At the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun in 2010, all the industrialised countries committed to producing long-term national strategies to achieve low levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim was to meet the goal of reducing emissions by 80-95 per cent by 2050, in line with the two-degrees-goal. In February 2011, the European Commission presented a communication on a roadmap for the EU for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050. Sweden has actively supported the conclusions within the EU that countries should draw up their own roadmaps, but Sweden has not yet produced a national roadmap to 2050. This thesis examines why the Swedish government has not yet agreed on a low-carbon development strategy to 2050 in line with the agreement at the climate conference in Cancun 2010 and the directives from the European Commission. The purpose of this study is to examine why the investigation on a Swedish roadmap 2050 produced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, never reached the political decision agenda, in the Swedish parliament. The objective of the study is achieved by applying the Multiple Streams Model, a theory on policy processes and agenda setting, on the case of the Swedish roadmap 2050. The study concludes that (1) the level of political consensus is too low, especially in terms of the basic assumptions that underlie the roadmap; and (2) the document produced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency was too weak to become a bill.

La questione portante della mia ricerca è la verifica dell'eventuale appartenenza dei think tank a modelli di Comunità Epistemiche o Advocacy Coalition. La struttura della tesi rispecchia quindi parte del percorso che ho sviluppato, partendo da una analisi della definizione dell'oggetto di ricerca Think Tank, della sua struttura ed azione, con la finalità di influenzare il processo di policy making. La seconda sezione analizza gli approcci metodologici principali all'analisi del processo di formazione delle politiche pubbliche, mentre il terzo capitolo affronta la ricerca sui casi di studio selezionati: l'Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), l'Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) e lo European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). / The fundamental question supporting my research is to verify the membership of the think tank to the Epistemic Communities or Advocacy Coalition model. The structure of the thesis, therefore, reflects the path that I developed, starting from an analysis of the definition of the research think tank, its structure and action, with the objective of influencing the policy making process. The second section discusses the main methodological approaches to the analysis of the formation of public policy, while the third chapter discusses research on selected case studies: the Institute of International Affairs (IAI), the Institute for the Study of International Politics (ISPI) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Globally, nurses' contribution to informed health policy decisions is limited, as there are many barriers to Nurse led change to successfully influence the HIV and AIDS policy process. In South Africa nurses at all levels of health care are not involved or consulted during the formulation of the HIV and AIDS workplace policy. This has led to concern about the absence of nurses at the policy table. This study forms part of a larger international study programme entitled: “Strengthening Nurses’ Capacity in HIV and AIDS Policy Development in Sub–Saharan Africa and the Caribbean”. This programme of international research aims to empower nurses to become involved in the policy process (formulation, implementation and evaluation) in order to strengthen health systems in the areas of HIV and AIDS care. Nurses' absence at the policy table prompted the researcher to explore and describe barriers to Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy. Phase 1 of the research consisted of a literature review to identify barriers to Nurse led change to influence the HIV and AIDS workplace policy. Management's opinion about the human resource management capacity and problems experienced working in an HIV and AIDS environment was obtained through a quantitative and qualitative empirical method of data collection and analysis. Frontline nurses' perspective was obtained through qualitative interviewing to identify problems experienced with policy in an HIV and AIDS workplace environment. A mixedmethod triangulation research design was used to achieve the objectives of phase 1 of the study, and strategies applied included exploratory, descriptive and contextual designs. The analysis of the data contributed to the identification and classification of problems experienced by nurses to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy at macro, meso and microlevel, resulting in the formulation of fifty–nine (59) concluding problem statements. These concluding statements formed the basis for the strategy development for Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy, which was the only objective of the second phase of the research. The strategy for Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy was developed by using a strategic process to determine the vision, mission, values, principles, assumptions, strategic objectives and functional tactics based on the concluding problem statements. Finally, the research was evaluated, limitations were identified and recommendations were formulated for practice, education, research and policy. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Globally, nurses' contribution to informed health policy decisions is limited, as there are many barriers to Nurse led change to successfully influence the HIV and AIDS policy process. In South Africa nurses at all levels of health care are not involved or consulted during the formulation of the HIV and AIDS workplace policy. This has led to concern about the absence of nurses at the policy table. This study forms part of a larger international study programme entitled: “Strengthening Nurses’ Capacity in HIV and AIDS Policy Development in Sub–Saharan Africa and the Caribbean”. This programme of international research aims to empower nurses to become involved in the policy process (formulation, implementation and evaluation) in order to strengthen health systems in the areas of HIV and AIDS care. Nurses' absence at the policy table prompted the researcher to explore and describe barriers to Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy. Phase 