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The municipal identities and the absence of shared benefits-A case of municipal cooperationbetween Norrköping and Linköping on issues of regional airports.This is a bachelor thesis concerning airports in the region of Östergötland and policy network cooperation between the municipal Norrköping and Linköping. The municipalities have numerous times interacted in other fields of the political administration. The thesis investigates the steps that have been taken by the municipalities since the last reports that were made in this matter. Why there have not been any achievements in interactions and what may happen in the future to these airports. The result is based on empirical evidence collected from an interview study; the respondents in the interviews are politicians and public officials in both municipals.The thesis shows that the implementation process of policy networks between the municipalities have been lingering and difficult. Politicians from the municipal of Linköping have not seen the benefits of a jointly owned operating company for the airports, while the politicians from the municipal of Norrköping has not worked proactive in the matter. The final conclusion of the thesis is that the two regional airports today are to varied in their structures to be able to corporate and the only output that came from the reports in this matter was an informal partnership agreement in marketing.

Climate change is one of the most important and urgent issues of our time. Since 2006, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. China’s role in an international climate change solution has gained increased attention. Although much literature has addressed the functioning, performance, and implications of existing climate change mitigation policies and actions in China, there is insufficient literature that illuminates how the national climate change mitigation policies have been formulated and shaped. This research utilizes the policy network approach to explore China’s climate change mitigation policy making by examining how a variety of government, business, and civil society actors have formed networks to address environmental contexts and influence the policy outcomes and changes. The study is qualitative in nature. Three cases are selected to illustrate structural and interactive features of the specific policy network settings in shaping different policy arrangements and influencing the outcomes in the Chinese context. The three cases include the regulatory evolution of China’s climate change policy making; the country’s involvement in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) activity, and China’s exploration of voluntary agreement through adopting the Top-1000 Industrial Energy Conservation Program. The historical analysis of the policy process uses both primary data from interviews and fieldwork, and secondary data from relevant literature. The study finds that the Chinese central government dominates domestic climate change policy making; however, expanded action networks that involve actors at all levels have emerged in correspondence to diverse climate mitigation policy arrangements. The improved openness and accessibility of climate change policy network have contributed to its proactive engagement in promoting mitigation outcomes. In conclusion, the research suggests that the policy network approach provides a useful tool for studying China’s climate change policy making process. The involvement of various types of state and non-state actors has shaped new relations and affected the policy outcomes and changes. In addition, through the cross-case analysis, the study challenges the “fragmented authoritarianism” model and argues that this once-influential model is not appropriate in explaining new development and changes of policy making processes in contemporary China.

This thesis contrasts the equine policy networks and organisational landscapes of the horse industry in England, Sweden and the Netherlands. In order to analyse each network the conceptual framework offered by the Marsh-Rhodes policy network typology is adopted, while the dimensions of membership, integration, resources and power are specifically considered. The origins and development of each policy network studied are analysed, along with an appraisal of their inherent characteristics. The cultivation and maintenance of consistency, communication and collaboration within a diverse policy network are examined. In addition, the influence of a diverse policy network on policy decision making is explored. The importance of relationships between key individuals within policy networks is analysed, along with the significance of the micro and macro levels of the networks. Finally, the future development of the equine policy network and horse industry in England for the benefit of interest groups and the government is considered. Within each policy network a specific organisation which acted as the mouthpiece for interest groups within the network to the government was identified. However, the structure of each of these bodies and their mode of operation differed considerably between countries. In Sweden and the Netherlands, the connection between the equine and agricultural policy networks was shown to be significant in the development of the relationship between interest groups within the horse industry and the government. In both countries an organisation from the agricultural sector expedited the development of this relationship. The level of government intervention and financial support afforded to each horse industry varied. Significant differences in key sub-sectors of each of the policy networks studied, specifically sport and recreation, and breeding, were identified, while recent developments in the European-wide equine policy network were also examined.

Background: With almost 80,000 Europeans estimated to die annually from the consequences of exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) and over a quarter of all Europeans being exposed to the toxins of cigarette smoke at work on a daily basis, SHS is a major European public health problem. Smoke-free policies, i.e. policies which ban smoking in public places and workplaces, are an effective way to reduce exposure. Policy options to reduce public exposure to SHS were negotiated by European Union (EU) decision makers between 2006 and 2009, resulting in the European Council Recommendation on smoke-free environments. A variety of stakeholders communicated their interests prior to the adoption of the policy. This thesis aims to analyse the engagement and collaboration of organisational stakeholders in the development of the Council Recommendation on smoke-free environments. Methods: The case study employs a mixed method approach to analyse data from policy documents, consultation submissions and qualitative interviews. Data from 176 consultation submissions serve as a basis to analyse the structure of the policy network using quantitative network analysis. In addition, data from these submissions, selected documents of relevance to the policy process and 35 in-depth interviews with European decision makers and stakeholders are thematically analysed to explore the content of the network and the engagement of and interaction between political actors. Results: The analysis identified a sharply polarised network which was largely divided into two adversarial advocacy coalitions. The two coalitions took clearly opposing positions on the policy initiative, with one coalition supporting and the other opposing comprehensive European smoke-free policy. The Supporters’ Alliance, although consisting of diverse stakeholders, including public health advocacy organisations, professional organisations, scientific institutions and pharmaceutical companies, was largely united by its members’ desire to protect Europeans from the harms caused by SHS and campaign for comprehensive European tobacco control policy. Seemingly coordinated and guided by an informal group of key individuals, alliance members made strategic decisions to collaborate and build a strong, cohesive force against the tobacco industry. The Opponents’ Alliance consisted almost exclusively of tobacco manufacturers’ organisations which employed a strategy of damage limitation and other tactics, including challenging the scientific evidence, critiquing the policy process and advancing discussions on harm reduction, to counter the development of effective tobacco control measures. The data show that the extent of tobacco company engagement was narrowed by the limited importance that industry representatives attached to opposing non-binding EU policy and by the companies’ struggle to overcome low credibility and isolation. Discussion: This study is the first that applies social network analysis to the investigation of EU public health policy and systematically analyses and graphically depicts a policy network in European tobacco control. The analysis corroborates literature which highlights the polarised nature of tobacco control policy and draws attention to the complex processes of information exchange, consensus-seeking and decision making which are integral to the development of European public health policy. The study identifies the European Union’s limited competence as a key factor shaping stakeholder engagement at the European level and presents the Council Recommendation on smoke-free environments as an example of the European Commission’s successful management of the policy process. An increased understanding of the policy network and the factors influencing the successful development of comprehensive European smoke-free policy can help to guide policymaking and public health advocacy in current European tobacco control debates and other areas of public health.

