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Ibero-American supranational audiovisual policies were inspired by the EU media policy model and shared the idea of creating a regional audiovisual market to face Hollywood hegemony. The paper uses discursive media institutionalism and policy entrepreneur theory to assess whether the current discourse on digital media policies is largely history repeating itself or new ideas are being introduced. To analyze this crucial problem definition stage from a bottom-up perspective, the paper combines participatory observation in two film festivals and one industry event with qualitative document analysis and literature review. The findings reveal a combination of continuity and change where the policy transfer idea is still present, but the EU and its cultural discourse are no longer a reference. The overfocus on the economic perspective, and the inclusion of global players’ discourse can threaten the development of cultural policies in the region, which are losing policy entrepreneurs support and space for debate.

The shift towards sustainable development is argued to be achieved by a circular disruption triggered or supported by circular economy (CE) policies. CE policies can pressure the disruption of currently predominant linear socio-technical systems across sectors towards a circular paradigm. Knowledge on how these policies appear on the agenda is essential to accelerate the circular disruption. Several works highlight the importance of policy entrepreneurs as agenda setters. However, they were not explored by the scholarly community on CE yet. Therefore, this article analyses the characteristics and strategies of CE policy entrepreneurs in Portugal as a circular frontrunner in the European Union (EU). Two groups of policy entrepreneurs were distinguished based on their different characteristics and strategies. Successfully driving the adoption of national CE policies required ambitious, tenacious and perfectionist CE expert(s) who create a CE vision, derive concrete solutions and gather support for their ideas, the CE initiator. Influencing CE implementation and evaluation required politically savvy CE implementers who openly and tenaciously develop projects and secure the continuous development of the policy. publishersversion published

Rad analizira i kritički razmatra političko-ekstremističke zajednice na primjeru /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) zajednice s internetskog foruma 4chan, smještajući je unutar teorijskog modela višestrukih tokova te ispitujući njezinu potencijalnu prirodu kao poduzetnika javnih politika. Primjenjuje se eksploratorna kvalitativna analiza političkih ciljeva, motivacije te metoda djelovanja /pol/ zajednice u /pol/ objavama, s ciljem utvrđivanja njezine uloge unutar toka problema, toka javnih politika i političkog toka. Iako analiza ukazuje na sličnost /pol/ zajednice s poduzetnicima javnih politika, u pogledu istaknute predanosti i reputacije, te sposobnosti mijenjanja političke svijesti i percepcije javnosti unutar tokova problema i politike, /pol/ zajednica se pokazala akterom nemoćnim kultivirati veze s formalnim akterima i predlagati ideje unutar toka javnih politika, zbog čega ih se ne može smatrati poduzetnicima javnih politika. Međutim, specifična politička motivacija koja teži razaranju liberalno-demokratskog političkog sustava čini /pol/ zajednicu drugačijim oblikom aktera unutar modela višestrukih tokova – križarom javnih politika, a u širem idejnom kontekstu modela, trovačem primordijalne juhe javnih politika. Takav akter ne pristaje na kompromise, agresivno širi svoje viđenje problema te nameće svoje vrijednosti javnosti, što ga čini potencijalno opasnim za stabilnost političkog sustava., The article analyzes and critically evaluates the politically extremist communities on the example of the /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board from the internet forum 4chan, placing it within the multiple streams theoretical model with an emphasis on its potential nature as a policy entrepreneur. An explorative qualitative analysis of political goals, motivations and methods of action of the /pol/ community in the /pol/ posts is carried out, with the aim of determining its role in the problem, policy, and politics streams, as well as the methods through which they act inside each stream. Although the analysis points to similarity between the / pol/ community and policy entrepreneurs, in terms of prominent commitment and reputation, and the ability to change political awareness and public perception within the flow of problem and politics streams, the /pol/ community proves itself to be unable to cultivate ties with formal actors and propose ideas within the solution stream, meaning that it cannot be viewed as a policy entrepreneur. However, its specific political motivation, which aims to destroy the liberal democratic political system, makes the /pol/ community a different form of agent – a policy crusader, and in the broader conceptual context of the model, the poisoner of the primordial soup of public policy. This type of agent does not compromise, aggressively spreads its perception of problems, and forces its own values onto the public, which makes it potentially dangerous for the stability of the political system.

As EU security is an intergovernmental policy area, it has been assumed that the only relevant policy-shapers are member states. However, more recent analyses show that supranational actors, like the Commission, have developed strategies to enhance their role in this traditionally interstate realm. This article endorses this reasoning and intends to cast some light on these strategies. Building on Kingdon’s concept of the policy entrepreneur and using EU’s cybersecurity policy as an empirical case, we analyse the Commission’s initiatives to draft a European response to cybercrime, in order to answer one central research question: how has the Commission managed to secure a prominent role in a highly salient security issue? The findings suggest that the Commission, acting as a policy entrepreneur, purposefully explored a market–security nexus in order to influence an otherwise intergovernmental security domain. Ultimately, the Commission was a much more relevant player than expected., This study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (No. UIDB/CPO/00758/2020), University of Minho and University of Evora and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds.

