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It has often been claimed that, during the 1980s and early 1990s, the new right think tanks - namely the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), and Adam Smith Institute (ASI) - had a major impact on policy-making and policy change. This thesis addresses such claims by examining three reforms in which the new right think tanks have been attributed an influence - bus deregulation, education reform, and prison privatisation. It seeks not only to empirically assess their impact, but also to relate these findings to the policy-making literature, in particular the Rhodes Model which emphasises policy continuity and the Advocacy Coalition Framework which seeks to explain policy change. It is argued that the new right think tanks had an impact on all three policy changes, as members of "advocacy coalitions", although the nature and extent of this impact varied. In some cases, the TEA, CPS, and ASI were able to have a direct impact on policy change, obtaining access to policy-makers through coalition allies. In other cases their impact was indirect, in shaping the broader "climate of ideas". The new right think tanks also contributed to new patterns of policy formulation, although there is limited evidence of any long-term structural impact on policy-making in these areas. It is also argued that the case studies raise a number of issues for the Rhodes Model and the Advocacy Coalition Framework, although these could be addressed by integrating the two to develop an approach to account for both policy continuity and policy change.

Abstract As for the macro-analysis level, the traditional statist theory, on the research for economic development of East Asia industrialized countries, has revealed that the State can play an important role in the process of economic transformation and development. Particularly, the State can appropriately use industrial policies to accelerate the accumulation of the nation¡¦s wealth and to accomplish a striking economic achievement. However, the State-centred theory assumes the separation between the state and society; (State-centred theory or Society-centred theory) and regard the state as an independent unity. In this way, the theory is inevitably become limited and over-simplified. Thus, the state-centred theory fails to make a reasonable explanation on why (economic) society is thoroughly willing to follow each state-oriented step. Moreover, the theory disregards the true motivation behind the economical performance of East Asia countries. With the process of political democratization and economical liberalization, the state-centred theory is challenged and questioned. Scholars now have to seriously regard the relationship between state and society as embedded one rather than insulated one. They find that the reason for successful economical transformation in East Asia lies not only in states industrial policy (institutional arrangement) but in the social force. Since the state and society are interrelated¡Xits connecting mechanism, policy networks¡Xthe state-centred theory has recently emphasized the study of policy networks. In the process of Taiwan textile industrial development, the state always takes up the role of a creator and participant. Though nowadays the leading role and competitive edge of textile industry on Taiwan¡¦s economy are no longer there, can we directly claim that the textile industry has become a kind of ¡§sunset industry¡¨? The main purpose of this research is to make a defense for the false impression on Taiwan¡¦s textile industry as a ¡§sunset industry¡¨. The study hopes to take off the vile of so-called ¡§sunset industry¡¨ on Taiwan¡¦s textile industry, and to argue it as a ¡§sunrise industry¡¨. Doubtlessly, the developmental experience of Taiwan¡¦s textile industry is a successful model which shows the embedded relationship between the state and society. The thesis plans to take the static dimension of institutional process (such as organization, funds, quota institution, and function) and the dynamic dimension of behavioral process as subject of a case study; and goes further to analyze the interaction among state, Taiwan Textile Federation and textile industries.

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Thesis (M.M. (Public Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Governance, 2014. / This explanatory sequential thesis examined the Minerals Energy Complex (MEC) as a network of policy stakeholders in South Africa’s beneficiation policy adopted in 2011. The MEC is a set of well-developed industries and institutions that have developed around the mining, energy and financial sectors of the South African economy. The MEC, as Fine and Rustomjee (1996, p. 5) see it, evolves over time depending on the balance and distribution of power amongst stakeholders in the mineral sector. This thesis found evidence that the MEC as it exists 2014 has evolved into a policy network of participant stakeholders in the beneficiation policy. The thesis employed network analytic techniques by combining qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The combination of the two methodologies allows a researcher to utilise findings from different data sets; thereby increasing the comprehensiveness of the study, as pointed out in the literature by Fischer (2011). As Coviello (2005) has illustrated, policy networks can be meaningfully examined with a bifocal lens that integrates both qualitative and quantitative analytic techniques relevant to understanding network structure, relationships between network participants and dynamics of these relationships. The data results derived from research methodology unpacked how the MEC as a policy network of stakeholders is constituted and operates in terms of the resources exchanges around the beneficiation policy. Since the research proposition argued that stakeholders in possession of highly valued resources in the MEC policy network are likely to exercise higher levels of influence in the implementation dynamics of the beneficiation policy, the results generated revealed a limited number of influential stakeholders in the MEC policy network. Against this background, the thesis detailed the type of influence stakeholders may exert, along with their level of interest in the implementation of the beneficiation policy.

