Sharpening Advocacy Coalitions

TLDR

The concept of “advocacy coalitions” is the bedrock of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), one of the most established and successful approaches for understanding policy processes across the globe. The article revisits and sharpens the definition of advocacy coalitions, summarizes lessons from the ACF and specifies five key attributes, and proposes a refined lens for better observation, theorizing, measurement, and future research. The authors summarize ACF lessons, specify five attributes, and distinguish conceptual versus empirical approaches to coalitions. The specification identifies an ideal coalition type and several subtypes.

Abstract

The concept of “advocacy coalitions” is the bedrock of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), one of the most established and successful approaches for understanding policy processes across the globe. This article revisits and sharpens the conceptual definition of advocacy coalitions. We summarize the lessons from its theoretical emphases under the ACF and specify its five attributes (policy actors, shared beliefs, coordination, resources, and stability). Through this specification, we identify the ideal coalition type and several coalition subtypes. We then clarify and make a distinction between how we think about coalitions as a concept and how we approach coalitions empirically. This article sharpens the lens for describing and explaining coalitions toward better observations, theorizing, and measurements. It ends with next steps for further deepening and broadening knowledge about advocacy coalitions.