The existing literature about the causes of welfare state change, including health care reform, emphasizes stability, yet there is evidence of remarkable changes taking place in welfare systems in much of the developing world. This study analyzes health care reform in Ghana, a country which has experienced significant path-departing changes in just four decades (1957-2003). These changes – the establishment of a National Health Service system with deep (first-dollar) coverage, the introduction of a user-fee system, and the transition to a social health insurance scheme – have been pursued despite key countervailing factors, especially the high political costs associated with them. The study argues that to adequately account for these changes, the policy process should be given special consideration, particularly through the examination of how new policy proposals moved onto the agenda; how they were formulated, adopted, implemented and sustained; and how the reformers managed the entire reform process over time. Based on this analysis, I identified three main interconnected contextual and agential explanatory factors: (a) conjunctural factors, which created windows of opportunity for the changes to occur; (b) policy entrepreneurs, whose leadership, commitment and strategies helped in taking advantage of these opportunities to propel, sponsor, design, adopt, implement and sustain the policy changes; and (c) the concentrated institutional configuration of Ghana, which limited the number and scope of the veto points available to interest groups opposed to the proposed changes. While these three factors contributed to why and how the changes occurred, I identified policy entrepreneurs’ commitment, leadership and strategies, including the feedback effects of those strategies, as the most crucial factors. The study contributes to existing health policy literature by showing how perspectives such as the window of opportunity thesis, the dynamic political process model, the historical institutionalist approach to radical policy change and, finally, the ideational scholarship on framing processes can be combined to enrich our understanding of radical policy change. The study also introduces additional mechanisms of policy change that involve the use of repressive strategies before suggesting some modifications to a number of widely-shared assumptions within the welfare state literature focusing on path dependency, globalization, partisan ideology and vested interests.

Policy coherence for development (PCD) has risen on the donor community’s agenda over the years as globalization makes it impossible to ignore non-aid policies’ impact on development. Although straightforward in theory, PCD has proven much more difficult to achieve in practice. Policy incoherence remains commonplace, even as the number of guidelines and best practices for avoiding it increase. This thesis used the Advocacy Coalition Framework to analyze two cases of policy change in Sweden and Germany, namely the adoption of the democracy criterion for arms exports and the coal phase-out respectively. The findings suggest that the current discourse about PCD among donors and donor institutions – that PCD can be achieved through better evidence and greater policy coordination – requires careful scrutiny. The Swedish and German case studies strongly suggest that bureaucratic mechanisms for PCD are insufficient to make the significant political trade-offs PCD typically demands. This analysis argues that achieving policy coherence, especially where there are significant conflicts between development and self-interest, requires political direction catalyzed by an external event. This event, or series of events, must be disruptive and focus significant public attention on the policy issue, to trigger a redistribution of power in the policy subsystem. A combination of other necessary and sufficient factors is also needed for successful policy change in favour of PCD. Institutional mechanisms cannot substitute for political will, and the current move towards a de-politicized treatment of PCD – as something that can be achieved through technocratic means – should be re-examined.

The main topic of the thesis is actors and their role in the policy change process in the transport policy of the Czech Republic. It is argued that current transport system is not sustainable and the main goal of every transport policy should be sustainable transport. There exist, however, many barriers in achieving more sustainable transport system. Institutional barriers including formal organisations as well as norms and rules and actors seem to be one of the most significant. These actors can influence and change policy. One of the theories explaining how actors can change policy is the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). The ACF suggests that actors form their policy proposals and solutions according to their belief system and create advocacy coalitions in order to pursue their goals and interests. A policy changes when a dominant coalition has been replaced by so far minor coalition representing policy alternatives or when a dominant coalition members change their attitudes towards, or a perception of, a given policy problem (e.g. local transport). Therefore, the main aim of the thesis is to find out how selected actors perceive problems of the transport policy in the Czech Republic and to identify potential advocacy coalitions through analysis of their attitudes. One of the objectives is...

This study has aimed to examine the rapid change in the issue of the Swedish conscription. In the year 2009 the government decided to abandon the national conscription and replace it with a professional army. However, in 2014 the minister of defence announced that the government would investigate the possibilities of bringing the national conscription back. John Kingdons Multiple Stream Theory aims to reveal the process of “knowing when an idea ́s time has come”, and has been applied to several policyprocesses spanning over a longer time-period. This study has a twofold purpose: to examine whether the theory can be applied to a case of rapid policy change and whether it can help explain a case of rapid change in existing policy. The method chosen in this study is processtracing through a qualitative method. The study concludes that the theory is indeed applicable to a case of rapid policy change and that the content and nature of the problemstream (what appears to be the problem) can be one explanation to rapid change in existing policy.

