Article,
Understanding policy change: Multiple streams and emissions trading in Germany
Global Environmental Change, 18 (3): 501 - 507 (2008)Globalisation and Environmental Governance: Is Another World Possible?.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.05.003
Abstract
This paper employs John Kingdon's 1984. Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies. Little Brown, Boston “multiple streams” framework to analyse the sudden move from overgenerous grandfathering to tight caps and auctioning within the German emissions trading regime in the first half of 2007. By bringing together empirical evidence from interviews and official documents the following question is addressed: how completely does Kingdon's framework explain this political turn? The opening of a “policy window” can be demonstrated and Kingdon's theory concisely captures important aspects of this process. At the same time, however, the findings imply that a number of relevant factors are not sufficiently considered by the theory, most notably the influence of multi-level governance structures, learning processes, and networks. This demonstrates that the multiple streams approach on its own is not sufficient to fully understand the case study example. Hence, for a better understanding of policy change it is suggested that scholars need to evaluate the potential for amending and combining Kingdon's model with other explanatory approaches.
