| In recent years there has been an increase in the attention paid by policy scholars to the subject of policy change. Early attempts at studying this phenomena produced typologies of policy change and interesting case studies of specific instances of significant policy change. Recently, some policy scholars have worked to develop theoretical models of policy change that include explicit explanations of how and why public policies change over time. In general, scholars have identified two major sources of change: policy-oriented conflict and policy-oriented learning. One of the most advanced theoretical models of policy change is Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's (1993, 1997) Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). This comprehensive theoretical model is at the forefront of policy change research because, among other things, it explicitly integrates both conflict and teaming as interdependent sources of policy change.;This dissertation uses the case of changes in U.S. land remote sensing (Landsat) policy between 1964 and 1998 to demonstrate a combined qualitative/quantitative application of the ACF, test several of the ACF's key theoretical propositions, and generate a set of criteria for solidifying the policy subsystem concept. The first part of this study uses a detailed case-study of Landsat politics to demonstrate the emergence of this policy arena as a semi-autonomous policy subsystem from the larger U.S. science and technology policy domain during the 1970's and 80's. This case study also serves to illuminate the importance of policy-oriented conflict, policy-oriented learning, and exogenous events in influencing the significant policy changes that have occurred in U.S. Landsat policy over the last 35 years. The second part of this study uses historical data on the preferences of key Landsat policy elites (generated from the systematic content analysis of 163 testimonies, reports, and official statements), in combination with survey data collected on current Landsat policy preferences, to provide tests of several of the ACF's key theoretical propositions. The final chapter of this dissertation discusses the implications of the findings presented in Chapters 4--8 for the Landsat program, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, and the theory of public policy change. |
