The Organization of Society, Administrative Strategies, and Policy Networks

Abstract

In cross-national public policy research, attention has repeatedly been drawn to empirical regularities in the interactions of public bureaucracies and organized interests. In some countries, administrative agencies will only consult the specialized organizations representing interests within the sector concerned. Elsewhere, the central peak organizations of the large producer groups are quite regularly involved in the preparatory stage of the legislative process in a broad spectrum of policy topics. Understanding the variability of policy networks is particularly important for the analysis of attempts, repeatedly made in the last decades to remodel patterns of state intervention. The literature on meso-corporatism has brought important progress in understanding the emergence of stable linkages between the state and organized interests. In an influential version, organizational structure is mediated with the task environment in a process where the dominant coalitions within the organization have some latitude for strategic choice of alternatives.