The Opening of Policy Windows in Real-World Transformation Processes: Cross-Fertilization of the Multiple-Streams Framework with the Multi-Level Perspective in the Case of the German Energiewende

Various competing conceptual approaches exist that aim to grasp phenomena of policy transformation and institutional change, such as the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), or the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) of socio-technical transitions. However, most existing efforts at explaining policy change have applied a single lens to study specific cases, focussing narrowly on particular aspects of the transformation process. Against this background, recent contributions have called for a more plural use of these different frameworks of policy change and transformation to facilitate the cross-fertilisation and production of valuable new perspectives and research agendas. With this contribution, we aim at (1) exploring a real-world case of policy change through different conceptual lenses, i.e. the MSF and the MLP, and (2) broadening these perspectives through mutual dialogue and cross-fertilization. The German energy transition – a shift away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy to an energy system based on renewables – is a prime example of such a transformative change, affecting profoundly both the political- and socio-technical system. This case, hence, provides a pivotal boundary-object for comparison and cross-fertilization of different approaches of institutional change: (1) Applying the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) demonstrates how the interaction between the ‘problem’, ‘policy’ and ‘politics’ streams may have opened an important ‘policy window’ for reform in Germany from a political dimension. (2) Employing the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), as the principal socio-technical transitions framework, on the other hand, sheds more light on how pressures on the niche, regime, and landscape level have created a ‘window of opportunity’ for the energy transition from a physical dimension. Combining the insights from a policy change framework on the one hand, and a socio-technical transitions framework on the other, this paper seeks to answer the question how we can theorise in a multi-faceted way how such major landmark changes happen and how they can be accompanied politically and institutionally. The results presented in this paper are based on documentary analysis (academic books and book-chapters, articles, government- and independent reports, and newspapers). Envisaged results include (i) drawing attention to the underlying assumptions, conceptual overlaps and lacunae of both theories, (ii) combining elements of both approaches to generate new empirical insights, and (iii) coming up with suggestions for cross-fertilization of both lenses. From the academic point of view, this research relevant because it contributes, on the one hand, to a better empirical understanding of the Energiewende case, and, on the other hand, to further development of the theoretical frameworks discussed.