1 of the research consisted of a literature review to identify barriers to Nurse led change to influence the HIV and AIDS workplace policy. Management's opinion about the human resource management capacity and problems experienced working in an HIV and AIDS environment was obtained through a quantitative and qualitative empirical method of data collection and analysis. Frontline nurses' perspective was obtained through qualitative interviewing to identify problems experienced with policy in an HIV and AIDS workplace environment. A mixedmethod triangulation research design was used to achieve the objectives of phase 1 of the study, and strategies applied included exploratory, descriptive and contextual designs. The analysis of the data contributed to the identification and classification of problems experienced by nurses to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy at macro, meso and microlevel, resulting in the formulation of fifty–nine (59) concluding problem statements. These concluding statements formed the basis for the strategy development for Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy, which was the only objective of the second phase of the research. The strategy for Nurse led change to influence HIV and AIDS workplace policy was developed by using a strategic process to determine the vision, mission, values, principles, assumptions, strategic objectives and functional tactics based on the concluding problem statements. Finally, the research was evaluated, limitations were identified and recommendations were formulated for practice, education, research and policy. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This thesis is a study of the processes by which domestic violence, as framed by Australian feminists from the early 1970s, was inserted into the policy agenda of governments, and developed into a comprehensive body of policy. The thesis covers the period between 1970 and 1985. Acknowledging the federal nature of the Australian polity, it examines these processes that unfolded within both the Australian Commonwealth government and the government of New South Wales. The thesis provides a political history of domestic violence policy making in the identified period. It shows that policy responses to women escaping violent partners included both immediate measures (such as protection and justice strategies) and more long-term measures to attempt to secure the conditions for women�s financial, legal and personal autonomy. The elements found to have been most significant in shaping the development of such policies were the roles and identities of the participant players, including the driving role of the women suffering partner violence; the lack of contest in the early stages of policy achievement with established professionals in related fields; the uniquely �hybrid� role and positioning of refuge feminists; and the degree of integration and continuity which characterised the domestic violence policy process. The thesis also investigates the relationship between domestic violence policy making and the broader women�s policy enterprise. It demonstrates the care with which those involved avoided the dangers of sensationalism and tokenism while striving for an appropriate policy response. The thesis pays particular attention to the circumstances in which feminists in the early 1970s experienced their �discovery� of domestic violence. It demonstrates the significance of social and economic circumstances in shaping the political options of feminists in the thesis period and those preceding it, and the extent to which policy possibilities are shaped by representations of the nature and functions of policy itself. Finally, the thesis investigates the relationship between the strategic processes undertaken and the policy outcomes produced, finding that policies achieved in the thesis period complemented and in some ways transcended accepted policy practice in the relevant period.

In response to the challenges presented by unprecedented growth in higher education (HE) since 1978, China adopted policy experimentation (PE) as a means of introducing and testing HE reforms. This study involves four in-depth case studies of important reforms facilitated by policy experiments at different junctures of China's HE development: early 1980s, mid-late 1980s, late 1990s, and early 2010s. Within each reform, two elite universities as 'experiment points' (shi dian) were selected. Through cross-case analysis informed by semi-structured interviews and extensive documentary analysis, the study offers a holistic historical perspective on how PE has been used to bring about institutional changes in China's higher education. The study documents different rationales used for implementing policy experiments. State actors use PE to exert pressure on universities to introduce reforms, to lower associated risks and to strengthen the nation's overall HE policymaking capacity in a volatile and extremely heterogeneous context. For their part, university leaders have adopted PE locally to navigate China's politically charged policymaking environment and to negotiate with state actors more favourable terms for reforms. Therefore, the PE approach enables state-university interactions and power negotiations that create and maintain 'strategy space' for consensus-building and institutional changes. It is an iterative process characterised by central-local interaction and intentionally ambiguous boundaries. The state, however, retains ultimate authority for legitimatising, selecting and expanding policy experiments. It is best understood as elite-enabled experimentation within existing political hierarchies. Over time, China's PE approach has become a semi-institutionalised mechanism for HE reforms. In the various policy experiments discussed in this study, PE functions as a productive, disciplinary and symbolic force at different stages of the policy process. Sometimes it appears to offer a genuinely productive mechanism for producing, identifying and negotiating innovative policy options that may be replicated at a larger scale; sometimes its essential use lies in its generated regulative effect; and sometimes it assumes more of a symbolic role allowing the government to acquire or consolidate reform legitimacy. Policy processes are mediated by these different uses of PE towards either reform efficacy or institutional conformity. This study situates these reforms within broader political, social, economic and historical contexts, and highlights the policy implications for higher education reform internationally.

