Bringing interests back in: using coalition theories to explain European wind power policies

Abstract

Coalition theories have made a valuable contribution to understanding public policy but only partially explain policy change, especially in new policy subsystems. To improve empirical explanations and contribute to theory-building, this article identifies forms of coalition behaviour by drawing on the theoretical literature, applies coalition theory to the wind power sector and links coalition preferences with choices of policy instrument made by policy-makers. It provides support for the ‘advocacy coalition framework’, but argues that its explanatory power is increased by bringing both self-interest and the public interest back into the analytical frame.

Keywords:

• Advocacy coalitions
• policy learning
• renewable energy
• wind power

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Gratitude is expressed to the British Academy and to the Anglo-German Foundation which provided research grants for fieldwork, and to interview respondents for generously sharing their time and their knowledge. I also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.