The advocacy coalition framework: coalitions, learning and policy change

Policy process research is the study of public policy over time and the surrounding actors, contexts, and events. The formal academic study of policy processes began in the 1950s and 1960s, led by the likes of Lerner and Lasswell (1951), Freeman (1955), Simon (1957), Lindblom (1959), Dawson and Robinson (1963), Easton (1965), Ranney (1968), and Walker (1969). Policy process research sprung, in part, from dissatisfaction with political scientists’ focus on governing institutions (courts, legislatures, and executives), a theoretical desire to understand broader political systems, optimism following successes of the social sciences during World War II, and a practical desire to benefit society.