Resumo

The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is a model for analyzing public policies proposed by Paul Sabatier (1987, 1988), whose main interests included how changes in public policies occur, and how they guide the learning of the actors involved in policy subsystems during their implementation processes. Systematic reviews of ACF applications have also been performed during its trajectory (PIERCE et al., 2017; WEIBLE; SABATIER; MCQUEEN, 2009) This article presents a new international review of the application of the ACF, considering the period from 2015 to 2018.

This main objective of this paper is to verify how the most recent studies have been conducted since Professor Paul Sabatier’s last publication regarding the ACF in 2014. During our study, however, we have noted an almost total lack of Latin American works in recent reviews, with only one Brazilian study identified (Carvalho, 2001). Thus, we have made an extra effort to search for ACF applications in Latin America, reviewing works in Spanish and Portuguese.

The ACF is a model for public policy analysis which seeks to understand the changes that occur in public policies and the learning resulted from its implementation process. It adopts the premise that the process of elaborating public policies is complex and therefore those who wish to exercise some influence on this process need to specialize, in policy subsystems (Sabatier & Weible, 2007). The ACF proposes the aggregation of political actors into advocacy coalitions, based on their shared normative beliefs and coordination strategies.

We have verified the nature of the work, the research method used, the collection instruments and analysis techniques. We analyzed the categories related to the ACF’s main theoretical components: coalitions, policy-oriented learning and policy change. Among the ACF elements, the policy subsystem is the most utilized, appearing in all the analyses. 43 articles (93%) identify some type of change. Of these 43, 18 identify major changes (42%), 11 identify minor changes (26%) and 14 do not specify a type of change (33%).

The ACF continues to be an analysis model for public policies that is used mainly in Europe and the United States, but its expansion to other continents such as Asia, Africa and Oceania even on a minor scale is reflected in English language publications. The use of the ACF in Latin America continues in obscurity in the international arena, given that there has not been a review of publications in Portuguese and Spanish. Used mainly to analyze environmental and energy policies, the ACF has also been used to analyze less polarized sector policies such as Health and Education.

JENKINS-SMITH, H. C. et al. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Foundations, Evolutions and Ongoing Research. In: SABATIER, P. A.; WEIBLE, C. M. (Eds.). Theories of the Policy Process. 3. ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2014. p. 183–223. PIERCE, J. J. et al. There and Back Again: A Tale of the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Policy Studies Journal, v. 45, n. 1, SI, p. S13–S46, 2017. WEIBLE, C. M. C. M.; SABATIER, P. A. P. A.; MCQUEEN, K. Themes and variations: Taking stock of the advocacy coalition framework. Policy Studies Journal, v. 37, n. 1, p. 121–140, 2009.