Esta dissertação analisa questões relativas às relações entre Estado e sociedade em processos de formulação e implementação de políticas públicas no Brasil, tomando como foco da análise o processo que resultou na política de silvicultura no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Dois conjuntos de indagações orientaram o desenvolvimento da pesquisa. O primeiro diz respeito ao papel desempenhado por atores posicionados na esfera societal, especialmente as denominadas Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs) em processos de políticas públicas, e como estes atores se relacionam com agentes posicionados na esfera estatal. O segundo conjunto de indagações diz respeito à dinâmica de processos de políticas públicas marcados por alto grau de conflito, e as possibilidades de participação e influência efetiva de atores societais sobre seus resultados. Foi realizado um levantamento da literatura sociológica e da Análise de Políticas Públicas sobre o tema. Em seguida recorreu-se aos enfoques das chamadas “teorias sintéticas” do processo de políticas públicas, que destacam de um lado as dimensões dos atores, suas crenças e idéias, e de outro o papel dos contextos institucionais, e o impacto deste conjunto de fatores sobre os processos decisórios. Através de tais abordagens, se analisou uma política regulatória na área ambiental no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, referente à expansão da atividade de silvicultura na chamada “Metade Sul” do estado. Realizou-se a reconstituição da cadeia de eventos, desde a formação da agenda até as decisões finais que deram forma ao desenho da política. Observou-se que o processo da política pública foi fortemente condicionado tanto pelas “imagens da política” construídas pelos atores envolvidos quanto pela oposição entre a dinâmica eleitoral-partidária, “externa” à área ambiental, e a dinâmica dos especialistas, “interna” à área. As conclusões do estudo apontam para o fato de que as ONGs envolvidas no processo tiveram sucesso em influenciar de forma efetiva no desenho da política. Porém esta influência somente foi possível na medida em que atores provenientes do Ministério Público e do Poder Judiciário passaram a participar e influenciar no processo. Essa influência de “atores judiciais” resultou na constituição de um “subsistema de política pública”, onde a discussão sobre os rumos da política foi levada a cabo por atores dotados de recursos de expertise na área ambiental, com menor influência da lógica política partidária. / This dissertation examines issues concerning the relations between State and Society in processes of formulation and implementation of public policies in Brazil, focusing the analysis in a process that resulted in the forestry policy in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Two sets of questions guided the research development. The first concerns the role played by actors positioned in the societal sphere, especially the so-called Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in public policy processes, and how these actors relate to players positioned at the State level. The second set of questions concerns the dynamics of public policy processes marked by high conflict, and the possibilities for effective participation and influence of societal actors on their results. A survey of sociological literature and the area of public policy analysis on the topic. Then appealed to the approaches of so-called “synthetic theory” of the public policy process, which highlight the dimensions of one side of the actors, their beliefs and ideas, and the role of other institutional contexts, and the impact of all the factors on decision-making processes. Through such approaches, we analyzed a regulatory policy in the environmental area in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, referring to the expansion of forestry in the "southern half" of the state. We performed the reconstitution of the chain of events, since the formation of the agenda until the final decisions that shaped the design of policy. It was observed that the process of public policy was strongly influenced by both the "policy image" built by the actors involved as the opposition between partisan electoral dynamics, "external" to the environmental area, and the dynamics of the experts, “internal” to the area . The study's findings point to the fact that NGOs involved in the process have succeeded in effectively influencing the design of policy. But this was only possible influence insofar as actors from “Ministério Público” and the Judiciary have come to participate and influence the process. This influence of “judicial actors” has resulted in the formation of a “policy subsystem”, where the discussion about the course of policy was undertaken by actors endowed with resources of expertise in the environmental area, with less influence of actors connected to electoral politics.

Social exclusion was a defining issue for the New Labour Government when it came to power in 1997. The collaboration between sport and welfare policymakers created a favourable environment for the development of new sports projects. This thesis provides an analysis of the role of selected football projects in delivering this type of sports-based programme for young people living in deprived areas. The three objectives of this research are firstly, to provide an analysis of the national policy context between 1997 to 2014, secondly, to review the literature on policy-making and policy implementation and to identify suitable frameworks and concepts to facilitate analysis and thirdly, to provide a longitudinal analysis of three selected football projects located in areas of deprivation. This study uses a mixed method approach comprising semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence. From this, three case studies were developed using a thematic approach and analysed using a combination of multiple streams and implementation theory. The study identifies the many similarities shared by all three projects at their inception, reflecting the political priorities for tackling social exclusion through sport which was reinforced by adopting a top-down approach to project implementation. However, national political priorities changed as the New Labour Government approached the end of its term in office, and two of the three projects struggled to adapt to these changes. Nevertheless, the third project, supported by its host agency, did adapt to the changes in the political stream and maintained its original commitment to using football to address social exclusion. The study concludes that the success of the third project to adapt can be attributed to the nature of the project s host agency with its own continued commitment to social exclusion, its focus on football, its ability to retain the original project staff, its strength in fostering partnerships and in securing project funding. These factors ensured that this third football project was able to deliver sports programmes to its young people living in an area of high deprivation whilst also fulfilling its social objectives.

