Document Type : Research Paper
Author
PhD of Public Policy, University of Tehran
Abstract
Purpose: The present article is an attempt to describe the elementary forms of policy network in public policy and policy making. Government is actually not the cockpit from which society is governed and that policy making processes rather are generally interplay among various actors. Networks provide platforms where highly interdependent policy actors are contacted and interact frequently to deal with common problems. “The resulting formal and informal interactions have the potential to increase policy effectiveness at less cost than authority-based structural changes arrived at through formal reorganization”. Policy networks are Clusters of actors, each with an interest, or stake in a given policy, and the capacity to determine policy success or failure. The policy network concept is strongly influenced by inter-organizational theory, which stresses actors are dependent on each other because they need each other’s resources to achieve their goals. Policy networks are “relatively stable sets of private and public organizations that negotiate in a horizontal, coordinating manner.” Actors converge around various policy problems and interact through the sharing of information, expertise, and political support. The types of networks that form depend on the balance of political power and resources between private and public actors. Policy network analyses attempts to explain policy development by examining networks of actors concerned with a given policy problem across public and private sectors.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Studies of networks had been “guided primarily by two theoretical perspectives: resource dependence and related exchange perspectives. The policy network approach focuses attention on the interaction processes between interdependent actors and the complexity of objectives and strategies as a consequence of that interaction. The functioning of networks can be addressed using this network analytical approach, since we defined functioning as the process by which certain network conditions lead to certain network outcomes. In network analysis, the ‘nodes’ and ‘relations’ - that comprise the network - gets analyzed and explained.
Findings: In political science, networks are often interest groups. Public management network researchers have attempted to develop a network management paradigm comparable to the hierarchical organizational authority paradigm of bureaucratic management. There are three main approaches to using the network concept: Policy networks as a specific form of governance, Typologies of network structure in a policy subsystem and Formal network analysis. Network Management is a form of management consisting of coordinating strategies from different participants with varied goals and preferences in regards to a problem/policy measure within an inter-organizational network. Number of actors involved, Complexity of policy networks, Degree that network is self-referential, Absence of conflicts of interest, and the Cost involved affect success . Each of dimensions of policy network performance can be linked to the costs of policy networks. Policy networks goes beyond the one-dimensional new public management conceptualization of performance that focuses on efficiency and effectiveness
Originality/Value: To sum up, this essay is an insightful and intuitive one for anybody who wants to ponder on the different and various dimensions of policy network in formulation of policies and policy making.
Keywords
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