Clarifying the Concept of Policy Communities in the Multiple Streams Approach

Using the European natural gas policy community as a starting point, this paper focuses on policy communities in the multiple streams approach, in particular on how to obtain a workable definition for this concept. Currently, there does not exist a scientific consensus regarding the definition of policy community, and as Kingdon's focus lies on other aspects, his explanatory notes on this topic are brief, derived from case studies, and closer to a description than to a definition. Furthermore, Kingdon's reference to policy communities and issue networks when discussing the participants involved in the process of agenda-setting leads to further confusion, as these concepts are commonly seen as opposites. These theoretical difficulties hamper the operationalization of the concept of policy communities. As a consequence, it becomes difficult to deduce falsifiable hypotheses regarding the characteristics of policy communities and their influence on the generation of alternatives. Since the availability of a worked out alternative is a necessary condition for an agenda change to take place, clarifying the definition of this key concept contributes directly to answering Kingdon's main question about why an idea's time comes when it does. Therefore, a careful analysis of his writing is conducted, with due regard to the genesis of the policy community concept and the differences between and overlaps with this terminology and the concept of issue networks. On this basis, it is possible to clarify Kingdon's understanding of policy communities and to derive a definition, which allows to deduce falsifiable hypotheses. The usefulness of this definition is tested on the example of the European natural gas policy community, which emerged late in the 1990s and has shown an enormous dynamic since. Thus, it is very suitable for proving the influence of the state of a policy community on the availability of alternatives.