Policy Theory Integration in the Environmental, Natural Resource and Energy Policy Fields

Abstract

The integration of policy theories could help produce comprehensive understandings of the policy process and generate findings that challenge the boundaries of the policy sciences. To help promote policy theory integration, this paper reviewed and discussed the scientific benefits of publications that have integrated the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD), Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), Epistemic Community (EC) and Instrument Constituency (IC) theories. It discovered that these publications are strongly focused on the integration of the MSF, ACF and EC theories. Some of the scientific benefits of integrating these theories include the discoveries that epistemic communities and instrument constituencies do not only support advocacy coalitions but can lead policy decision-making. Hence, researchers are encouraged to pay more attention to theory integration in the policy process scholarship. One question that needs further attention is: under what conditions do actors in one stream actively participate in another stream?

Keywords:

• Advocacy Coalition Framework
• Epistemic Community
• Instrument Constituency
• Multiple Streams Framework
• policy process
• theory integration

Acknowledgements

Mark Rouleau, Shan Zhou and anonymous reviewers provided comments that improved this study.