Deep Core Advocacy Coalitions

As one of the most established theoretical approaches to public policy, the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has moored most of its theoretical arguments around a textbook policy conflict consisting of two or more advocacy coalitions in a mature adversarial policy subsystem set within an advanced polyarchy. However, much of ACF spans beyond the textbook – meaning there has been an implicit Framework behind the Framework. The purpose of this paper is fourfold. First, it summarizes the textbook ACF and then introduces the ACF’s broader Meta-Framework. Second, it shows how to take a step beyond the textbook by introducing deep core coalitions operating at the macro system. Third, it offers four illustrations of identity-based deep core coalitions bound by their transgender identity, abortion, traditionalist identity, and ruralness. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of what it means for a research program to embrace a diverse research agenda, such as through better linkages with other theoretical approaches, launching more comparative research designs, or, as done here, focusing on a new type of advocacy coalition operating at the macro system.