Artykuł przedstawia model badawczy, który może być zastosowany do analizy roli Wysokiego Przedstawiciela Unii do Spraw Zagranicznych i Polityki Bezpieczeństwa (Wysoki Przedstawiciel) w procesie decyzyjnym. Punktem wyjścia do modelu jest dominujący pogląd odzwierciedlony w literaturze, według którego Wysoki Przedstawiciel jest wyłącznie ograniczonym agentem (constrained agent) państw członkowskich pełniących rolę zbiorowego pryncypała (collective principal). Kluczowym ograniczeniem roli Wysokiego Przedstawiciela wydaje się być pozostawiona w rękach państw członkowskich kompetencja decyzyjna. Proponowany model wprowadza kategorię politycznego przedsiębiorcy i bada, na ile poprzez działanie w charakterze takiego przedsiębiorcy Wysoki Przedstawiciel może zwiększyć swoje pole manewru w relacjach ze zbiorowym zleceniodawcą. The paper proposes a research approach for the examination of the involvement of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Issues (High Representative) in the policy-making process. The point of departure is constituted by the predominant view reflected in the literature of the High Representative being solely a constrained agent of the national capitals as a collective principal. A key limitation of the role of the High Representative seems to be that the decision-making power remain in the hands of the Member States. The proposed model introduces the category of a policy entrepreneur and shall examine to what extent, by acting as such, the High Representative can manage to enhance her discretion in relations to the collective principal.

In this paper we seek to overcome the knowledge gap in street-level bureaucracy (SLB) literature on labour market policies, focusing on a specific public employment service (PES). In the context of active labour market policies (ALMP), PES are seen as strategic because they have a direct effect on reducing unemployment in both the short and long run and an indirect effect on reinforcing long-term training programmes. However, recent reforms of public employment services in many European countries have generated divergent trajectories in SLBs' practices. In this heterogeneous and unclear picture, to better grasp the different mechanisms influencing policy outcomes at a micro level it seems promising to merge street-level bureaucracy with the policy entrepreneur (PE) approach focused on the way caseworkers (conceived as policy entrepreneurs) influence policy design far beyond the resources they hold. In this article we consider if there are certain organizational configurations that favour the emergence of policy entrepreneurship among street-level bureaucrats. To test this hypothesis, the paper investigates an Italian public employment service. The Italian context is particularly interesting in that it underwent a process of decentralization followed by a more recent push towards re-centralization.

International audience; How do actors develop entrepreneurial activities to bring about policy change? To what extent do the contexts in which they are embedded shape their behaviors? Relying on three comparative case studies, we use the structure-, institution-and agent-based analytical framework to investigate the complex and dynamic interactions between contexts and actors in the process of policy change initiated by state actors in authoritarian China. We propose a conceptual framework, "policy entrepreneurship under hierarchy", which highlights the influence of power domination during the policy change process. It allows us to offer a renewed definition of policy entrepreneur and to identify a pattern of successful policy entrepreneurship in contrast to the "four central elements" suggested by Mintrom and Nomann. We conclude that hierarchical policy entrepreneurship in China is displayed through two kinds of relationships: the proposal-approval between policy entrepreneurs and their superiors and the instruction-execution between policy entrepreneurs and their subordinates.

The contribution addresses – through actor-centred historical institutionalism – why and how social investment (SI) emerged at the European Union (EU) level. SI policies built on the institutional basis of the policy co-ordination processes in employment and social inclusion, which originated in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The pre-existent processes represented the necessary but not sufficient condition for the EU SIP to materialise. The decisive factor was the activity of three types of entrepreneurs – intellectual, bureaucratic and political – that enabled the crystallization of the EU Social Investment package (SIP) through issue-framing, institutional alignment and consensus-building. Despite this, the SIP of 2013 ended as a ‘social investment moment’ that rapidly lost momentum because no additional measures such as indicators or funds were integrated with SIP. Furthermore, the Commission’s political priorities changed and the key entrepreneurs that had been active for the materialisation of the SIP were no longer centre stage. The continued presence of former influential entrepreneurs in the EU policy arena, although in different roles, may enable integration of EU SI into new EU social policy initiatives.

While there is a considerable literature concerning policy entrepreneurship and institutional isomorphism, significantly less literature has emerged addressing the impact of context on policy and institutional entrepreneurship and of the interactions between various contexts and agency. In this article, we demonstrate that the actions of entrepreneurs in the public sector are most likely to generate policy and institutional changes when they are reinforced by complementarities arising from context-dependent, dynamic interactions among interdependent structures, institutions and agency-level enabling conditions., NA

