Water Policy Networks—The Structural Perspective

Abstract

This chapter uncovers the social mechanisms behind policymaking by analyzing water policy networks from a structural perspective. It elaborates on the patterns of ties that form during policymaking processes and impact collective decision making. Policy process research discerned as crucial features of policy networks the combination of interconnected actors exhibiting belief cohesion and uniting into coalitions, brokerage, and entrepreneurship. Network analysis is employed to exhibit variations in social structure of water policy networks for the reduction of micropollutants in Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. This chapter provides an introduction to the quantitative analysis of social relations by means of social network analysis. It explains how the interactions between water policy actors are analyzed based on empirical data gathered for the purpose of this study. Results reveal significant differences in the ways water policy networks are structured in the four countries included in this study with regard to the diversity of actors’ policy beliefs, together with their degree of coordination, coalition structures, brokerage, and entrepreneurship.