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.

The environmental, social, and economic value of Indonesia’s tropical forests has generated extensive interest and scrutiny, both local and global. International stakeholders are heavily involved in Indonesian forest policies, including in the issue of deforestation, both because of their immense interest in the Indonesian environment, and because of Indonesia’s lack of development capacity. Many of domestic and international stakeholders participating in the policy-making processes with regard to Indonesian forests have discrete views and concerns. A successful policy would be one that meets all the requirements of all such actors. This study was conducted to analyze the policy process including some questions about Indonesia’s policies for the prevention of deforestation: 1. ‘When are such policies formed?’, 2. ‘Who is involved in the policy-making process?’, 3. How are the resulting policies implemented?’ Appropriate research methods and analysis frameworks for the examination of policy processes were developed for this study and were applied to Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policies. The current study interviewed 72 of the 114 people who were involved in the policy-making process identified through this study, to analyze the means and motives that are involved in the policy-making process and to ascertain the respondents’ interactions with the other actors. The environmental contexts of the development of guidelines were examined by analyzing the streams of problems, politics, and policies through the Multiple Streams Framework to assess the manner in which the current Indonesian deforestation prevention policies have been established. Subsequently, the actors involved in the policy-making processes and the interactions between them were identified to create a structure of the policy network. Further, the parties that exert a significant influence on the deforestation prevention policy were identified. The characteristics of this policy network were confirmed, and the general network was classified into the Relation Network, Information Network and Trust Network. The result of the analyses reveals that the situation pertaining to the deforestation of Indonesian tropical forests has not substantially improved, even though the problem of forest degradation has been recognized in Indonesia for a long time now. The burden of environmental duties demanded from Indonesia by the international community has increased. As Indonesia has transformed politically from a long-standing military regime to a democratic government, its municipalities have gradually been strengthened and various levels of stakeholders including regional governments, NGO, and the private sector, have become actively invested in Indonesian policy-design. At the same time, international attention, and demand for preserving Indonesian forests have become more specific. Indonesia operated through a powerful presidential system and its president exerts much authority over the country’s society. In such a situation, the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)’s announcement at the G20 Summit in 2009 opened the Policy Window. President SBY declared that Indonesia would reduce emissions of greenhouse gas up to 41% 2020. This proclamation received much attention from both domestic and international groups, and led to sweeping changes in Indonesia’s forest policy. In all three of the above-mentioned sub-networks, the overwhelmingly powerful influence of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the main policy designer of the Indonesian deforestation prevention policy, was confirmed. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry was found to obtain the highest centrality value in the Relation Network and the gap between this actor and the other policy actors was extremely wide. However, the centrality value of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry was relatively low in the Information and Trust Networks, and this centrality was distributed to the other actors. These outcomes imply that not only the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, but also other organizations such as intergovernmental organizations and academic organizations contribute relevant information with regard to the policy, that the information dependency and trust of the other actors are decentralized, and that these other actors primarily depend on and trust international donors (e.g., World Bank, UN-REDD+ Task Force) and academics who are also interested actors in the formation of the forest policy of Indonesia. Many of the interested actors, especially intergovernmental organizations, academic organizations, NGOs, have access to the policy network of Indonesia’s deforestation prevention policy without any significant barriers. Hence, this policy network may be termed an open system. However, the internal policy actors are judged to be rigid in terms of their systems. The policy network for deforestation prevention has also emerged as a partially vertical hierarchy, as the Indonesian central government’s powerful initiative leads and directs the policy network along with a small number of other influential bodies. According to the classification of policy network types proposed by Marsh and Rhode (1992), the policy network for the prevention of deforestation in Indonesia may be described as an Issue Network with a vertical hierarchy.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>D Level Essay in Political Science, Spring Semester 2010 by Sangrid von Zedtwitz-Liebenstein. Tutor: Malin Stegmann McCallion. “Democratic Accountability in Networks”</strong></p><p> </p><p>The aim of this study is to highlight the problem of the democratic deficit in the private-public partnerships in Sweden. This is a comparative case study with four ideal types. To enhance understanding of networking and public private partnerships, the paper has a descriptive approach where the aim is to put the working method of networks and partnerships into a wider context.</p><p>The network's and partnership's social structural dependencies and the different actors involved, are discussed with reference to Multi Level Governance theory. The discussion in this study is based on the government's bill for economic growth and vitality throughout the country, <em>En politik för tillväxt och livskraft i hela landet</em> (Regeringen, 2001).</p><p>The research question that the paper answers is: How does Västra Götaland County Council try to solve the problems with accountability in their private-public partnerships?</p><p>To answer the question, the two theoretical approaches Network Evaluation Theory and Policy Network Analysis are used[Okänd för1] . The empirical material, on which the analysis is based, consist of  The Västra Götaland County Council's guidelines [Okänd för2] for evaluating private public partnerships, <em>Modell för lärande uppföljning och utvärdering</em> (Västra Götalandsregionen, 2009).</p><p>The Government Bill and the Regulation of the regional growth policy in the country show that a MLG system is being developed in Sweden, and how Sweden through it becomes embedded in the larger MLG system of EU within[Okänd för3]  the policy area.</p><p>The conclusion drawn from the study of Västra Götaland's guidelines is that the private public partnerships in Västra Götaland region Council are controlled with objectives and results these are continuously monitored for discrepancies and adjustments. The public-private partnerships often also have participation from the Västra Götaland Region Council.</p>