Esta dissertação analisa questões relativas às relações entre Estado e sociedade em processos de formulação e implementação de políticas públicas no Brasil, tomando como foco da análise o processo que resultou na política de silvicultura no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Dois conjuntos de indagações orientaram o desenvolvimento da pesquisa. O primeiro diz respeito ao papel desempenhado por atores posicionados na esfera societal, especialmente as denominadas Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs) em processos de políticas públicas, e como estes atores se relacionam com agentes posicionados na esfera estatal. O segundo conjunto de indagações diz respeito à dinâmica de processos de políticas públicas marcados por alto grau de conflito, e as possibilidades de participação e influência efetiva de atores societais sobre seus resultados. Foi realizado um levantamento da literatura sociológica e da Análise de Políticas Públicas sobre o tema. Em seguida recorreu-se aos enfoques das chamadas “teorias sintéticas” do processo de políticas públicas, que destacam de um lado as dimensões dos atores, suas crenças e idéias, e de outro o papel dos contextos institucionais, e o impacto deste conjunto de fatores sobre os processos decisórios. Através de tais abordagens, se analisou uma política regulatória na área ambiental no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, referente à expansão da atividade de silvicultura na chamada “Metade Sul” do estado. Realizou-se a reconstituição da cadeia de eventos, desde a formação da agenda até as decisões finais que deram forma ao desenho da política. Observou-se que o processo da política pública foi fortemente condicionado tanto pelas “imagens da política” construídas pelos atores envolvidos quanto pela oposição entre a dinâmica eleitoral-partidária, “externa” à área ambiental, e a dinâmica dos especialistas, “interna” à área. As conclusões do estudo apontam para o fato de que as ONGs envolvidas no processo tiveram sucesso em influenciar de forma efetiva no desenho da política. Porém esta influência somente foi possível na medida em que atores provenientes do Ministério Público e do Poder Judiciário passaram a participar e influenciar no processo. Essa influência de “atores judiciais” resultou na constituição de um “subsistema de política pública”, onde a discussão sobre os rumos da política foi levada a cabo por atores dotados de recursos de expertise na área ambiental, com menor influência da lógica política partidária. / This dissertation examines issues concerning the relations between State and Society in processes of formulation and implementation of public policies in Brazil, focusing the analysis in a process that resulted in the forestry policy in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Two sets of questions guided the research development. The first concerns the role played by actors positioned in the societal sphere, especially the so-called Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in public policy processes, and how these actors relate to players positioned at the State level. The second set of questions concerns the dynamics of public policy processes marked by high conflict, and the possibilities for effective participation and influence of societal actors on their results. A survey of sociological literature and the area of public policy analysis on the topic. Then appealed to the approaches of so-called “synthetic theory” of the public policy process, which highlight the dimensions of one side of the actors, their beliefs and ideas, and the role of other institutional contexts, and the impact of all the factors on decision-making processes. Through such approaches, we analyzed a regulatory policy in the environmental area in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, referring to the expansion of forestry in the "southern half" of the state. We performed the reconstitution of the chain of events, since the formation of the agenda until the final decisions that shaped the design of policy. It was observed that the process of public policy was strongly influenced by both the "policy image" built by the actors involved as the opposition between partisan electoral dynamics, "external" to the environmental area, and the dynamics of the experts, “internal” to the area . The study's findings point to the fact that NGOs involved in the process have succeeded in effectively influencing the design of policy. But this was only possible influence insofar as actors from “Ministério Público” and the Judiciary have come to participate and influence the process. This influence of “judicial actors” has resulted in the formation of a “policy subsystem”, where the discussion about the course of policy was undertaken by actors endowed with resources of expertise in the environmental area, with less influence of actors connected to electoral politics.

Previous research has found that voting behavior in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) can be an expression of ideological alignment or distancing from the Western or non-Western bloc. This paper investigates whether the domestic attitude towards Russia influenced the voting behavior of Zambia and Tanzania, voting on resolutions in UNGA condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 respectively. While Tanzania abstained in both votes, Zambia abstained in 2014 and voted in favor of the resolution in 2022.  Taking departure in framing theory, I seek to identify frames of Russia in Zambia and Tanzania in the two-year periods before each vote, to answer the question if a shift in public opinion can explain, or at least coincide, with their foreign policy choices. By conducting a qualitative text analysis of articles in national newspapers, I identify five different frames of Russia. The study finds that there was a shift in media framings in both Zambia and Tanzania, indicating that public opinion could explain why Zambia, but not Tanzania, changed their position. However, the study cannot conclude whether the change originated in public opinion or somewhere else, thus leaving the question of whether shifts in public opinion explain the foreign policy decision unanswered.