A Quarter Century of the Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Introduction to the Special Issue

• Published in: Policy studies journal Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 349 - 360
• Main Authors: Weible, Christopher M., Sabatier, Paul A., Jenkins-Smith, Hank C., Nohrstedt, Daniel, Henry, Adam Douglas, deLeon, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.08.2011; Policy Studies Organization; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Advocacy; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Climate policy; Coalition (Social sciences); Coalitions; Coalitions (Social sciences); Environmental policy; Historical analysis; Intergovernmental Relations; Narratives; Policy Analysis; Policy Making; Policy Reform; Policy sciences; Political aspects; Political Science; Psychology; Public Policy; Science; Scientists; Statskunskap; Studies; United States
• ISSN: 0190-292X; 1541-0072; 1541-0072
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2011.00412.x

About two decades ago, Paul Sabatier (1991) urged scholars to develop better theories and empirics for understanding policy processes. Sabatier's proposition, in collaboration with Hank Jenkins-Smith, became the advocacy coalition framework (ACF). The original version of the ACF sought to make important contributions to the policy process literature by responding to several perceived needs: a need to take longer-term time perspectives to understand policy change; a need for a more complex view of subsystems to include both researchers and intergovernmental relations; a need for more attention to the role of science and policy analysis in public policy; and a need for a more realistic model of the individual rooted more deeply in psychology rather than microeconomics. This article introduces a special edition of this journal that offers a collection of eight ACF applications that continue to test and develop the theories within the framework. Adapted from the source document.