Suchergebnisse

Examines evolution and crisis of the Japanese construction industry and implications of the "iron triangle" model; 1970-2001.

Concepts referring to sectoral policy subsystems are abundant. However, few efforts are made to clarify the frequently used term 'policy field'. This paper is determined to move this notion into a more analytical direction. The central aim is to substantiate the dimensions of policy fields, their presumed effects on policy actors, and to provide an explanatory framework for stability or change. Therefore, concepts such as iron triangles and policy networks are reconsidered in order to specify the essential dimensions of policy fields. Policy fields emerge if a group of strategic actors who face a new problem generate a semi-autonomous sphere of interaction. The policy field is completed if a specific institutional setting and a set of policy ideas are added. This process is based on functional differentiation and politicization. Finally, a comparison of science, agricultural, and health policy is used to illustrate how stability and change of policy fields could be explained. Especially the perforation of policy boundaries, which allows external interests to gain influence, and a destabilization of previously homogeneous coalitions prove to be crucial variables. Adapted from the source document.