This thesis explores the process of elite sport policy change in three sports (swimming, athletics and sailing/yachting) in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). The nature of policy change is a complex and multi-faceted process and a primary aim of the study is to identify and analyse key sources of policy change in four elements of elite sport programming: i) the development of elite level facilities; ii) the emergence of 'full-time' swimmers, athletes and sailors; iii) the adoption of a more professional and scientific approach to coaching, sports science and sports medicine; and iv) competition opportunities and structures at the elite level. The study focuses on the meso-level of analysis, which centres on the structures and patterns of relationships in respect of three Canadian national sporting organisations (NSOs) and three UK national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) - representing the three sports cited above. The macro-level of analysis is also considered, where the primary concern is to analyse relations of power between governmenta nd quasi-governmentasl porting agenciesa nd the respective NSOs/NGBs. A case study approach is adopted, focusing on the six NSOs/NGBs, wherein a qualitative methodology is utilised in order to elicit data in respect of policy change in the four key elements of elite sport programming set out above. Within the case study approach, the advocacy coalition framework has proved useful in drawing attention to the notion of changing values and belief systems as a key source of policy change, as well as highlighting the need to take into account factors external to the policy subsystem under investigation. In Canada, it is evident that the preoccupation with high performance sport over the past 30 years, at federal government level, has perceptibly altered over the past two to three years. In contrast, in the UK, from the mid-1990s onwards, there has been a noticeable shift towards supporting elite sport objectives from both Conservative and Labour administrations. The study concludes that it is only by exploring specific sports through a comparative-analytic framework that a better understanding of policy change, within the complex and multi-layered sport policy process, might be achieved.

Every policy problem has inherent value dimensions. It is on the basis of values that a state of affairs is perceived as undesirable, and thus acknowledged as a problem. This makes the process of defining and negotiating the meaning of a problem an essentially political process. Despite this, bureaucracy and expertise have a strong, if not increasing, influence over the formation of policy problems. An objectivist knowledge view predominates within the public managerial realm, which obscures the political dimension of problem formulation, while policy problems tend to be approached as a matter of efficiency. This thesis provides an account of mechanisms that shape and constrain the way a particular policy problem is understood and addressed. It analyses how policy actors make sense of particular problems, by drawing on different discourses (scientific, institutional, popular or media). The empirical case of this thesis is the formation of public safety policy in Sweden. The understanding of the problem of unsafety within Swedish policy is shown to be intrinsically related to the research field of fear of crime. The two are mutually dependent and exert an ideational path dependency. The ideational constraints on the understanding of unsafety are further affected by the institutional setting. It is argued that the appointed institutions and the emphasis on local level have a part in fostering individualist explanations and solutions,while obviating structural interpretations of the problem. The thesis finds that when governing complex policy problems there is a need to pay closer attention to how the problem is defined and how its meaning is constrained. It is crucial to make transparent the values inherent in definitions of problems as well as in research claims. By acknowledging the entwinement of policy and research the policy formation process may become characterized by greater reflexivity, and the possibility of resolving wicked problems may enlarge.

Drastic changes have taken place in UK electricity policy over recent years as government has sought to address the challenges associated with energy security, affordability and commitments to reduce carbon emissions. This study investigates the underlying policy changes between the year 2000 and 2012, particularly the Electricity Market Reform, as the most fundamental transformation in the British power market since liberalisation, almost three decades ago. It illustrates that although this policy had revised the long legacy of market-based and technology neutral electricity policymaking, it was yet to be claimed as a wholesale paradigmatic shift, because, as of 2012, it still suffered from a form of paradigm ambivalence and socio-technical lock-in. Furthermore, this research identifies an accumulative process of policy change explaining how a complex set of dynamics transformed the UK electricity policy mix. The thesis relies empirically on conducting 53 semi-structured interviews as well as scrutinising policy documents and relevant secondary studies. The thesis draws relevant approaches within policy studies that attend to address continuity and change in policy frameworks, in particular the Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier 1999) and Policy Paradigm (Hall 1993) perspectives. The study contributes to this literature in three distinctive ways. First, it questions the adequacy of existing frameworks for conceptualising policy change in ‘large-technical’ and ‘techno-centric’ subsystems, such as electricity policy. In return, it introduces technology preference, as a policy component capturing the socio-technical elements of electricity policymaking. Second, to explain why and how such significant changes had been undergone, it forms a bridge between the characteristics of policy change and the extent that existing policies are perceived as irreconcilable policy failures. By this, it, albeit, moves beyond the conventional typology of change drivers in policy literature. Third, this research extends the emerging concept of negotiated agreement and policy compromise as a pathway to evolutionary changes (Sabatier & Weible 2007). Inspired by Institutional Change theory (Mahoney & Thelen 2010), it proposes that compromised policies are often at the risk of policy reversibility and retrenchment, subject to any shift in the contextual conditions they have originated in. Overall, the thesis provides an understanding of one of the very complex and contemporary cases for studying policy change theories.

