Coordination of advocacy coalitions using cognitive maps

Abstract This theoretical essay contributes to the analysis of advocacy coalitions in processes of formulation or change of public policies, combining public policy analysis and operational research models. Jenkins-Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible et al. (2014) observe from the results of some empirical applications that the beliefs of actors alone do not tell the whole history of policy change. In addition, the authors emphasize that the degree of conflict among actors or coalitions is related to their perceptions of the extent of threats of the goals or actions of other actors, to their beliefs about a policy. The study used an approach to analyze the degree of inter and intra political coordination in institutional change processes, based on the identification of the beliefs, declared objectives and political alternatives of the actors, using Value-Focused Thinking associated to causal cognitive maps. From the combination of these methods and the comparison of cognitive maps, the expectation is to identify political coalitions, characterize collaborative or conflicting environments, and the identify political agendas with varying degrees of cooperation or conflict.