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Factors Shaping Policy Learning: A Study of Policy Actors in Subnational Climate and Energy Issues
Author(s) -
Pattison Andrew
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12303
Subject(s) - policy learning , belief system , process (computing) , reinforcement learning , political science , policy analysis , reinforcement , climate change , public economics , sociology , public administration , psychology , social psychology , economics , computer science , artificial intelligence , machine learning , ecology , ethnology , biology , operating system
The concept of learning has long played a central role in the theories and frameworks used to understand policy processes. Findings described here aim to contribute to the theoretical and methodological understanding of individual learning in the policy process by explicitly examining belief change and belief reinforcement as products of policy learning, measuring both, as well as measuring the absence of either. The objective of this study is to use the lens of the Advocacy Coalition Framework to examine some of the factors that promote and shape policy learning, including policy actors' beliefs and the extent to which policy actors engage in various policy activities within and between belief coalitions. The results indicate that extreme beliefs are associated with belief reinforcement, relative to policy actors with more moderate beliefs, and that collaboration with individuals with differing policy views is associated with belief change.