A Research Agenda for the Study of Policy Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The study of policy entrepreneurs as agents of change has developed greatly in recent years, supported by increasingly more sophisticated theoretical and empirical research. In this article, we first consider how the concept of the policy entrepreneur can be integrated into broader theories of the policy process, with particular focus on the compatibility of the concept with the narrative policy framework. We then propose that further empirical research on policy entrepreneurs focus on five tasks: (i) delimiting policy entrepreneurs as a distinct class of actor; (ii) investigating contextual factors that encourage the emergence of policy entrepreneurs; (iii) further specifying the strategies policy entrepreneurs deploy; (iv) improving the measurement of the impact policy entrepreneurs have in the policy process; and (v) identifying when policy entrepreneurs prompt widescale change. New theoretical and empirical contributions along these lines could do much to advance our understanding of agency and structure in contemporary politics.

The importance of policy narrative: effective government responses to Covid-19

“…Less attention has been paid to the role of influence strategies, framing, and narrative in the literature explaining policy change, although a shift has started (see, e.g. McBeth and Lybecker 2018;Petridou and Mintrom 2020;Weible, Sabatier, and McQueen 2009). In the case of Covid-19, there is much yet to be learned about what worked and how contextual conditions influenced outcomes.…”

Policy Entrepreneurs in Public Administration: A Social Network Analysis

“…More importantly, there are no signs of the issue transforming into a wider social issue in Staffanstorp; neither structurally nor in the qualitative data. The presence of a policy entrepreneur in Lomma is, therefore, considered significant for the marked difference between the two municipalities, which is a theme evidenced in the literature on policy entrepreneurship (see e.g., Mintrom 2000, 2019; Petridou and Mintrom 2020).…”

“…We showed how a policy entrepreneur builds a broad network, bringing others round to their own framing of the problem. Methodologically, we heed the call of Petridou and Mintrom (2020), who call for increased rigor in the identification of policy entrepreneurs. We achieved this through SNA.…”

“…The rich qualitative data complements the SNA, contextualizing it and adding nuance to it. Network analysis has been identified as a methodological way forward in the study of policy entrepreneurs and as a means to remove bias that might occur when the researcher identifies the entrepreneur based solely on qualitative analysis (Petridou and Mintrom 2020). Further, as mentioned elsewhere in this article, SNA has often been employed in conjunction with policy entrepreneurship in environmental issues as well as specifically to interrogate agency in such issues (see e.g., Calvet‐Mir et al .…”

“…Policy entrepreneurs have long been recognized within the public policy scholarship as agents of change in general (Carter and Scott 2010; Mintrom 2000; Mintrom and Norman 2009; Mintrom and Thomas 2017; Schneider and Teske 1992; Schneider, Teske, and Mintrom 1995; Sheingate 2003), and environmental policy change in particular (Huitema, Lebel, and Meijerink 2011; Ingold and Christopoulos 2015; Mintrom 2019; Kalafatis and Lemos 2017; Verduijn 2015). Further, policy entrepreneurs are integral to both canonical and more recently established theories of the policy process (Mintrom and Norman 2009; Petridou and Mintrom 2020). The policy entrepreneur is “a special kind of actor, embedded in the sociopolitical fabric, who is alert to opportunities and acts upon them; he or she amasses coalitions for the purpose of effecting change in a substantive policy sector, political rules or in the provision of public goods” (Petridou, Aflaki, and Miles 2015, 1).…”