Policy learning over a decade or more and the role of interests therein: The European liberalization policy process of Belgian network industries
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076716681206 |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Author | Stéphane Moyson |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Public Policy and Administration
2018, Vol. 33(1) 88–117
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076716681206
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Article
Policy learning over
a decade or more and
the role of interests
therein: The European
liberalization policy
process of Belgian
network industries
Ste
´phane Moyson
Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe,
Universite
´catholique de Louvain, Mons, Belgium
Abstract
When individual actors are involved in a policy process, do they assess and revise their
policy preferences according to their interests or are they open to other forms of
arguments over time? This study examines the effect of policy actors’ interests on
policy learning. It is based on a survey conducted in 2012 among 376 Belgian actors
(from 38 organizations) involved in the European liberalization policy process of two
network industries: the rail and electricity sectors. Borrowing from organizational
research and behavioral economics, several hypotheses are drawn from a model of
the individual shared by various policy approaches, such as the advocacy coalition
framework. A ‘‘simple gain scores’’ approach to the measurement of policy learning
is introduced. Regression analyses show that policy actors align their policy preferences
with the impacts of policies on their own material well-being (personal interests) and
the material prosperity of their organization (organizational interests). This tendency is
independent of the importance that policy actors give to their interests in their every-
day lives. This suggests that policy actors experience a sort of ‘‘interest shift’’ when they
assess their policy preferences over time. This shift, however, exerts a limited influence
on policy learning. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Corresponding author:
Ste
´phane Moyson, Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe, Universite
´catholique de Louvain, Chausse
´e
de Mons, 151 box M1.01.01, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
Email: stephane.moyson@uclouvain.be
Keywords
Advocacy coalition framework, bounded rationality, European liberalization of network
industries, personal and organizational interests, policy learning, prospect theory
Introduction
Policy processes involve diverse types of policy actors, ranging from politicians and
public officials to company and association managers. As a result of various inter-
actions as well as the gradual accumulation of evidence on policy problems over
time, those policy actors acquire, translate, and disseminate new information and
knowledge (Heikkila and Gerlak, 2013). In turn, they maintain, strengthen, or
revise their beliefs and preferences regarding policies. ‘‘Policy learning’’ is a concept
that designates this cognitive and social dynamic.
Human learning is a fundamental intermediate factor of change processes.
Change requires actors to create or to deal with new information and new experi-
ences. This results in the enduring acquisition or modification of abstract con-
structs (Vandenbos, 2007). Those alterations, in turn, transform actors’
behavioral intentions and their contribution to change (Fishbein and Ajzen,
2010). Hence, policy learning is a causal mechanism linking over time the beliefs
held by individual policy actors, the revision of those beliefs, the alterations of
collective ideas, and policy change.
The present study focuses on the psychological conditions of individual learning
within one policy domain. In particular, it examines whether individual policy
actors align, over time, their policy preferences with the effect of policy programs
on their own interests. I distinguish two categories of interests: the personal inter-
ests of individual policy actors refer to their own material well-being whereas their
organizational interests refer to the material prosperity of the organization in
which they work.
A better theorization of the psychological factors of policy learning is crucial
because it helps to understand its relation with policy change. For example, there
are indications that policy actors who acquire more knowledge about a policy
problem are more open to considering new, different policy solutions to solving
this problem (Leach et al., 2014). Individual policy learning also has other possible
corollary outcomes, such as simplifying the emergence of shared interpretations of
policy issues or facilitating agreements among policy actors (Brummel et al., 2010;
Diduck et al., 2012; Leach et al., 2014). Finally, learning has a ‘‘strategic charac-
ter’’, as it can help ‘‘policy participants to promote their respective policy interests
and values’’ (Real-Dato, 2009: 129).
To examine the effect of interests in individual policy learning, I rely on the
Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF: Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993). This
approach is most often used to examine the role that coalitions of policy actors
struggling with each other play in policy processes. However, the ACF also recog-
nizes that policy change depends on policy learning. To scrutinize the role
Moyson 89
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