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Paradigm Shifts and Policy Networks: Cumulative Change in Agriculture*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

William D. Coleman ,
Grace D. Skogstad  and
Michael M. Atkinson
William D. Coleman
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, McMaster University1280 Main St. W Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4, Canada Fax: 1-905-527-3071 E-Mail: coleman@mcmaster.ca
Grace D. Skogstad
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Michael M. Atkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, McMaster University
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Abstract

This article presents an alternative trajectory to policy paradigm change to that outlined by Peter A. Hall's 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.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 273 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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