Analysing Policy Subsystems, Beliefs, and Coalition Stability Under Crisis Conditions

• In Event: National Policymaking

Abstract

The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has advanced our understanding of coalitions and policy change. Yet, complex policy issues like the COVID-19 pandemic challenge some of the framework’s assumptions. For instance, the ACF treats policy subsystems as siloed arenas, but public problems often transcend issue boundaries. This forces policy actors to engage issues across multiple, overlapping subsystems. Similarly, although coalitions persist in policy processes, individual coalition members, such as principal and auxiliary actors, may fluctuate over time. Thus, coalition stability at the aggregate level may not necessarily apply to individual participants.Using Ghana’s COVID-19 policy processes, this study addresses these gaps by answering three research questions: (1) To what extent do policy actors engage issues across overlapping policy subsystems? (2) How does a crisis affect the ebb and flow of policy actors’ belief expression? (3) To what extent are principal and auxiliary actors stable in the policy process? We combine descriptive and inferential network methods to analyze 1,092 policy statements drawn from two years of longitudinal news coverage from two influential outlets in Ghana: Daily Graphic and CitiFM Online.Findings suggest that the complexity of the pandemic facilitated policy actors’ engagement with multiple subsystems, that belief expressions wax and wane with crisis intensity, and that principal actors are more likely to sustain coalition stability compared to auxiliary actors. More specifically, actors expand their engagement across policy areas during periods of uncertainty, indicating adaptive behavior in response to changing conditions. Belief expression also varies over time, increasing during critical policy moments and declining as issue salience decreases. Auxiliary actors tend to participate intermittently, whereas principal actors exhibit more consistent involvement in the policy process.Theoretically, the study contributes by showing how issue complexity shapes policy actors’ behavior. It further refines the ACF by highlighting the permeability of subsystem boundaries and the dynamic nature of coalition participation under crisis conditions.

Authors

• Erzuah Nvidah, Florida International University
  Presenting Author

• Aerang Nam, Korea Institute of Energy Technology
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Kayla M. Gabehart, University of Colorado Denver
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Alex Osei-Kojo, University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
  Non-Presenting Co-Author