William D. Coleman

Strong States and Weak States: Sectoral Policy Networks in Advanced Capitalist Economies

The theme of strong and weak states has recently figured largely in comparative political economy. However, significant variation across sectors in single countries in the degree to which the state is able and willing to intervene in the economy has led to calls for a disaggregated view of the state, with more attention devoted to the different levels – micro, meso, macro – at which the state confronts the economy. The concepts of strength and weakness must pay much greater attention to specific bureaucratic arrangements and the relationships with key societal actors which, in company with bureaucratic agencies, form the core of ‘policy networks’ at the sectoral level. The article uses the concepts of state capacity and societal mobilization to identify six ideal typical policy networks at the sectoral level. It elaborates on the organizational logic associated with these policy networks by examining them in conjunction with industrial policy. After distinguishing between two approaches to industrial policy – anticipatory and reactive – it shows how different policy networks emerge to support alternative approaches and how a disjunction between networks and approaches can produce policy failure.

Paradigm Shifts and Policy Networks: Cumulative Change in Agriculture*

This article presents an alternative trajectory to policy paradigm change to that outlined by Peter A. Halls social learning model, in which unsuccessful efforts by state officials to respond to policy failures and anomalies in the existing paradigm eventually trigger a broader, societal, political partisan debate about policy principles. From this society-wide contestation over policy goals, problems, and solutions, a new policy paradigm emerges. Drawing on the conceptual tools of policy feedback and policy networks, this article describes an alternative route to paradigm shift in which change is negotiated between state actors and group representatives. Discussions of change are largely confined to sectoral policy networks and the result is a more managed series of policy changes that culminate in a paradigm shift. This argument for a second, cumulative trajectory to paradigm shift is developed by examining agricultural policy change in three countries: the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Internationalized Policy Environments and Policy Network Analysis

The importance of horizontal coordinating governance arrangements in the internationalized policy domains that occur more frequently in the present globalizing era justifies building further on middle-level theories that draw on the policy community/policy network concepts. This reconceptualization, however, requires an explicit integration of policy paradigms and political ideas into policy community theory and careful attention to the differential impact of varying governance patterns in internationalized policy domains. This article pursues these objectives beginning with a review of existing literature on policy communities and policy networks. Next, drawing on recent research on policy paradigms and political ideas, it suggests how policy community concepts might be adapted for the study of policy change. Four types of internationalized policy environments are then identified and their implications for policy communities and policy networks are assessed. The article concludes by introducing the concept of policy community mediators and discussing how they might shape the relationships among multiple policy communities.

Financial services, globalization and domestic policy change

List of Tables - List of Figures - Preface - Acknowledgements - List of Acronyms - Financial Globalization, Political Institutions, and Democracy - Comparative Structures of Financial Services - Financial Services, Interest Intermediation, and Political Power - State Capacity, Political Power, and Policy Networks - France: Relaxing Dirigisme - Germany: Protecting Bank Power - USA: Booting the Ball? - UK: Threadneedle Street Ascendant - Canada: Federalism and Bank Power - Conclusion - Appendix 1: Project Interviews - Appendix 2: Structural Data on Financial Services Interest Associations - Bibliography - Index

From protected development to market liberalism: paradigm change in agriculture

ABSTRACT In the post-war period, most Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states followed a developmental policy paradigm in the agricultural sector. Using protection against international competition, regulation of prices and markets, and various structural measures, governments sought to promote a more productive, efficient agriculture, all the while sparing farmers from income instability. None the less, drawing on a comparison of France, Germany and the United States, the article demonstrates that the role of the state under the developmental paradigm varied depending on the ideas guiding policy-makers. These varying state roles become evident in a comparison of agricultural structural policies between 1995 and 1985. The differences among states in the institutionalization of the developmental paradigm, in turn, leave distinctive policy repertoires in place that differ in the obstacles they place in the way of a paradigm shift toward market liberalism. With fewer such obstacl...

The state, business, and industrial change in Canada

The late twentieth century has seen profound changes in the character of the international economic order. According to the authors of this study, Canada has failed to come to terms with those changes. Our industrial policy is diffuse, ad hoc, and sectoral. Michael Atkinson and William Coleman argue that in order to analyse Canadas industrial policy effectively, particular attention must be given to industry organization, state structures, and systems of interest intermediation at the sectoral level. To make such an analysis they introduce the concept of policy network, and apply it to three types of industrial sectors: the research-intensive sectors of telecommunications manufacturing and pharmaceuticals; the rapidly changing sectors of petrochemicals and meat processing; and the contracting and troubled sectors of textiles, clothing, and dairy processing. Through the lens of these sectors Coleman and Atkinson shed considerable light on the intersection of political considerations and policy development, and offer a new base on which to move forward in planning for economic growth.

The 1992 CAP Reform, the Uruguay Round and the Commission: Conceptualizing Linked Policy Games

Over the past decade, most OECD countries have begun to reform fundamentally their agricultural policies. Some dispute has emerged over the extent to which policy-making at the international level has triggered and shaped these reforms. These disputes raise important theoretical questions about how we theorize and test for the degree of interdependence between international, European Union (EU), and domestic policy change. The concept of autonomous, linked games is offered as a possible theoretical route to follow, a route that also permits more systematic consideration of two possible roles of international organizations in policy-making: international mediators and entrepreneurial leaders. Drawing on these concepts, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is shown to be significantly shaped by proposals and outcomes in the international negotiations on agriculture during the GATT Uruguay Round, with the European Commission (EC) playing an entrepreneurial leader role.

Business and Politics: A Study of Collective Action

Based on a survey of all national business associations, and interviews with many interest-group executives, Business and Politics outlines the wide variety of roles assumed by interest groups in the Canadian policy process. Coleman argues that the present fragmention of business interests makes consultation with major socio-economic producer groups highly unlikely. Instead, adjustment takes place as a series of ad hoc bailouts related to an electoral calculus rather than to a more reflective consideration of the longer-term evolution of the Canadian economy and the relative economic position of Canadians. As there are no organizations that prompt business to take a broad look at its responsibilities to society at large, some economic policy options that political leaders might want to consider are ruled out. Attempts to redress difficulties in the Canadian economy and social welfare system consequently suffer. Coleman concludes that the business community is not appropriately accountable to Canadians for its actions, nor is it sufficiently organized to assume the political responsibilities that come with the private economic power it possesses. He argues that Canada could benefit from examining models of the political institutions in smaller European states and adopting some of their solutions for reform in this country.

Policy convergence and policy feedback: Agricultural finance policies in a globalizing era

In a comparative study of five countries: Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the UK, and the USA, this article examines the degree of convergence of agricultural credit policy content, policy instruments, and policy outcomes on a market liberal model. It shows that all five countries have moved toward market liberal policy arrangements over the past quarter century of globalizing and domestic fiscal pressures, but important differences in policy remain. The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom move further toward a market liberal model than do Australia, Canada, and the USA. The distinct national paths taken to market liberalism give rise to policy feedback that hastens or retards the adoption of a fully market liberal system. Historical choices of policy instruments and path dependence help account for continuing policy divergence.

Policy Convergence in Banking: a Comparative Study

The relationship between global economic integration and policy convergence in banking is examined in five countries: Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Focusing upon policy styles and modes of policy-making, considerable convergence in membership of policy communities and some convergence in the organization of state agencies is found. When it comes to policy networks, there is more limited convergence on a corporatist mode of policy-making in banking. Policy style may not be as responsive to international economic changes as policy goals, policy content, and policy instruments.