Abstract   D Level Essay in Political Science, Spring Semester 2010 by Sangrid von Zedtwitz-Liebenstein. Tutor: Malin Stegmann McCallion. “Democratic Accountability in Networks”   The aim of this study is to highlight the problem of the democratic deficit in the private-public partnerships in Sweden. This is a comparative case study with four ideal types. To enhance understanding of networking and public private partnerships, the paper has a descriptive approach where the aim is to put the working method of networks and partnerships into a wider context. The network's and partnership's social structural dependencies and the different actors involved, are discussed with reference to Multi Level Governance theory. The discussion in this study is based on the government's bill for economic growth and vitality throughout the country, En politik för tillväxt och livskraft i hela landet (Regeringen, 2001). The research question that the paper answers is: How does Västra Götaland County Council try to solve the problems with accountability in their private-public partnerships? To answer the question, the two theoretical approaches Network Evaluation Theory and Policy Network Analysis are used[Okänd för1] . The empirical material, on which the analysis is based, consist of  The Västra Götaland County Council's guidelines [Okänd för2] for evaluating private public partnerships, Modell för lärande uppföljning och utvärdering (Västra Götalandsregionen, 2009). The Government Bill and the Regulation of the regional growth policy in the country show that a MLG system is being developed in Sweden, and how Sweden through it becomes embedded in the larger MLG system of EU within[Okänd för3]  the policy area. The conclusion drawn from the study of Västra Götaland's guidelines is that the private public partnerships in Västra Götaland region Council are controlled with objectives and results these are continuously monitored for discrepancies and adjustments. The public-private partnerships often also have participation from the Västra Götaland Region Council.

Diploma thesis "Can Local Action Group play an important role, like partner at strategic planning, to countryside municipalities at Czech?" seeks answers to this question. The discussion about definition of countryside and its problems is described at the beginning of the thesis as actual and previous politics as well. Description of Czech constitution connected to countryside is mention next to it. After that, there is described the LEADER method and comparison between using this method at 5 different European countries. The tree of problem and actors analysis is provided later on. The short description of the theories using at thesis outputs is provided as well. The used theories are: bureaucracy theory, theory of social capital, theory of cultural determination, governance theory and policy network analysis. The describing of outputs from realized primary research is the main part of the thesis. There were carried out 17 structure talks in qualitative research and processed 509 questionnaires in quantitative research. The lot of tables and graphs are attached. Finally the 3 scenarios, like a suitable form for such a complex topic, were composed to describe answer at the primary question of this thesis in its context and complexity.