The ability of the state versus societal groups to influence the formulation of policies has
long been debated in political sociology. I suggest that historical contingency theory
provides insight to resolve this debate. I evaluate the explanatory power of societycentered,
state-centered and historically contingent theories of policy formation using the
case of deregulation of the natural gas industry. I find that capitalists in the natural gas
industry unified in response to capital accumulation crises and mobilized politically to
change their institutional arrangements to restore and expand profitability. These
changes, in turn, expanded state structures, creating powerful mechanisms for groups in
society to leverage the state to obtain favorable policy outcomes. In the natural gas
industry, the key state structure was the industry’s regulatory body. Once this structure
was created, the natural gas industry used it to leverage the state to incorporate
deregulation into its national agenda. Thus, instead of increasing state autonomy, the
creation and expansion of state structures undermines state autonomy and provides
powerful groups in society with the means to control the policy formation process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3069 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Walden, Rachel Nicole |
| Contributors | Prechel, Harland |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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