How Policy Network Analysis Is Used to Analyze Policy - Coursework Example

Each of the approaches has its own strengths and advantages but all four fail to recognize that any attempt to use policy networks as an explanatory variable involves three dialectical relationships – one between structure and agency, another between network and context, and the third relationship between network and outcome (Ibid). Dialectic relationship is defined as the interactive relationship between two entities in which one affects the other in a continuing iterative process. This process influences the strategic knowledge of both actors as well as the structured context, which in turn shapes the agent’s future action. The implications are that policy network analysis may not be the foolproof method of policy analysis that it is made out to be. Nonetheless, it is attracting considerable interest in the policy-making arena because it expands the concerns of policy research previously confined to options directly or indirectly related to an issue.

Analysis of policy with the use of the policy network concept involves theoretical approaches in a wide range of disciplines including political science, sociology, anthropology, international relations and management (Sutton, 1999). By putting political science theories at work, the process looks at policy networks as epistemic communities that can help develop an understanding of the role of various interest groups in the undertaking. The concept of an epistemic community is important, especially in knowledge-based theories, because it can influence four stages of the policy process – policy innovation, diffusion, selection and persistence (Hasenclever, et al., 1997).

These epistemic communities are likely to take a strong stand on the policy decisions, and once politicians agree with this position, the latter is expected to invite experts into the circle of power, thus giving such communities an opportunity to have a substantial influence on the policy process (Ibid). From the sociological viewpoint, policy networks are classified as either corporatist, state-directed, collaborative, or pluralist, which essentially differ in their degree of integration. The networks with the greatest level of integration are the so-called “Iron Triangle” coalitions in the US, which are state-directed communities composed of congressional subcommittees, interest groups and government bureaus pursuing a mutually supportive relationship (Dowding, 1995).