Background Can the entry of a policy entrepreneur challenge the equilibrium of a policy network and promote changes that might clash with the goals of powerful civil-servants and/or interest groups and, if so, why and how? Our goal is to examine two sides of the same coin: how does an in-depth analysis of Israel’s dental care reform enrich our understanding of policy networks and policy entrepreneurship? Second, how does the literature on policy networks and policy entrepreneurship help us understand this reform? Based on a theoretical framework that appears in the literature of policy entrepreneurship and policy networks, we analyze the motivations, goals and strategies of the main actors involved in the process of reforming pediatric dental care in Israel. We demonstrate how a policy entrepreneur navigated within a policy network and managed to promote a reform that, until his appearance, no one else in that network had succeeded in enacting. Methods Our goals are advanced through a case study of a reform in pediatric dentistry implemented in Israel in 2010. It rests on textual analyses of the literature, reports, committee minutes, parliamentary proceedings, print and online media, and updates in relevant legislation and case law between 2009 and 2015. In addition, the case study draws on the insights of one of the authors (TH), who played a role in the reform process. Results Historical circumstances and the Israeli public’s longstanding lack of interest in changing the existing model as well as interest groups that preferred the dominance of the private sector in the dental healthcare system kept that area out of the services supplied, universally, under the National Health Insurance Law. This situation changed significantly following the publication in 2007 of a policy analysis that contributed to shifts in the motivations and balance of power within the policy network, which in turn prepared the ground for a policy change. In this environment a determined policy entrepreneur, who identified a window of opportunity, took the lead and instituted an innovative and far-reaching reform. Conclusions A policy entrepreneur can leverage external factors as well as the previous activities of a policy network that has already matured to create a policy change. Such entrepreneurial activity includes maneuvering around opponents and overcoming resistance from various stakeholders. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13584-017-0146-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In many sustainable urban innovation projects, the efforts, endurance and enthusiasm of individuals at key positions are considered a crucial factor for success. This article studies the role of individual agency in sociotechnical niches by using Kingdon’s agenda-setting model. Although strategic niche management is commonly used to study processes of urban innovation, the process of niche formation and the role of individual agency has been understudied. We will introduce the notion of the ‘niche entrepreneur’ as an actor who, analogous to Kingdon’s policy entrepreneur, connects the elements that are needed to develop a successful niche that allows learning for sustainability transitions. We will study the process of niche formation and the role of individual entrepreneurship therein, and identify the strategies that have been used by individuals to create a successful niche. This will be done for three cases in urban systems integration: the development of Eva Lanxmeer, a residential district in a drinking water retention area in Culemborg, the Netherlands; the transformation of the waste management practices of Lille Métropole Urban Community, France; and the development of the urban district Hammarby Sjöstad, Sweden. Our findings show that for the successful formation of niches, it is necessary to create ambitious, but clear goals and matching concrete operational plans; niche entrepreneurs may play the role of project champions that contribute significantly to the operationalization, monitoring and the effectuation of the original goals of the project; the strategies of niche entrepreneurs emphasize the building of coalitions and the securing of space for learning.

International audience; Uncertainty surrounding climate change has encouraged policy makers to engage in flexible and exploratory policies and forms of policy making. The article examines the potential of experimentation in devising coastal adaptation policies, taking into account its political dimensions. We analysed a multi-level experiment, funded by the French Ministry for the Environment from 2012 to 2015, where coastal municipalities volunteered to simulate the implementation of planned retreat as an adaptation strategy. Using insights from discursive institutionalism, we tracked developments throughout the experiment period. We highlight a combined process of governance experiment, allowing social innovation at local and regional scales, and a more strategic tool for the state, governing and steering local coastal policy with new instruments. We shed light on a particular policy entrepreneur (a public organization dealing with coastal management) playing at the intersection of these two forms, and in the interplay of policy scales. Although the experiment contributed to the innovation of legal and economic instruments and produced policy feedbacks in local planning and governance, learning capacities of the multi-scale architecture are still moderate to make planned retreat a reality in the near future. The conclusion considers performative and interpretive effects of policy experiments as further research questions to explore.

The chapter uses theoretical insights from policy science and public policy studies to argue that more attention should be paid to the critical moment of EGTC creation in order to understand the extent to which the EGTC instru- ment has been successful or not in terms of being used. The chapter reviews cross-border institutional development processes at three different borders and border sections, out of which two led to the creation of an EGTC and one did not. Zooming in on moments of institutional transformation and/ or the foundation of an EGTC helps answering the question why there has not been an even higher uptake of the EGTC instrument. The examination of processes at the Slovak-Hungarian, the Romanian-Hungarian-Serbian and the Danish-Swedish borders demonstrate how the likely uptake of the EGTC format increases at times of upheaval, which can be understood as windows of opportunity. However, for institutional transformation to happen, the moment of getting current participants in the organisation to agree to the new format represents a moment of risk, and risk-averse actors may choose to rather “not rock the boat”. The presence or absence of policy entrepreneurs, in combina- tion with political and policy events turn these times into critical junctures, casting shadows over the organisational ecology of a specific border region for considerable time.

While many studies have focused on the European Commission and its potential to act as a policy entrepreneur, little research has been undertaken into how intergovernmental institutions as a whole are able to shape and advocate certain policies. This article fills that gap by analysing debates in the Council of the European Union on two major strategies: the Small Business Act for Europe and the Europe 2020 strategy. These debates were analysed using newspaper articles in the daily bulletins of Agence Europe, yielding 469 statements which were qualitatively evaluated by means of content analysis. The results demonstrate that the Council as a whole is able to act as a policy entrepreneur if certain conditions are met, namely a common interest and political goal among member states, a need for economic measures due to a crisis situation, and the possibility of shifting unpopular decisions to Brussels.

