The book examines a new concern in water quality policy, namely
aquatic micropollutants. Micropollutants are chemicals detected in
small concentrations in waterbodies today, originating from
pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, or detergents, among others. Since the
regulation of micropollutants is a fairly new issue, it has been
largely neglected in social sciences. However, the search for
appropriate solutions is of high political relevance at both the
national and international levels, with many open questions arising
that concern the most adequate governance structures and steering
mechanisms. Solutions suitable for classical, macro-pollutants,
such as nutrients, do not necessarily apply to micropollutants
because of the diversity of compounds and sources, and for
technical, financial, and societal reasons. The book addresses this
knowledge gap by investigating the steering mechanisms at hand and
their prospect for problem solving. In this regard, the research
provides a systematic depiction and comparison of policy designs in
place for the reduction of micropollutants in the Rhine basin.
Moreover, the study yields insights into the governance structures
in place, into actors' responsibilities and constellations, and
policy processes regarding micropollutants. The study is
furthermore embedded into broader theoretical questions of policy
research. More precisely, this research is a contribution to policy
analysis that aims to achieve more optimal policy results by
providing for a better understanding of the nature of policy
designs and the social mechanisms behind the choice of them.
Despite the intrinsic aim of policy analysis at contributing to
more optimal policy outcomes, there remains a lack of research
regarding analytical tools that enable an ex-ante assessment of
policy designs' problem-solving abilities. To explore such a
research path, this book proposes a novel index of policy
comprehensiveness for quantifying the prospective performance of
policy designs in alleviating an underlying policy issue, e.g.
reducing pollutants in waters. Furthermore, the book uncovers the
social mechanisms behind policymaking and turns to the question: In
which social settings is it possible to achieve a comprehensive
policy design? Compared to purely micro-level explanations, the
advantage of the network approach is that it goes beyond the mere
aggregation of policy actors' attributes by taking into
consideration actors' interdependencies. In order to take the
network approach seriously, the study systematically links the
structure of a policy network with comprehensive policy designs.
Network concepts, such as coalition structure, interconnectedness,
and belief similarity, are employed from policy change research
here in order to explore the link between structural network
characteristics and comprehensive policy design. By studying how
network structures affect policy design, the book critically
examines the explanatory value of the network approach.
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