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AbstractResearch on policy network formation has contributed to an understanding of the patterns of interaction among political actors. Belief homophily, power seeking, and opportunity structures provide explanations studied for specific policy areas. This study tests these established theories in a different environment by asking: What drives policy network formation at the local level? From a review of the literature on policy networks and local politics, the study derives nine hypotheses, which are tested for a German municipality. Information and coordination networks have been collected among its councilors through an online survey. The study identifies the drivers of their formation utilizing exponential random graph models. Findings support the effects of party membership and perceived influence. They also point to the tendency of councilors to coordinate with the mayor and they emphasize local councils as an influential opportunity structure specific to local networks.

Recent research has pointed to the need to investigate policy learning under conditions of contingency and ambiguity. The Multiple Streams Framework seems particularly suited to addressing policy-making in such a context, but also appears to be at odds with policy learning approaches. Against the background of the literature, and the framework's assumption of loosely coupled streams, we argue that learning can be investigated within and across the three streams. Based on nine constellations of streams, we distinguish six types of learning characterized by different tasks, actors, and effects. Policy learning is often necessary in policy arenas where different logics of action clash and where value conflicts cannot be dissolved. One paradigmatic case is the long-standing fight over the re-establishment of wolf populations in Europe. Using Lower Saxony in Germany as a paradigmatic case, we trace the streams in the investigation period 2017-2022 and probe them for instances of potential learning from the sources suggested by the typology. In light of these results, we discuss the chances and the limitations of integrating learning in multiple streams.

AbstractAfter a series of COVID‐19 outbreaks among employees in the German meat‐processing industry, the Work Safety Control Act protecting these workers made it on the government's agenda in July 2020. From a Multiple Streams perspective, local corona hotspots may be understood as policy windows for introducing respective measures. However, this alone is not sufficient to explain agenda setting. This study investigates the coupling of streams within policy windows. Introducing the notion of relational coupling to the MSF research agenda, discourse network analysis provides a new methodology to reveal entrepreneurial activities. Studying the German mass media discourse on the issue identifies two stages: (1) An initial problem brokerage without coupling of core policies, followed by (2) a coupling across all streams based on a focusing event. We argue that relational coupling allows for an enhanced understanding of agenda setting.

After a series of COVID-19 outbreaks among employees in the German meat-processing industry, the Work Safety Control Act protecting these workers made it on the government's agenda in July 2020. From a Multiple Streams perspective, local corona hotspots may be understood as policy windows for introducing respective measures. However, this alone is not sufficient to explain agenda setting. This study investigates the coupling of streams within policy windows. Introducing the notion of relational coupling to the MSF research agenda, discourse network analysis provides a new methodology to reveal entrepre-neurial activities. Studying the German mass media discourse on the issue identifies two stages: (1) An initial problem broker-age without coupling of core policies, followed by (2) a coupling across all streams based on a focusing event. We argue that relational coupling allows for an enhanced understanding of agenda setting.

This paper contributes to the integration of the study of multiple (i) spatial scales, (ii) resource systems, and (iii) points in time in natural resource governance by introducing a strategy of layering action situations. In the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, action situations can be studied singularly, in comparison, or as networks of action situations. Building on this work, we propose to complement an established action situation with new ones derived from the evolution of the case. This preserves the initial action situation and thereby enables scholars to keep track of institutional change within and beyond it. We illustrate the approach by studying a case of groundwater pollution by nitrate in a German region of intensive livestock farming.

Policymaking in the water–energy–food nexus is characterized by complex ecological, social, and economic interdependencies. Nexus research assumes these interactions to be overseen in the respective resource governance resulting in sectoral perspectives contributing to unsustainable outcomes. In Germany, the political priority given to the formation of an internationally competitive livestock sector by means of intensification, specialization and regional concentration has exerted sustained pressure on water and soil resources. The expansion of bioenergy plants promoted by the renewable energy act has exacerbated the situation. Despite the persistency of the ecological challenges, German policymakers only reacted when the European Commission referred Germany to the European Court of Justice. Current policy eorts to tackle the ecological problems are now provoking disruptions in the agrarian sector in regions with high nitrate concentrations in water resources. By combining the social-ecological systems framework with hypotheses derived from nexus research, we explore the interactions between food, water and energy systems and aim at understanding the unsustainable outcomes. We argue that the non-consideration of the complex interdependencies between the agricultural, the water and the energy system in policymaking and the divergence of policy goals constitute a major cause of unsustainable governance.