The ‘policy entrepreneur’ concept arises from the Multiple Streams’ theory of agenda setting in Policy Studies. Through conceptual stretching’, the concept is extended to global policy dynamics. Unlike ‘advocacy networks’ and ‘norm entrepreneurs’, the discussion addresses the strategies of ‘insider’ or ‘near-governmental’ non-state actors. The analysis advances the policy entrepreneur concept in three directions. First, the discussion develops the transnational dimensions of this activity through a case study of International Crisis Group. Second, rather than focusing on charismatic individuals, the discussion emphasizes the importance of organizational resources and reputations for policy entrepreneurship and access into international policy communities. Organizations maintain momentum behind policy solutions and pressures for change over the long term when individuals retire or depart for other positions. Third, the discussion outlines four distinct entrepreneur strategies and techniques that both individuals and organizations cultivate and deploy to enhance their power and persuasion in global policy processes and politics.

With global environmental problems worsening, policy makers and nonstate actors are looking for viable solutions through policy innovation, entrepreneurship, and experimentation. Research into the use of experiments to innovate is increasing, but the role of experimentation in policy change has yet to be specifically addressed in the context of climate governance. My aim is to improve understanding by examining how entrepreneurs, key agents of change, might use experiments to advance their climate innovations. Policy entrepreneurs can benefit in several ways from using experiments, including assessing public response to new ideas and learning. I address the question: What role can experiments play in an entrepreneur’s change strategies? To answer this, a set of 18 policy experiments from Dutch water management was analyzed to understand how the policy experiments functioned as 4 different policy change strategies. The results revealed that organizers use experiments to evaluate their preformed ideas, to soften local communities to the idea of experimentation, to build broad but centrally controlled coalitions, and to link with influential political actors and national programs to maintain visibility and relevance. These insights formed a list of suggestions that the experiment organizers identified as key to the change strategies. Based on this, a number of recommendations about design choices were made for entrepreneurs who want to experiment. Analyzing experiments as change strategies contributes a novel perspective on how policy experiments function as venues for invention and provides useful suggestions on how experiments can be designed to improve their influence over policy-making processes.

This chapter shows how public administrations, in order to maintain influence over the conduct of public policies, assume new roles, at least when compared to the tasks and sovereign competencies under an ideal-typical Weberian bureaucracy. Empirical evidence from Switzerland indicates that an administrative entity can cast itself in turn as a policy broker and mediator in political conflicts (during policy formulation) but also as a co-producer of administrative services and network facilitator (during policy implementation). The results of a formal social network analysis (SNA) suggest that these new roles do not entail a loss of public administration influence. On the contrary, it is by adapting and also abandoning a state-centric vision and hierarchical position, as well as finding a place within a policy network as a broker, facilitator, or co-producer, that public administrations are able to maintain their ability to significantly influence the content of public policies.

Background Implementing research findings into healthcare policy is an enduring challenge made even more difficult when policies must be developed and implemented with the help and support of multiple ideas, agendas and actors taking part in determinants of health. Only looking at mechanisms to feed policy-makers with evidence or to interest researchers in the policy process will simply bring partial clues; implementing evidence-based policy also requires organisations to lead and to partner in the production and intake of scientific evidence from academics and practical evidence from one another. Main body This Commentary argues for the need to better understand the capacities required by organisations to foster evidence-based policy in a dispersed environment. It proposes a framework of 11 brokering capacities for organisations involved in evidence-based policy. Eight of these capacities are informed by streams of research related to the roles of knowledge broker, innovation broker and policy broker. Three complementary brokering capacities are informed by our experience studying real-life evidence-based policies; these are capturing boundary knowledge, trending know-how on scientific and practical evidence-based policy, and conveying evidence outward. Conclusions Previous guidelines on brokering capacities focused on the individual level more than on the organisational level. Beyond the individual capacities of managers, designers and implementers of new policies, there is a need to identify and assess the brokering capacities of organisations involved in evidence-based policy. The three specific organisational brokering capacities for evidence-based policy that we present offer a means for policy-makers and policy designers to reflect upon favourable environments for evidence-based policy. These capacities could also help administrators and implementation scholars to think about and develop measurements to assess the quality and readiness of organisations involved in evidence-based policy design.

This is an introductory paper to a special issue on climate governance entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurship is understood as acts performed by actors seeking to ‘punch above their weight’. By contrast, actors who are merely doing their job are not ‘entrepreneurs’. In order to understand climate policy and governance, we need to learn more about the factors that condition variance in entrepreneurial activity, strategies and success. In this introduction, we present a comprehensive review of the literature on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in policy in governance, with special attention to the recent upsurge in studies of climate governance entrepreneurship. We distinguish two types of entrepreneurship: (1) acts aimed at enhancing governance influence by altering the distribution of authority and information; and (2) acts aimed at altering or diffusing norms and cognitive frameworks, worldviews or institutional logics. The contributions in this special issue offer valuable insights into how personal motivations, policy windows, international trends, cultural-institutional traditions and the distribution of structural power influence entrepreneurship. However, more work is needed – not least as regards whether actors that seek change are more active and/or more successful as entrepreneurs compared to those that defend the status quo, and whether there is more successful entrepreneurship in public or in private arenas of governance.

