ACF Foudations
This is the primary unit of analysis in the Advocacy Coalition Framework.
What is a policy subsystem?
These are fundamental values about society and rarely change.
What are deep core beliefs?
Policies reflect the beliefs of these groups when they gain influence.
What are advocacy coalitions?
PET explains why policy is usually stable but occasionally experiences this type of dramatic change.
What is punctuated equilibrium?
Policies are handled by expters with low attention and small changes at this level of politics.
What are policy subsystems?
ACF assumes individuals make decisions with limited information, time, and cognitive ability.
What is bounded rationality?
These beliefs define coalitions within a specific policy area.
What are policy core beliefs?
These actors help mediate between coalitions and facilitate compromise.
Who are policy brokers?
This type of feedback stabilizes policy and maintains the status quo.
What is negative feedback?
This level of politics involves high attention, media, and large-scale policy change.
What is macropolitics?
Rather than focusing on who has power, ACF focuses on this as the basis for group formation.
What are shared beliefs (especially policy core beliefs)?
These are the most flexible beliefs and relate to implementation details.
What are secondary aspects?
These events occur outside the subsystem and can shift power and open policy windows.
What are external events?
This type of feedback amplifies change and leads to rapid policy shifts.
What is positive feedback?
This distribution shows many small changes and a few very large changes in policy.
What is a leptokurtic distribution?
This type of information helps actors understand cause-and-effect but is filtered through belief systems.
What is scientific and technical information?
In ACF, coalitions are primarily formed around this level of belief.
What are policy core beliefs?
These long-term background conditions (like institutions and culture) shape what policies are possible.
What are stable parameters?
These institutional barriers slow policy change and create long periods of stability.
What is friction?
This occurs when disproportionate attention or resources are given to a policy, often beyond its effectiveness.
What is a policy bubble?
ACF argues that to truly understand policy change, researchers must study policy over this time frame.
What is a long-term perspective (10+ years)?
When evidence contradicts beliefs, actors tend to change this level rather than their core beliefs (think “lucky socks”).
What are secondary aspects?
This process describes how actors adjust strategies and understanding over time without changing core beliefs.
What is policy-oriented learning?
This concept describes stable relationships that control problem definition and limit participation.
What are policy monopolies?
According to PET’s disaster model, this process leads to major failures when small problems are ignored over time.
What is error accumulation?