Come Together, Right Now: Storylines and Social Identities in Coalition Building in a Local Policy Subsystem

Abstract

How do social identities contribute to the formation of coalitions in a policy subsystem? Social identities help to understand the bundling of resources and common strategies for action. Thus, we argue that identification with a group and across groups discursively results in the formulation of shared and competing storylines. As coalitions are characterized by some kind of sameness of their actors which results in shared storylines, we thereby postulate that the link between storylines and social identities provides added value to the explanation of coalition formation. We test whether shared storylines can be traced back to social identities in the different discursive periods of traffic development on a local level in Germany. A media analysis of 110 articles and 14 interviews shows that the assignment of certain group characteristics is discursively confirmed, renegotiated, or rejected. Social identities, therefore, matter for coalition formation. Related Articles: Chang, Katherine T., and Elizabeth A. Koebele. 2020. “What Drives Coalitions' Narrative Strategy? Exploring Policy Narratives around School Choice.” Politics & Policy 48 (4): 618-657. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12367. Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Mark K. McBeth, and Paul L. Hathaway. 2011. “Narrative Policy Framework: The Influence of Media Policy Narrative on Public Opinion.” Politics & Policy 39 (3): 373-400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2011.00295.x. Vercesi, Michelangelo. 2016. “Coalition Politics and Inter-Party Conflict Management: A Theoretical Framework.” Politics & Policy 44 (2): 168-219. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12154.