Labour immigration has traditionally been a highly contentious issue and therefore, one of the least developed areas of EU migration policy. This article explores the entrepreneurship of the European Commission over a ten-year period, which ultimately led to the adoption of the so-called ‘Blue Card Directive’ on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for economic reasons (2009/50/EC). It does so by utilising John W. Kingdon’s three stream conceptual framework, which was initially developed within the context of US politics (2014, originally published in 1984). Despite firm resistance from the part of certain member states and the unanimity voting rule regarding legal migration matters under the Amsterdam Treaty, this article demonstrates how the Commission managed to somehow navigate troubled waters. Drawing on primary European institution sources, academic works, as well as interviews with EU officials and think tank representatives, it is argued that the Commission was a key entrepreneur in the case of the Blue Card Directive, capable of genuine adaptation and tenacity. By depicting the European Commission as a supranational policy entrepreneur, which managed to anchor the subject of highly skilled immigration in the EU political agenda, the present contribution departs from works stressing the weakness of the European Commission vis-à-vis member states.

Public sector unionization rose dramatically during the 1960s and 1970s – even as private sector unions declined – and by 2010, membership in public sector unions surpassed that of private sector unions. They are now a mainstay of the U.S. labor movement, and wield sizable influence in local, state, and national politics. Yet public employee unions have recently been under political attack, and government employees have suffered losses in employment, compensation and bargaining rights at record levels since the Great Recession. Notably, these assaults have come not just from Republican-led statehouses, but from longstanding Democratic allies. Public sector unions have traditionally been a bulwark of the Democratic Party, providing Democratic officeholders money and votes. Scholarly accounts emphasize the close alliance Democrats built with public sector unions during the second half of the 20th century. Yet I argue that from the 1990s onward, Democratic-controlled state governments had a hand in weakening public sector unions and undercutting the position of public employees by opting not to expand bargaining rights, and by pursuing pension privatization and cutbacks. This project delineates public sector union history in four distinct phases (origins, expansion, stagnation and retrenchment), and traces the changing relationship between public sector unions and Democratic Party officials at the sub-national level. I use federal data, state legislative records, and interviews to examine the politics of thecurrent period of retrenchment. Comparative state-level case studies and a regression analysis of voting on pension legislation in every state legislature reveal that Democratic support for retrenchment hinged on three factors: (1) interest group power and mobilization; (2) efforts of wealthy policy entrepreneurs; and (3) political leadership. I find that public sector unions were able to surmount this more difficult political environment only when labor (1) built coalitions with other interest groups and effectively countered business opposition; (2) secured large Democratic majorities within the statehouse; and (3) won the tacit support of the state’s governor. A looming Supreme Court ruling against mandatory union dues means the political environment for public sector unionization will only become more difficult in future years.

In 2007 the European Commission proposed an Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union as the building block of a governance framework aimed at coordinating all sea related EU policies. Using as theoretical framework Multiple Streams Approach, particularly the concept of “policy' entrepreneur” (Kingdon 1984; 2003), the goal of this paper is to assess the importance of Commission’s entrepreneurship to the adoption of IMP. We will trace the Commission’s actions between 2004 and 2007, in order to answer three empirical questions: Has the Commission contributed to problem definition? Has the Commission engaged in a softening up process?Has the commission seized the policy window to push its pet proposals forward?

The pension system for public servants referred to as “20530” or the “cedula viva” caused severe fiscal damage to the Peruvian state until its reform in 2004. The reform was particularly difficult to accomplish because a number of senior officials and former government authorities were elite beneficiaries of this pension regime. In this article, we explore the reform process led by a government agency, identifying this agency’s capacity and the implementation of a strategy of visibilization as key factors., El régimen pensionario de servidores públicos denominado «20530» o «cédula viva» causaba severos daños fiscales al Estado peruano hasta su reforma en el año 2004. Dicha reforma cobraba especial dificultad debido a que un conjunto de altos funcionarios y ex funcionarios del Estado se encontraba como beneficiario de élite de dicho régimen. En el presente artículo, exploramos el proceso de aprobación de esta reforma, liderado por una agencia del Poder Ejecutivo, identificando como factores clave de éxito la capacidad que ella demostró y la puesta en práctica de una estrategia de visibilización.

El régimen pensionario de servidores públicos denominado «20530» o «cédula viva» causaba severos daños fiscales al Estado peruano hasta su reforma en el año 2004. Dicha reforma cobraba especial dificultad debido a que un conjunto de altos funcionarios y ex funcionarios del Estado se encontraba como beneficiario de élite de dicho régimen. En el presente artículo, exploramos el proceso de aprobación de esta reforma, liderado por una agencia del Poder Ejecutivo, identificando como factores clave de éxito la capacidad que ella demostró y la puesta en práctica de una estrategia de visibilización. The pension system for public servants referred to as «20530» or the «cédula viva» caused severe fiscal damage to the Peruvian state until its reform in 2004. The reform was particularly difficult to accomplish because a number of senior officials and former government authorities were elite beneficiaries of this pension regime. In this article, we explore the reform process led by a government agency, identifying this agency’s capacity and the implementation of a strategy of visibilization as key factors.

