Are responses to official consultations and stakeholder surveys reliable guides to policy actors’ positions?

Ingold, Karin; Varone, Frédéric; Kammerer, Marlene; Metz, Florence; Kammermann, Lorenz; Strotz, Chantal (2019). Are responses to official consultations and stakeholder surveys reliable guides to policy actors’ positions? Policy and politics, 48(2), pp. 193-222. Policy Press 10.1332/030557319X15613699478503

Text p_p_ft_ingold_uploaded_180919_1568792410939.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Policy positions are used extensively to explain coalition formation, advocacy success and policy outputs, and government consultations and stakeholder surveys are seen as important means of gathering data about policy actors’ positions. However, we know little about how accurately official consultations and stakeholder surveys reflect their views. This study compares advocacy organisations’ publicly stated positions in their responses to official consultations with their positions expressed in confidential surveys conducted by the authors. It compares three decision-making processes in Switzerland – in energy, climate and water protection – to analyse responses via two different types of data gathering methods. The results show a substantial divergence between official and private expressions of policy positions. Specific types of policy actors (losers), instruments (persuasive measures) and subsystems (collaborative network) produce more divergent positions. This has important methodological implications for comparative policy studies that use different data gathering methods and focus on different policy domains.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

4 since deposited on 27 Nov 2019
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item