A dominant coalition and policy change: an analysis of shale oil and gas politics in India

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies the coalitions involved in the topic of shale oil and gas development in India and identifies the circumstances surrounding a change in policy in 2013 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to promote shale exploration. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the theoretical lens, the data are collected primarily from newspaper articles from 2010 to 2015 to identify coalitions, including actors’ positions, priorities, and interactions. The findings show the presence of a dominant advocacy coalition in favor of shale oil and gas development with priorities about energy security and a regulatory framework. The findings indicate some internal coalition disagreement, but stronger internal coalition agreement. Policy change was preceded by a spike in disagreement internal to the dominant coalition. This paper shows how a change in a dominant coalition can precede a change in policy, offers a replicable method of identifying and measuring coalitions via newspaper content analysis, provides a rare application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework outside of North America and Western Europe, and provides evidence of support for shale oil and gas development in India.

KEYWORDS:

• Public policy
• environmental policy
• advocacy coalition framework
• energy policy
• media studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kristin L. Olofsson is a PhD candiate in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. She uses multi-method research designs to tackle high-conflict climate and energy policy issues, focusing on people and political behavior within policy processes.

Juniper Katz is a PhD student in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. Her primary area of research is bureaucratic politics in collaborative resource management policy settings.

Daniel P. Costie is a PhD student in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. His current research interests involve studying the potential of policy actors to promote sustainable community development and addressing issues of socioeconomic inequality.

Dr. Tanya Heikkila is a Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research expertise is in comparative institutional analysis and the management of collaboration and conflict around common pool resources, with an emphasis on water resources.

Dr. Christopher M. Weible is a Professor and PhD Program Director at the University of Colorado Denver. His research and teaching center on political conflict and concord in relation to public policy issues.

ORCID

Kristin L. Olofsson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6973-768X

Tanya Heikkila http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2619-4320

Christopher M. Weible http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2241-5891

Notes

1 Shale gas, shale oil, and unconventional gas refer to resources found in non-porous, or tight rock formations, coal-bed methane, or shale gas from sedimentary rock (Deutch, 2011, p. 83).

2 This summary of India's political system is deliberately brief given space limitations and purpose of this paper. We direct readers to Mooij (2007) for a more thorough summary.

3 A broad search using LexisNexis Academic database of all English-language newspapers revealed that very few articles were written on the topic by Indian sources other than the Times of India.

4 Through a LexisNexis Academic search, ‘India’ was paired with (unconventional gas OR unconventional oil OR shale gas OR shale oil OR hydraulic fracturing OR fracking OR tight oil OR tight gas).

5 Policy actors prioritizing the Environment are concerned with the effects of shale oil and gas development on the environment. Policy actors concerned with the Energy Security of India or about global energy prices were documented accordingly. Economic Growth refers to matters of local, state, or national economic progress such as jobs, poverty alleviation, or gross domestic product. Guar Gum prioritization refers to actors involved in guar gum production, manufacturing, and sales. Regulatory Framework involves procedures, policy provisions, taxing and monitoring of the shale oil and gas industry. The Safety priority captures concerns about the health of a community. Profit was identified when a policy actor's main goal is to make a profit. Research and Technology priority refers to a policy actor who is concerned with innovation within the subsystem.

6 The number of policy actors speaking out were limited in this dataset. When anti-coalition policy actors were identified, their priorities were most often expressed in conjunction with other issues, such as climate change. This suggests that shale oil and gas development might not be a top concern for these actors, an argument that requires further empirical inquiry.

7 Examples of websites reviewed were Down To Earth and its parent group, Centre for Science and Environment.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation [Grant Number 1243535].