Background: There has been an increasing effort across Europe to develop national policies in food and nutrition during the last decade. However, little is known about how public health nutrition issues get on the public health agenda and the roles individuals have when these agendas are being set. Objectives: The aims of this study were to scrutinise the development process of the Slovenian national food and nutrition policy, and to identify the roles and functions of individuals who have contributed to that process. Methods: This study undertook a qualitative approach. Data collection included 18 semi-structured interviews between 2007 and 2011, and grey and scientific literature search. Text analysis was based on Kingdon's streams model, which involved highlighting the relationship between problem identification, policy solutions and political opportunities. Data were coded to identify the roles and functions of individuals participating in the agenda-setting process. Results: The analysis showed that the opportunity for the Slovenian food and nutrition policy to be developed was largely explained by a change in political circumstances, namely the accession of Slovenia to the European Union and the Common Agricultural Policy. Individuals with experience in policy development were identified because of their analytical, strategic and policy entrepreneurial skills. The analyst was responsible for communicating the key nutrition issues to policy-makers, the strategist joined international networks and promoted policy solutions from international experts including the World Health Organization, and the policy entrepreneur took advantage of the political situation to enlist the participation of previous opponents to a national nutrition policy. Conclusion: This study found that individuals, their roles and skills, played an important role in the development of the Slovenian National Food and Nutrition Policy. The roles and functions of these individuals, which are identified in this study, may assist future endeavours to advance public health nutrition as a key political issue., funded by DG Educaiton and Culture - the JOBNUT project

Contains fulltext : 84381.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) This paper examines the role of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature China as policy entrepreneur in China. It illustrates the ways in which the World Wildlife Fund for Nature is active in promoting integrated river basin management in the Yangtze River basin and how the efforts at basin level are matched with the advice of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development task force on integrated river basin management to the national government of China. This article demonstrates that the World Wildlife Fund for Nature uses various strategies of different types to support a transition process towards integrated river basin management. Successful deployment of these strategies for change in environmental policy requires special skills, actions, and attitudes on the part of the policy entrepreneur, especially in China, where the government has a dominant role regarding water management and the position of policy entrepeneurs is delicate. 18 p.

Las recientes transformaciones en el seno de la Unión Europea han estado ejerciendo una presión significativa en la función gestora de la Comisión Europea. Examinando su función de intermediación, este artículo se pregunta que clase de papel juega la Comisión en las interacciones políticas en Bruselas después del año 2000. Desarrollando un marco conceptual acerca de los papeles de intermediación en la política de la Unión, este artículo emplea una combinación de datos cualitativos y cuantitativos en un análisis empírico de dos casos extremos en los que la Comisión ha estado enredada en los últimos años. El artículo sostiene que los informes previos al "fallecimiento" de la Comisión fueron muy exagerados, porque ésta continua jugando un papel de liderazgo en la gestión de interacciones entre múltiples actores a distintos niveles de gobernación. Los resultados empíricos muestran que la Comisión es un resistente intermediario central en las redes sociales., Recent transformations in the European Union have been putting significant pressure on the management function of the European Commission. Examining its brokerage position in policy networks, this article asks what kind of role does the Commission have in the political interactions in Brussels after the year 2000. Developing a conceptual framework about brokerage roles in EU policy, the article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in an empirical analysis of two extreme cases where the Commission has been embattled the past years. The article argues that previous reports of the Commission’s demise are much exaggerated, because it continues playing a leading role in managing interaction between multiple actors at different levels of governance. The empirical results show that the Commission is a resilient central network broker

There is consensus that the Kinnock reform changed the European Commission considerably. However, scholars have focused mainly on describing the process, content, and scope of the reform. There is as yet little empirical research about the effects this reform may have. This paper puts forward an argument as regards the link between reform effects and policy output. In order to do so, it focuses on the new role of middle management, i.e. the heads of unit. A survey of more than 100 heads of unit of policy-making Directorates-General serves as the empirical basis. The data indicate a substantial ambiguity of the heads of unit towards recent organizational change. As a consequence of the reform, the Commission will probably become more inward-looking and previously crucial policy entrepreneurs will have less time and other resources for advocating policy content than in the past.

The goal of this thesis is to explain the current dynamical development of the energy policy of the EU with the focus on the gas sector. Furthermore, this work examines what role in that process plays the European Commission. Lastly, it seeks to ascertain whether the EU's energy policy has a real impact on the development of the gas markets of Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Lithuania. The first two questions are answered with the aid of John W. Kingdon's Multiple stream theory. The conclusion has it that the key role in the creation of the EU's energy policy was taken up by the European Commission, which can be described as the Kingdon's policy entrepreneur. As a true entrepreneur the Commission attempted to build the way for the creation of the single EU gas market, which would be based on sufficient cross-border infrastructure and diversified gas imports. Such a conclusion is supported by the Commission's activities leading to the adoption of important energy legislation, as the third energy package, and essential funds as were European Energy Programme for Recovery and the Connecting Europe Facility. Latter, this work looks into the third research question. On the case studies of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Lithuania it proves, that the outputs of the entrepreneur activities of the Commission...

