Belief system alignment and cross-sectoral advocacy efforts in policy debates

Political actors participate in policy debates as an advocacy strategy to influence political opponents and public opinion. They often engage in cross-sectoral advocacy by participating in multiple adjacent debates. To investigate what factors influence cross-sectoral advocacy in policy debates, we examined advocacy coalitions in two health policy debates in the UK – the regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages and alcoholic drinks. We predicted cross-sectoral advocacy efforts across 237 actors, such as health charities, manufacturers, or retailers, as a function of their belief system alignment relative to their advocacy coalition. In a methodological innovation, Bayesian item response models were applied to policy beliefs stated publicly by actors in eleven newspapers to measure the ideological positions of actors and beliefs relative to their advocacy coalition. Extreme belief alignment relative to one’s coalition, a small spread of stated beliefs, and a strong engagement were found to explain cross-sectoral advocacy.

政治行动者以倡导行动作为策略参与政策辩论，借此影响政治对手与公众舆论。他们常通过参与多个相邻议题的辩论，开展跨领域倡导活动。为探究政策辩论中影响跨领域倡导的核心因素，本研究针对英国两场健康政策辩论中的倡导联盟（advocacy coalition）展开实证分析——两场辩论分别围绕含糖饮料监管与酒精饮料监管议题展开。本研究以237名行动者为研究样本，涵盖健康慈善机构、制造商及零售商等主体，基于行动者信念体系与所属倡导联盟的契合程度，对其跨领域倡导行为的表现进行预测。本研究在方法层面实现创新：通过分析11家报纸公开刊载的行动者政策立场言论，运用贝叶斯项目反应模型（Bayesian Item Response Models），测量行动者自身的意识形态立场，以及其信念与所属倡导联盟的契合程度。研究结果显示，行动者与所属联盟的信念契合度极高、公开表述的信念离散程度较低，以及参与积极性较强，这三类因素均可有效解释跨领域倡导行为的产生。