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The structure of policy networks
Author(s) -
SCHNEIDER VOLKER
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1992.tb00291.x
Subject(s) - interdependence , context (archaeology) , politics , public policy , process (computing) , policy studies , policy analysis , resource (disambiguation) , business , public administration , economics , political science , economic growth , law , paleontology , computer network , computer science , biology , operating system
. This paper 1 compares the structure of policy networks in two different policy domains. Policy networks are seen as clusters of relatively autonomous but interdependent actors that are incorporated into the process of public policy making. Policy networks have to be seen as specific actor configurations beyond ‘policy markets’and ‘policy hierarchies’. 2 Their emergence is seen as a response to an increasing societal dispersion of resources, policy growth and governmental overload. Growing governmental activities in a context of more complex policy problems and a greater dispersion of policy resources within society makes governments increasingly dependent upon the horizontal cooperation of private actors in policy formulation and implementation. Institutional devices facilitating this mode of political resource mobilization range from formal advisory bodies, semi‐institutionalized working groups to highly informal and even ‘secret’forms of cooptation of private actors (organizations and individuals) in the ‘production process’of a policy.