International audience; This paper documents changes in the field of water management in France, through the analyses of theactivities of water professionals. Hydro-territory professionals work for local authorities in charge ofwater management at the watershed scale. Their functions appear to be fuzzy. Yet, this paper assumesthat this fuzziness is a crucial feature as it manifests an ability to deal with ‘‘wicked’’ problems. Basedon quantitative and qualitative inquiries, this paper discusses to what extent these new kind of professionalspresent themselves as, or differentiate themselves from, experts, facilitators or policy entrepreneurs.It contributes to the studies that highlight the new water professional as a transdisciplinaryengineer capable of dealing with negotiation, cooperation or communication issues. Yet, the main resultof our study is to show the embedded dimension of hydro-territory professionals, considering watergovernance as a long term issue of adjustment, assembling, fitting, in a territory and across scales

Advisory Bodies and Expertise in the Czech Politics - Epistemic Communities and the Influence on the Reforms of Higher Education and Pension System Master thesis Bc. Kateřina Merklová The Master thesis Advisory Bodies and Expertise in the Czech Politics - Epistemic Communities and the Influence on the Reforms of Higher Education and Pension System concerns with the relation between politics and expertise. So-called epistemic community represents the knowledge interpreter that we consider an independent actor in the political process. In the theoretical part of the text, we have explained the original definition of the concept as well as its critics and case studies that cover various contexts. Following most of the authors, we have applied a looser definition of the concept and deconstructed its rigid criteria. The empirical part of the thesis presents a case study (N=4) based on comparative methods that analyzes variable influence of four particular epistemic communities (the authors of the White Paper on Tertiary Education, Bezdek's Committee, Bezdek's Committee II, and the National Economic Council) on policy-making process and its sources. Regarding our intention and research questions, we have chosen two qualitative methods - in-depth interviews and content analysis of relevant texts. We have...

Les recherches en relations industrielles portent rarement sur les politiques publiques du marché du travail. Lorsqu’elles existent, ces recherches s’intéressent généralement à l’efficacité de ces politiques. Or, cette thèse illustre l’importance de comprendre comment se forment les lois et les règlements. Afin de mieux comprendre le processus d’élaboration des politiques publiques, une étude de cas a été réalisée dans le domaine des retraites au Québec et au Canada entre 2003 et 2008. Les retraites ont été ciblées en raison des bouleversements socio-économiques que connaissait le Canada à l’époque, notamment le vieillissement de la population et les fluctuations des rendements des fonds de retraite. Ce sujet a également été retenu car il s’agit d’une compétence partagée entre les paliers gouvernementaux fédéral et provinciaux ainsi que partagée entre le secteur public et privé.Afin d’étudier la question, des théories en relations industrielles et en sciences économiques ont été considérées. C’est toutefois la théorie des courants multiples du politologue américain John Kingdon qui a été retenu comme fondement théorique de cette thèse. Cette théorie, qui postulait que les acteurs voulant influencer les politiques publiques devaient attirer l’attention sur des problèmes, contrôler le débat sur les politiques considérées et se faire des appuis, a été confirmée. La contribution majeure de cette thèse a été d’identifier les différents types d’acteurs impliqués dans le processus d’élaboration de politiques publiques de retraite, les stratégies qu’ils ont employées pour y parvenir et les résultats de leurs efforts., Research in Industrial Relations rarely focuses on labour market policies. When they do exist, these studies generally focus on the effectiveness of these policies. This thesis illustrates the importance of understanding how these public policies come about. A case study was conducted on pension laws and by-laws in Quebec and Canada between 2003 and 2008 to better understand the process of policymaking. Pensions were targeted because of the dramatic socio-economic changes taking place in Canada at the time, the aging population and changes in pension fund returns for example. This issue was also chosen because it is a responsibility shared between the federal and provincial governments and between the public and private sectors. To study the issue, Industrial Relations and Economics theories were considered. However, John Kingdon’s Multiple Stream theory was chosen as the theoretical basis of this thesis. Kingdon is an American political scientist. His theory, which postulates that political entrepreneurs need to attract attention on problems, control the debate on considered policies and gain support for their views if they want to influence public policy. The results of the case study confirm Kingdon’s theory. The major contribution of this thesis was to identify the different types of actors involved in the pension policymaking process, the strategies these actors have used to achieve their goals and the results of their efforts.