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This study provides insights into the behavior of an environmental policy subsystem. The study uses neural network theory to model the Gulf of Mexico Program's allocation of implementation funds. The Gulf of Mexico Program is a prototype effort to institutionalize a policy subsystem. A project implementation fund is at the core of the Gulf of Mexico Program. The United States Environmental Protection Agency provides the implementation fund and the Mexico Program Office (GMPO) administers it. The GMPO uses the implementation fund to encourage other federal, state, local, and private organizations to undertake projects designed to improve the environmental quality and economic vitality of the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding region. The implementation fund constitutes a program "portfolio" and is the Gulf of Mexico Program's primary means of influencing policy. The way a policy subsystem manages its program portfolio through the allocation of fiscal resources provides important insights about its priority concerns and dominant actors. The benefits of this study are threefold. First, the study offers an initial systematic description and analysis of the Gulf of Mexico Program and its policy implementation process. Second, using the Gulf of Mexico Program as a prototype, the study sheds new light on why and how policy subsystems formulate and implement policy. Finally, the study provides a means to assess the value of neural network theory as a technique for modeling and analyzing policy subsystem behavior. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the process of implementation of the FA's Charter Standard scheme in England. The football development scheme, for schools and clubs, is the first nationally led initiative to attempt instantiate structures and minimum standards of practice at the junior level of football in England. Implementation of the scheme has taken place within the context of New Labour s modernising drive for sport. Moreover, the area of grassroots football has escaped any sustained analysis in academia. Therefore, the thesis aims to provide insights into this area and re-dress the balance somewhat from the pre-occupation of analysing the elite levels of the game. The nature of implementation is complex and multi-faceted, and a primary aim of the study is to identify and analyse the dynamics of implementation in three distinct geographical areas (or clusters) of grassroots football. The study focuses on the meso level of analysis, which centres on the structures and dynamics of relationships between County FA personnel, grassroots football volunteers, teachers and sport development professionals whose responsibility it is to implement the Charter Standard. The macro level of analysis is also briefly considered, where the primary concern is to highlight how such individuals are constrained or facilitated in implementing the Charter Standard, and the relative positions of power they occupy. A qualitative methodology is utilised to elicit data in respect of implementation, generating themes and issues specific to each of the three case studies (or clusters), allowing for general comparisons. Within the case study approach, the dialectical approach to policy networks is applied to provide a framework in which to analyse and discuss theories and processes of implementation. This has proved useful in highlighting conflict and ambiguity between individuals regarding the ethos, and criteria within, FA Charter Standard criteria. Indeed, it is evident that implementing the Charter Standard is problematic for both professionals and volunteers within the context of modernisation. The study concludes by noting changes in the practice of grassroots football. Volunteers have been drawn into football development work which has altered their experience from a largely spontaneous, leisurely activity of choice, to one in which they are expected to conform to professionalised practices in order to implement, and gain Charter Standard accreditation for their club or school.

Doctor of Philosophy / Security Studies / David Graff / How does the social network structure of China’s Central Committee influence the direction and timing of intra-Party events, domestic policies, and foreign policies? How do changes in network structures explain specific patterns and propensities for policy change? The purpose of this study is to describe the social network structure of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee from 1922 to 2011 and to explore the relationship between changes in the network and policy trends. This study draws on policy network theory, network dynamics, Veto Player Theory and Prospect Theory which together posit that dynamic network structural characteristics influence policy outcomes. I introduce a dynamical theory of policy networks and describe some observable implications. This mixed method analysis is based on a new network dataset and follows two major lines of investigation. A structured, focused comparison of case studies associates changes in the Central Committee’s network structure in 1969, 1978, 1982, and 1997 with consequent policy outcomes and demonstrates the explanatory power of the dynamical theory. Statistical analyses of China’s foreign policies (1949-1978 and 1984-1995) and China’s domestic policies (1984-1995) suggest the dynamical theory is generalizable. Changes in paramount leader and potential competitor centralities and Central Committee centralization are important causal factors explaining the timing and type of intra-Party, domestic, and foreign policies.

Esta dissertação se debruça sobre a formulação da agenda, o processo de tramitação, de aprovação, e de constituição de uma rede de apoio ao Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), sob a perspectiva da literatura de políticas públicas e ativismo. O MCI foi proposto em 2009, pelo Executivo, a partir de uma consulta pública realizada via Internet. Em 2013 o projeto foi colocado em regime de votação urgente no Congresso Nacional como resposta política às denúncias de espionagem eletrônica por parte dos EUA, sendo finalmente aprovado no início de 2014. A lei foi considerada pioneira por estabelecer direitos e responsabilidades entre os diversos entes que compõem o ecossistema da rede. Para analisar a formulação da agenda é utilizado o conceito de “janela de oportunidades” de Kingdon (2013), que designa o momento em que há a convergência de fluxos independentes da política pública. Para analisar o ativismo e a mobilização dos atores em torno das políticas de Internet é utilizado o conceito de insurgent experts, proposto por Shaw (2011). Para a realização do trabalho foram entrevistados 37 atores-chave ao longo de 2013 e 2014. A conclusão é que houve a constituição de uma policy community que mobilizou Estado e estabeleceu laços de cooperação entre atores individuais e coletivos em torno de ideais sobre as políticas relacionadas a neutralidade da rede, a defesa da liberdade de expressão e a proteção da privacidade na Internet. / This master’s thesis is focused on the process of agenda-setting and approval of the bill “Marco Civil da Internet” (MCI), drawing from the sociological literature on public policy and civic engagement. The MCI was proposed in 2009 by the executive power through a public consultation online. In 2013, it was fast-tracked by president Dilma Rousseff after classified documents were leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the fact that the US intelligence agency had been monitoring the president's communication. The bill was finally approved in early 2014 and pioneered a new framework for a civil Internet with rights and duties. To analyze the process of agenda-setting, I use Kingdon's (2013) concept of "policy window" which addresses the convergence of independent streams of public policy. In order to analyze the civic engagement and the network formation for mobilization in support of the project, I use the concept of "insurgent experts" proposed by Shaw (2011). The corpus of analysis for this research was composed by 37 interviews with key-actors conducted from 2013 to 2014. In conclusion, I demonstrate how the constitution of a policy community around the issue of net neutrality, the defense of freedom of expression and protection of privacy on the Internet, that created the conditions for mobilization of State, creating cooperation ties among activists and policy makers for the defense of policy proposals for the Internet.