What are Global Public Policy Networks?
Global public policy networks and, specifically, virtual policy networks, are the
types of innovative institutions that have great potential to contribute to a strengthened
international environmental regime. By broadening participation, improving coordination,
and increasing transparency, these networks may reverse some of the inadequacies of the
existing regime.
Public policy networks are relatively stable sets of private and public organizations
that negotiate in a horizontal, coordinating manner. Ideally, they bring together the
public sector (states and international public organizations), civil society (NGOs,
community groups, and others), and the private sector (corporations, other businesses,
and their associations). Actors converge around various policy problems and interact
through the sharing of information, expertise, and political support.
Public policy networks are innovative organizational and social experiments, responding
to an ever more complex global policy environment, taking advantage of new opportunities
for cooperation, and relying to differing degrees on the new medium provided by advances
in information and communication technologies. They thus form a loose, self-governing,
and dynamic structure and help initiate the following four-stage policy cycle:
1. Agenda-setting involving raising awareness and pushing issues onto the global agenda
2. Negotiation involving the application of decision-making processes
3. Implementation entailing translating the results of negotiations into action and developing or improving a willingness or capacity on the part of stakeholders to comply
4. Policy reformulation and institutional learning reflecting the extent to which built-in mechanisms facilitate learning and change in the network
How might one participate?
Devising innovative approaches for better governance in the 21st century will require an
extraordinary mix of political pragmatism and idealism. But we believe the goal is
important and worth the effort. We hope you will take up this invitation to become a
part of the effort to establish a more secure environmental future and participate in
the Global Environmental Governance Network.
Related Papers and Links:
Examples of Public Policy Networks:
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