Understanding policy networks: towards a dialectical approach

This article has two aims. First, we develop a dialectical model of the rol e that policy networks play in any explanation of policy outcomes. Our mode l is based upon a critique of existing approaches and emphasizes that the r elationship between networks and outcomes is not a simple, unidimensional o ne. Rather, we argue that there are three interactive or dialectical relati onships involved between: the structure of the network and the agents opera ting within them; the network and the context within which it operates; and the network and the policy outcome. Second, we use this model to help anal yse and understand continuity and change in British agricultural policy sin ce the 1930s. Obviously, one case is not sufficient to establish the utilit y of the model, but the case does illustrate both that policy networks can and do, affect policy outcomes and that, in order to understand how that ha ppens, we need to appreciate the role played by the three dialectical relat ionships highlighted in our model.