Why Do Policy Brokers Matter? A Lesson for Competing Advocacy Coalitions

Abstract

Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), the paper helps to understand the significance of policy brokers and the politics of adopting policy alternatives, emphasizing their crucial roles and the power of media in the context of the three-phase development of Taiwan's Su-Hua Highway policy change period (1990-2014). Based on empirical findings of in-depth interviewing, alternatives favored by majority public opinion do tell us substantial rationale underlying policy decisions. This leaves competing coalitions and members with maneuvering spaces of re-framing aspects of perceived reality where the role of mass media is a conduit more than a contributor.