Abstract Turkey has emerged as a major actor in the Middle East over the last decade, since the ruling party AKP came to power in 2002. Turkey is now playing a mediation role in regional conflicts and has been speaking out loudly on sensitive issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Furthermore, Turkey has established close ties with the Arab world which has suffered the relationship with its long-time ally Israel. This new presence in Middle East has been criticized by Turkey's allies in west. Critics argue that the country is about to abandon its former western relationship and strengthen their ties with the Arab world instead. This thesis has two main purposes. First, an empirical purpose which is to describe and explain changes in Turkish foreign policy towards Middle East. Second, this thesis has a theoretical purpose, aiming to make a contribution to the study field also on a theoretical level. The ambition is therefore to provide with ideas and/or modify the model of Gustavsson in order to make it more applicable of other cases of foreign policy change. The theoretical framework applied on this thesis is Jakob Gustavsson's model for explaining foreign policy change. Turkey's foreign policy change will be analyzed through a qualitative case study that focuses on the country's relations with the Middle East. Based on Gustavsson's model, possible explanations to Turkey's foreign policy change towards Middle East are structural changes in the international and national system. The end of the bipolarity system during the cold war resulted in a major structural change, thus Turkey had to adapt to the new system by hammering out a new foreign policy doctrine. In addition to this, the growing opposition to a Turkish membership within the EU is considered to be another explanation to Turkey's improved relations with the Middle East. The results shows furthermore possible explanations on a national level such as growing economy, a strong Turkish public opinion, new actors and also AKP:s ideological affinity with Muslim aspirations. The Iraq crisis, which arose in 2003 when Turkey rejected a resolution authorizing the deployment of American forces in Turkey in a war against Iraq, functions as a catalysts for the changes in Turkish foreign policy. One of the main components in the model emphasizes that the individual key actor needs to go through a change within its belief system, however the author have not found such evidence in this case and thus suggests that this part of the model becomes slightly modified or even removed. Keywords: Turkey, AKP, Ahmet Davutoglu, Middle East, foreign policy change, zero problems towards neighbors

L’avènement des enjeux environnementaux en agriculture est une tendance observable depuis les années 1990 dans l’ensemble des pays industrialisés, qui les intègrent pourtant de manière très différente à leurs politiques agricoles respectives. Cette thèse s’applique à expliquer l’institutionnalisation et l’évolution nationales différenciées de ces enjeux par le biais d’une analyse comparée entre le Québec et la France. Le cadre d’analyse proposé prend en compte à la fois les structures et les acteurs de la construction et du développement de la politique dite agroenvironnementale en étudiant spécifiquement deux variables explicatives : la configuration des politiques agricoles et le rôle des administrations publiques. L’enquête qualitative se déroule sur un temps long (1990-2013) et combine trois techniques de collecte de données : l’analyse documentaire, l’analyse de discours et l’entretien semi-dirigé. Au terme de cette thèse, force est de constater que les organisations fondatrices des politiques agricoles nationales (administration et profession agricoles) jouent un rôle de filtre des dynamiques réformatrices présentes à l’échelle globale et qu’elles « acclimatent » les référentiels de développement durable et du management public aux spécificités de leur pays et de leur secteur d’action publique. / Since the 1990s, environmental issues in agriculture have increasingly become a public policy problem in industrialized countries, notwithstanding the fact that they are integrated very differently in their respective agricultural policies. Based on this observation, this research seeks to explain the various national institutionalization and evolution paths of the so-called agri-environmental policy through a comparative analysis between Quebec and France. The analytical framework considers both the structures and the policy actors in the agri-environmental policy construction by studying specifically two variables: the configuration of agricultural policies and the role of public administrations. This qualitative research investigates a long time frame (1990-2013) and combines three data collection methods: content analysis, discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews. This thesis shows that traditional agricultural policy key players (agricultural administrations and agricultural professional organizations) act as filters of reformist ideas present globally and that they “acclimate” both the sustainable development paradigm and the new public management paradigm to the specificities of their countries and of their public policy sector.

Esta tese investiga as mudanças ocorridas nas políticas sobre drogas no Brasil e em Portugal na última década do século XX e na primeira do século XXI. O argumento central, tomado em parte dos debates existentes entre as vertentes neoinstitucionais, é que tais mudanças só podem ser interpretadas a partir do conhecimento a respeito das trajetórias históricas das políticas e sua relação com o contexto internacional mais amplo no qual estão inseridas. Desta forma, construiu-se uma narrativa a respeito das mudanças em um processo indutivo baseado em investigação empírica que se articula em torno do conceito de dependência da trajetória. Nesse sentido, a ideia central da tese é que as diferentes naturezas das mudanças nas políticas analisadas podem ser compreendidas a partir da sua contextualização histórica e da importância dos efeitos que as escolhas e decisões tomadas em um dado momento têm no desenvolvimento posterior das políticas. / This thesis investigates the changes ocurred in the drug policies in Brazil and in Portugal in the last decade of the XXth century and in the first decade of the XXIst century. The central argument, taken in part of the existing debates within the neoinstitucionalist approaches, is that such changes can only be interpreted based on the knowledge regarding the historical trajectories of the policies and its relation with the broader international context in which they are imbedded. This way, a narrative was built concerning the changes on drug policies in these both countries, in an inductive process, grounded on empirical research that articulates itself around the concept of path dependence. In this sense, the central idea of the thesis is that the different natures of the changes in the analysed policies can be understood based on its historical contextualization and the importance of the effects that the choices and decisions taken in a certain moment have in the ulterior development of the policies.