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Information exchange in policy networks is usually attributed to preference similarity, influence reputation, social trust, and institutional actor roles. We suggest that political opportunity structures and transaction costs play another crucial role and estimate a rich statistical network model on tie formation in the German toxic chemicals policy domain. The results indicate that the effect of preference similarity is absorbed by institutional, relational, and social opportunity structures. Political actors choose contacts who minimize transaction costs while maximizing outreach and information. We also find that different types of information exchange operate in complementary, but not necessarily congruent, ways.

AbstractIn this framing article for the special issue we contrast the aims and ambitions of three core approaches to elites in transnational policy networks and highlight where they have productive overlaps. The core approaches employ three distinctive theoretical lenses in their investigations: fields, hegemony, and institutions. We discuss how these approaches trace elites in transnational policymaking and associated methods, such as network analysis, sequence analysis and field theory, which highlight different aspects of how elites in transnational policy networks operate. Most of the contributions are concerned with mapping out elite careers and why career trajectories matter for field and network positions in transnational policymaking. While the contributions share this in common, we highlight the different ways in which the approaches can be used to dissect the same issues. Our contributions include pieces on the Trump administration, the professional ecologies of transnational policy elites, the treatment of transboundary political problems, the characteristics of technocratic elites, the racial and gender composition of transnational elites, and professional competition over transnational policy issues.

This paper examines features common to both policy analyses and community-power studies, focusing on the conceptualization of power, the boundary specification of the system, the content of relationships and the effects of institutional frameworks. Two community studies, `Altneustadt' and `Towertown', provide the empirical basis. The effects of the institutional frameworks on policy-domain networks and the relation between policy-domain networks and policy networks are analyzed empirically, with information relationships as the most important content of the networks. With regard to boundary specification, actors in issue-specific networks differ from the discussion partners of actors within the social system, depending on the phase in the political process. Both pluralistic approaches and structural aspects of the policy domains are analyzed. In theory, the different institutional conditions in the German and American communities lead one to expect differences that can, in fact, be demonstrated empirically.

IN ADDITION TO THE WELL-KNOWN PROGRAMME FOR FLOOD PROTECTION, DUTCH WATER POLICY CONSISTS OF TWO MAIN SUBSECTORS; WATER SUPPLY AND GROUND WATER PROTECTION, AND SURFACE WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT. IN THIS CONTRIBUTION SPECIAL ATTENTION IS PAID TO THE CHARACTERISATION OF THESE SUBSECTORS USING TWO NETWORK VARIABLES; MUTUAL COMMITMENT AND INTERRELATEDNESS. THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE OF THESE FEATURES AND THEIR RELATION WITH POLICY OPPORTUNITIES ARE EXAMINED, THE WATER SUPPLY SECTOR WAS AMALGATED INTO LARGER COMPANIES AND DEVELOPED MORE COOPERATION AS A RESULT OF THE PRESSURE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE, WHICH MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTINUE PUMPING AND BILLING. THOUGH THE SECTOR IN A SENSE BECAME MORE INTEGRATED, THIS WAS ACCOMPANIED BY AN INCREASED NEED TO DO BUSINESS WITH OTHER INTERESTS, SUCH AS AGRICULTURE. THE SURFACE WATER QUALITY SUBSECTOR ALSO MOVED FROM A VERY INTEGRATED COMMUNITY INTO A MORE OPEN STRUCTURE. THIS OPENNESS IS, HOWEVER, TO A LARGE EXTENT ORGANIZED BY THE SECTOR ITSELF, BY INCORPORATING OTHER INTERESTS IN THEIR COUNCILS AND COMMITTEES. BOTH SUBSECTORS INCREASINGLY ADOPT A CONSENSUAL APPROACH IN DEALING WITH THESE OTHER INTERESTS.

English
The subject of this article is learning processes in public policies. Twenty-eight case studies in the areas of environmental, agricultural and health policy, which were part of the Swiss National Research Programme No 27, Effectiveness of public policies, were used as a basis for studying the way in which inter organisational learning processes unfold in different policy fields (stimuli, knowledge transfer, social processes etc), the learning paths and forms of learning which can be identified within these processes and the conditions under which social processes can become successful learning processes. (The study is fully reported in Knoepfel et al, 1997. Conceptual preparatory work can be found in Kissling and Knoepfel, 1993; Kissling et al, 1994; Kissling-Näf and Knoepfel, 1994a; 1994b.)

This paper challenges a common understanding, implicit in many governance studies, that once policy networks are in place, the form of governing that follows is network governing. It is argued that policy networks may be understood as a way of organizing stakeholders and only under specific conditions may the governing mode in which the networks operate be termed network governing. Consequently, policy networks may subsist under other governing modes, for example, under a hierarchical mode. The present study uses actor‐centred case studies in the area of Danish employment policy. Employment policy in Denmark is municipally implemented and the study found that the local governing mode was determined mainly by the municipality's approach to local co‐governing. Less important, but nevertheless significant, is the capacity and interest of key private actors. Thus it is argued that nationally mandated local policy networks are insufficient in themselves to assure network governing in all settings. The reasons hierarchical governing modes prevail over those of network governing are identified and discussed in terms of agency and structure.

The author assesses the theoretical & methodological utility of concepts of policy network analysis. He focuses on David Marsh & Martin J. Smith's (2001) dialectical approach to policy study, which aspires to resolve the limitations of overly abstract megalevel theories as well as those of microlevel theories that tend to overly localize policy study. However, Marsh & Smith's approach has its own limitations in that, primarily, it is insufficiently dialectical. The author endorses the dynamic, pluralistic, & nontotalizing potential of the dialectical model & urges its further theoretic refinement. 2 Figures, 16 References. K. Coddon