows that the old clusters of higher education actors, and the pre-Bologna relationships amongst some of them have been reproduced during the Bologna reform. At the same time, such a reproduction of the old during the reform was only partial as the Bologna Process has also been altering the relationships among some actors to an extent.     

Foreign policy, rhetorical action and the idea of otherness: The Czech Republic and Russia

This article employs the concept of rhetorical action in an analysis of the recent developments in Czech-Russian political relations. Through the discourse analysis of key Russian political speeches and official documents related to the Czech Republic, as well as Czech speeches tackling the same issues, we look at two different rhetorical actions employed by Russia to induce changes in Czech policy. The attempts to make Czech policy unacceptable in the wider community of European democracies were only partially successful. While the first rhetorical action aimed against Czech NATO membership failed, the new diplomatic strategy stressing the need for a “normalization” of relations was successful in transforming Czech policy towards Russia.     

American opinion toward terrorism: The Reagan years

Abstract

Using a variety of public opinion sources, this article explores American attitudes during the two Reagan administrations toward terrorism. It establishes the salience of terrorism in the public's mind, the perceived causes of terrorism, opinion about preventing future terrorist incidents, and attitudes on negotiating with terrorists. The paper also examines sentiments about military retaliation options and reviews beliefs about media coverage of terrorism. In this overall attitudinal context, the study touches on the theoretical relationship between public opinion and foreign policymaking, contending that the American public is responsible and sensible enough to comprehend the general nuances and basic complexities of an issue such as terrorism. Public opinion is judged to be a capable and logical determinant in foreign policy formation. The paper also concludes that there must be some symmetry between U.S. policy and public opinion on the issue for the policy to be effective.