Policy Entrepreneurs in Public Administration: A Social Network Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the role of policy entrepreneurs in promoting change in flood risk mitigation at the local level in Sweden through a comparative study of two Swedish municipalities with different approaches to flood risk governance; as a technical issue or a social issue. The municipality in which flood risk mitigation is addressed as a social issue exhibits a larger size of the network mitigating flood risk, more diverse actors involved, and a more central location of the politicians and senior management. Moreover, the analysis points to the salience of a bureaucratic policy entrepreneur in promoting this shift toward addressing it as a social issue, and shows how they use relational strategies to frame the issue as relating to climate change action. The article operationalizes sociability and credibility, two of the attributes of policy entrepreneurs, and thus, contributes to the theoretical and methodological discussion of policy entrepreneurs in general, and as they pertain to environmental policy in particular.Related ArticlesDavid, Charles‐Philippe. 2015. “Policy Entrepreneurs and the Reorientation of National Security Policy under the G. W. Bush Administration (2001‐04).” Politics & Policy 43 (1): 163‐195. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12106Shock, David R. 2013. “The Significance of Opposition Entrepreneurs on Local Sales Tax Referendum Outcomes.” Politics & Policy 41 (4): 588‐614. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12028Sidha, Zedekia, Patrick Asingo, and Justine Magutu. 2021. “Street‐Level Bureaucrats as Policy Entrepreneurs: The Nexus between Timing of Traffic Enforcement Activities and Road Safety Policy Outcomes.” Politics & Policy Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12386

Tightly coupled policies and loosely coupled networks in the governing of flood risk mitigation in municipal administrations

“…2-4 and Table 3). These differences are interesting to discuss in themselves (Petridou et al 2021), but in this paper I focus primarily on the organizing to implement the legislations for planning, water and sewage, and risk and vulnerability, which are essential for the mitigation of flood risk and tightly coupled to each other.…”

The times make a hero: Street‐level policy entrepreneurship in major crisis responses in China

“…Policy and the process of institutional entrepreneurship are inseparable, which is the basis for the institutionalization of policy thought (Bakir et al, 2021). Policy entrepreneurs have sociability and credibility (Petridou et al, 2021), whether policy entrepreneurs can play an active role depends on multiple factors, including the field‐level conditions (Safuta, 2021), the process of policy making, and the status of the actors (Henderson, 2019). For example, the “hierarchical policy entrepreneurs” in China are arranged according to two relationships: one is the proposal‐approval relationship between the policy entrepreneurs and their superiors, and the other is the command‐execution relationship between the policy entrepreneurs and their subordinates (Shi & Frenkiel, 2021).…”

Pandemic responses at the subnational level: Exploring politics, administration, and politicization in Swedish municipalities

“…The literature on policy implementation and specifically bureaucrats at different levels (see, for example, Frisch‐Aviram et al, 2018 ; Hysing & Olsson, 2012 ; Lipsky, 1980 /2010; Olsson & Hysing, 2012 ; Petridou, 2018 , 2020 ), points to the salience of these actors in making policy through the act of implementing it. Additionally, Petridou et al ( 2021 ) show that the involvement of public administrators in the framing of a policy problem does not necessarily result in its technical representation. In a case study comparing two municipalities, the authors show that the engagement of a public administration in flood risk governance resulted in the issue being framed as a broad, social issue rather than a technical one.…”