Föreliggande avhandling studerar kommunala policyprocesser i en fråga där ett flertal olika policyområden ingår: övergången till alternativa drivmedel i kollektivtrafiken. Genom att undersöka hur och varför sådana policyer utvecklats i två kommuner bidrar studien dels till att förklara hur policy utvecklas på kommunal nivå; dels till att skapa förståelse för policyskapande där olika policyområden ingår. Genom fallstudier har policyprocesserna vid övergången till biogas i stadsbusstrafiken i Linköpings och Helsingborgs kommuner undersökts. Studien är processorienterad och fokuserar huvudsakligen på hur och varför aktörer, utifrån sina resurser, intressen, problemdefinitioner och lösningar, kan påverka policy. Resultaten visar hur policyprocesserna vid övergången till biogas präglats av traditionella policyområden där aktörer, intressen och resurser skilt sig åt beroende på sektor. Samtidigt visar avhandlingen att en sammankoppling mellan policyområdena för energi, miljö och transport varit väsentligt för att aktörer skulle kunna driva igenom sina förslag. För att göra detta har gränsgångare – policyentreprenörer som gått över gränserna för de tre policyområdena – varit centrala genom att initiera breda samarbeten där aktörer företrädande energi, miljö och kollektivtrafik identifierat och eftersträvat ett gemensamt mål. This thesis studies municipal policy processes where several policy sectors are involved: the transition to alternative fuels in public transport. Examining how and why those policies have developed in two municipalities, the study will contribute to explain how policy are shaped on a municipal level and also contribute to further knowledge of policy processes where different sectors are involved. Through case studies, the policy processes concerning the introduction of biogas in city buses in the municipalities of Linköping and Helsingborg have been studied. The study is process oriented and mainly focuses on how and why actors with their resources, interests, problem definitions and solutions, can influence policy. The results show that the processes consisted of traditional policy sectors where actors, interests and resources differed between the sectors. In addition, the thesis shows that a connection between the energy, environment and transport policy sectors has been essential for policy development. Boundary walkers – that is, policy entrepreneurs that crossed the boundaries between the three sectors – have been central to initiate broad collaborations where actors representing energy, environment and public transport identified and strived to a common goal.

The dissertation is about scientific uncertainty in the policy process, that is when scientific knowledge about an issue is lacking or the existing knowledge is uncertain. The aim of the study is to understand if and how scientific uncertainty affects the policy process. For that purpose, the development of climate change policy in Sweden is studied, from 1975 until 2007. The material studied consists of interviews with politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, newspaper articles and debate articles, as well as governmental and agency material. The theoretical framework developed and used in the dissertation builds on John Kingdon’s multiple streams framework as well as insights from Science and Technology Studies, relating to the production of knowledge and the relation between scientists and society. The study shows that scientific uncertainty is only one among many factors that affect the policy process and that it has a limited influence. The area where scientific uncertainty, in the case studied, has had most influence is in the selection and formulation of policies. There policy makers have used a number of ways to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. These include reframing the issue so that uncertainties are no longer relevant, relying on the precautionary principle, requesting more research, and basing decisions on the judgment of scientists. The most common way of managing uncertainty has been to reframe the issue. In the case studied, scientific uncertainty has made scientists very influential as to how climate change has come to be understood as a political problem. Yet they have had a very limited influence over the formulation of climate policy. Avhandlingen handlar om vetenskaplig osäkerhet i policyprocessen, det vill säga när vetenskaplig kunskap om en fråga saknas eller den existerande kunskapen är osäker. Studiens huvudsyfte är att förstå om och hur vetenskaplig osäkerhet påverkar policyprocessen. För att undersöka detta har utvecklingen av den svenska klimatpolitiken från 1975 fram till 2007 studerats. Materialet som undersöks består av intervjuer med politiker, tjänstemän och forskare, tidningsartiklar och debattartiklar, liksom riksdagstryck och rapporter från ämbetsverken. Det teoretiska ramverk som utvecklas och används i avhandlingen baseras på John Kingdons flödesramverk och forskning inom Science and Technology Studies, som behandlar produktionen av kunskap och relationen mellan forskare och samhället. Studien visar att vetenskaplig osäkerhet bara är en av många faktorer som påverkar utvecklingen i policyprocessen och att den inte är en av de mer framträdande. I det studerade fallet är det främst vad gäller val och utveckling av policyer som vetenskaplig osäkerhet har haft en påverkan. Politiska beslutsfattare har hanterat osäkerheten på ett antal olika sätt för att möjliggöra beslut trots den. De hanteringssätt som identifierats i avhandlingen är att en fråga omformuleras så att osäkerheterna inte blir relevanta, att försiktighetsprincipen åberopas, att mer forskning efterfrågas, och att beslut baseras på forskares bedömningar. Att frågan omformuleras har varit det vanligast förekommande sättet att hantera osäkerhet. I det studerade fallet har vetenskaplig osäkerhet inneburit att forskare fått ett stort inflytande över hur klimatfrågan ska förstås som politiskt problem, men däremot inte över hur den ska hanteras.

Public entrepreneurship is the process of introducing innovation, the generation and implementation of new ideas, in the public sector. Building on this definition and drawing from a logical tree, four types of public sector entrepreneurs are identified: policy entrepreneurs, bureaucratic entrepreneurs, executive entrepreneurs; and political entrepreneurs. Policy Entrepreneurs, outside the formal positions of government, introduce and facilitate the implementation of new ideas into the public sector. Bureaucratic Entrepreneurs occupy non-leadership positions in government and introduce and implement new ideas from their particular vantage point in public organizations. Executive Entrepreneurs from their leadership positions in governmental agencies and departments, generate and implement new ideas; and finally, Political Entrepreneur introduce and implement new ideas as holders of elective office. (KR) Office of the Secretary of Defense http://archive.org/details/publicentreprene00robe MIPR DWAM 70105/80078/9005 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.