Daniel Nohrstedt

The Logic of Policy Change after Crisis : Proximity and Subsystem Interaction

What mechanisms link external events to policy change in a policy subsystem? This paper responds to this question by offering a nuanced re-conceptualization of external events and by identifying the mechanisms that link disruptive crises to policy change. Building from the tenets of the advocacy coalition framework and a synthesis of the crisis management and policy change literatures, this paper (1) introduces the concept of policy and geographical proximity as a means to show how different types of crises alter the incentives for policy action within policy subsystems; (2) discusses an integrated set of proposals on how geographical and policy proximity affects the prospects of change in a policy subsystem; and (3) presents hypothesized scenarios outlining plausible intervening pathways linking a crisis to changes as contingent on policy subsystem structures.

Policy Change in Comparative Contexts: Applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework Outside of Western Europe and North America

Abstract The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) is one of the most frequently applied theories of the policy process. Most applications have been in Western Europe and North America. This article provides an overview of the ACF, summarizes existing applications outside of Western Europe and North America, and introduces the special issue that features applications of the ACF in the Philippines, China, India, and Kenya. This article concludes with an argument for the continued application of the ACF outside of Western Europe and North America and a research agenda for overcoming challenges in using the ACF in comparative public policy research.

Crisis management in transitional democracies : The Baltic experience

In this article we open the black box of governance in the new democracies by examining episodes where these governments are confronted with urgent threats that require swift and decisive state responses. This provides a unique insight into how political and administrative decision-making actually takes place. It enables us to analyse and evaluate the performance of the new institutions at times when it matters most. Specifically, we discuss how three of these new democracies, the Baltic states, have dealt with risks and crises in vital societal and political domains such as health and safety, public order, economic management and foreign policy. All belong to the core of the classic state functions.

Explaining Mobilization and Performance of Collaborations in Routine Emergency Management

Researchers as well as practitioners often elevate collaborative governance as a necessary condition for effective responses to extreme events. This research has a dominating focus on large-scale catastrophes and disasters, whereas little attention is devoted to less serious emergencies. Another void concerns performance measurement. Addressing these gaps, this study investigates plausible explanations for collaborative activity and outcomes in response to extreme winter conditions in Sweden. Analysis of a survey of Swedish public managers suggests that, in this case, collaborative action is associated with preparatory actions and disruptions affecting other organizations. The analysis generates conflicting findings regarding underlying explanations for collaborative outcomes.

Does Adaptive Capacity Influence Service Delivery? Evidence from Swedish Emergency Management Collaborations

Abstract The relationship between adaptive capacity and collaborative performance is a central issue within public management research but has rarely been subjected to systematic empirical testing. Using survey data on emergency preparedness collaborations in Swedish municipalities (N = 263), this article investigates the relationship between three adaptive capacity variables – diversity, interaction, and learning – and outcomes in terms of goal attainment, risk analysis, and public satisfaction with rescue services. The findings suggest a positive relationship between the number of collaboration partners and goal attainment, while learning and accessibility of collaboration venues were unassociated with service delivery variables.

Political drivers of epidemic response: foreign healthcare workers and the 2014 Ebola outbreak

This study demonstrates that countries responded quite differently to calls for healthcare workers (HCWs) during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. Using a new dataset on the scale and timing of national pledges and the deployment of HCWs to states experiencing outbreaks of the virus disease (principally, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), it shows that few foreign nations deployed HCWs early, some made pledges but then fulfilled them slowly, and most sent no HCWs at all. To aid understanding of such national responses, the paper reviews five theoretical perspectives that offer potentially competing or complementary explanations of foreign government medical assistance for international public health emergencies. The study systematically validates that countries varied greatly in whether and when they addressed HCW deployment needs during the Ebola crisis of 2014, and offers suggestions for a theory-driven inquiry to elucidate the logics of foreign interventions in critical infectious disease epidemics.

The Public Policy Dimension of Resilience in Natural Disaster Management : Sweden’s Gudrun and Per Storms

This chapter conducts an analysis of learning and policy change as a basis for building resilience to extreme events. Influenced by policy process theory and based on a comparative case-study of two storms in Sweden (Gudrun in 2005 and Per in 2007), the analysis poses three empirical questions: What policy beliefs changed as the result of storm Gudrun and did those changes result in any revision of policy programs? Did the observed changes positively impact the response to storm Per? And, what factors may shed light on the processes of policy change and implementation that took place in between these events? The concluding section discusses the importance of policy process analysis and the conditions related to institutionalizing experience as a basis for resilience.

Networking and Crisis Management Capacity: A Nested Analysis of Local-Level Collaboration in Sweden

Studies of how actors collaborate across organizational boundaries to prepare for and respond to extreme events have traditionally focused on describing network structure whereas fewer studies empirically investigate how network relationships influence crisis management capacities. Using survey data on crisis management work in Swedish municipalities, this study considers how the number of collaboration partners and venues for collaboration (networking) influence organizational goal attainment. Given managerial costs associated with increasingly complex collaboration networks, the study explores the diminishing returns hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between networking and goal attainment up to a certain point when payoffs do not increase. Results support a nonlinear relationship; networking at low levels had a positive effect on goal attainment whereas no relationship was found at moderate or high levels. To identify characteristics of collaboration conducive to performance, the study undertakes a comparative case study of two low-residual cases where the relationship between networking and performance follow the predicted nonlinear curve and one deviant case where high levels of networking had a positive effect on performance. The cases show that stable interpersonal relationships, clarification of the terms of collaboration, shared problem perceptions, and coordination of joint decision making constitute important assembly mechanisms for overcoming collective action problems.

An Integrative Research Framework to Unravel the Interplay of Natural Hazards and Vulnerabilities

Climate change, globalization, urbanization, social isolation, and increased interconnectednessbetween physical, human, and technological systems pose major challenges to disaster risk reduction(DR ...

Advocacy Coalition Politics and Strategies on Hydraulic Fracturing in Sweden

This chapter depicts the politics of hydraulic fracturing in Sweden through the lens of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF). The objective is to describe how the hydraulic fracturing issue in Sweden escalated from being a non-issue in 2011 into a controversial public issue involving hundreds of actors three years later. We structure the analysis using concepts and assumptions derived from the ACF regarding advocacy coalition behavior in emergent policy subsystems. The chapter is organized around the questions relating to policy and coalition status as well as the propensity for change. By answering these questions, we seek to shed light on the dynamics of policy subsystem development. As our analysis will show, the case of hydraulic fracturing in Sweden is an example of an emergent policy subsystem.