Advances in Theories of the Policy Process

In order to capture the complexity of public policy decisions, policy theories are necessary to guide analysis. Due to the need for simplification, shared language, clearly defined concepts, and explicit specification of the underlying logic, each theory drives the specification of the most important variables and assumptions. Different theories point to quite distinct conceptions of what matters in the policy-making process. The Section provides a forum for the proponents of major theories of the policy process (Multiple Streams, Advocacy Coalitions, Social Construction, Punctuated Equilibrium, Institutional Analysis and Development) to share the latest theoretical and empirical developments. Papers use various methodological techniques and cover very different functional settings, national contexts and empirical topics but each focusing on one or more of the aforementioned theoretical orientations. The Section has the following objectives: 1. Survey and assess the current state of research — empirical, theoretical and methodological – in prominent theories of the policy process. 2. Encourage cross-fertilization among policy theoretical orientations within a single conference setting. 3. Establish communities and provide opportunities for networking for scholars sharing common theoretical orientations and interests. 4. Solicit contributions that conceptualize overlapping and complementary aspects to promote the generation of new research agendas. The section consists of six panels. In the roundtable on the approaches to the study of policy process, representatives of the five theories discuss their approaches. They discuss the current state of the art and possible future agendas of their approaches as well as further development of policy process theories. Three panels are devoted to individual frameworks, namely to the Multiple Streams Approach, the Advocacy Coalition Framework and a combined panel in which paper-givers will present innovative research in the tradition of the Social Construction Framework and the Institutional Analysis and Development lens. Finally, two panels are devoted to cross-fertilization of the various frameworks. In these panels, strategies for advancing knowledge about the policy process by combining frameworks or inserting certain elements of one lens into another are discussed.