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.

Citizen proposal is one of many participation governance arrangements introduced the last few decades in Sweden in order to improve communication between local government institutions and citizens. In 2002 citizen proposal was introduced by the state, thus making it possible for the municipalities to allow citizens and other inhabitants to come up with proposals to the elected. In 2007 the law was revised and now gave the municipalities opportunity to delegate decision-making related to citizen proposals to the committees [nämnder/styrelser]. This study examines the implementation of citizen proposals in Kumla municipality 2002-2019. First analysing the arguments raised by the municipality to implement citizen proposal in Kumla, it then proceeds to show how it was implemented before and after the revision of the law that gave opportunity to delegate decision-making to the committees and what consequences it had on the content of the decisions. The study ends by showing how and why Kumla municipality decided to repeal the citizen proposal in favour of another kind of citizen participation.

This thesis focuses on the case study of Kao-Pin River restoration movement. The first phase of this research uses R.A.W. Rhodes' policy network typology to categorize the complicated membership of participants of the movement. The second uses Marsh & Smith¡¦s dialectical model of policy network theory to analyze the complicated interactions, for instance, protest, alliance, competition, and coordination, between governments, professionals, environmental groups and interest groups. The research goes on to verify the mutual interaction of environmental policy, policy network, participant, and policy outcomes of Kao-Pin River governance. The alliance of Kao-Pin River restoration movement, anti-dam movement, opposition to petrochemical and steel works has been so far the biggest social movement of southern Taiwan. Almost every southern environmental group and all levels of government were involved in the movement. Environmental groups were usually disadvantageous minority within the policy-influential participants. In order to influence policy outcome, it is essential for environmental groups to mobilize dispersed social resources, organize intense interactive network, to gain legitimacy and public trust, and attract public attention to environmental issues. This research finds that Kao-Pin River restoration movement successfully takes advantage of power contradiction between different levels of governments, and different departments of the government; utilizes the support of local government, cooperates with scholars, experts and media to build up an intense network, to advocate sustainable river maintenance policy of water resources, against highly water-demanded industries, bureaucracy, and the authority. The environmental activists first utilized the media support to gain legitimacy and representation for river protection. Second, they allied with media, congressman and legislators, environmental groups, scholars and experts to formulate an issue network, and won over the support of local governments to join the network. Third, they employed the contradiction of central government to start a political struggle for water resource protection. Finally, the goal of the movement was achieved through shifting of central political power and the change of river maintenance policy. However, after the government responded to environmental activists' demands for sustainable river management and turn about relevant policy outcomes, the energy of the movement faded the alliance of issue network loosened. The main group "Green Alliance for Kao-Pin River Protection" announced disbandment in 1999, the movement entered a stage of Post-Social Movement; relevant issue groups turned to build partnership with local authority, a relationship of a kind of policy community.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a theoretically informed account of the decision-making process in mega sports events policy in Marseille. This is intended to allow an evaluation of the major theoretical frameworks developed in the Anglo-Saxon literature on urban governance and their applicability to the French local government context, and more specifically to the context of sports policy in Marseille. Following an analysis of the development of the local political culture of Marseille, the thesis undertakes a review of theoretical frameworks developed in the urban policy literature identifying three major approaches / concepts which have dominated Anglo-Saxon literature, namely the growth coalition (Logan and Molotch 1987), policy network (Rhodes 1981; 1988), and urban regime (Stone 1989) approaches. These theoretical frameworks have been little used in French urban policy literature (Le Gales 1995; 2003) and feature rarely, if at all, in French sports policy literature. In reviewing this literature the thesis identifies a set of indicators, which may be used in empirical contexts to differentiate growth coalitions from policy networks and urban regimes. A major question for the research is thus to what extent Anglo-Saxon theoretical frameworks / concepts can be usefully employed to understand French decision-making and that of Marseille in particular. Subscribing to critical realism, the thesis aims to give an account of the mega sport event phenomena in Marseille, and of the actors' understanding and interpretation (in effect their social construction) of the phenomena. The data collected were documents for the period 1991 - 2003 from official sources (minutes and proceedings of local government and event-related bodies, reports, political speeches, and local government publications), local press coverage, and interviewees conducted with the major decision-makers. An ethnographic content analysis was made, partly employing a deductive approach based on the set of common indicators developed from the review of urban policy, and partly inductively from themes, which emerged in the analysis (Altheide 1996). The thesis concludes that while there is some evidence of the development of policy networks the specificity of the French context, and that of Marseille, with its heavily state-led approach to policy, means that the use of urban regime, and still less of growth coalition approaches, is not warranted by the evidence.