Structural mechanisms affecting policy subsystems activity: beyond individual and group behavioral propensities in policy design and policy change

Abstract

Many policy mechanisms operate at the level of individual and group behavior and have been discussed in recent research on these subjects. A third class of such first-order mechanisms exists, however, that directly affect and change policy subsystem structureand behavior. This chapter explores this category of network mechanisms, one in which policytools activate structural components of policy subsystems affecting the number of type of nodes and links present in a policy community or network rather than individual or group behavior, per se. Procedural policy tools in particular utilize statecraft resources to activate mechanisms that affect subsystem structural elements nodes and links by introducing new actors or reconfiguring relationships in order to affect policy targets and drive policy change. While use of such mechanisms and instruments is common, surprisingly, studies an understanding of the them are not. This chapter helps fill this gap in the policy design andmechanisms literature.