Master_thesis

disappearing at a particular rate in a particular place; why an action plan is
being formulated to deal with it; or why it is widely accepted that soil losses
are this many tons per hectare in this county; and why certain technologies are
necessary for amelioration.”
One of the potentials of an actor-based model is a way of understanding the spread of
knowledge (most cases that initiates policy change). Consequently, the Advocacy Coalition
Framework (ACF) is consistent to actor-based approach. Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1988
& 1993) developed ACF as a new theoretical framework of understanding the policy process.
ACF focuses on the interaction of advocacy coalitions – each consisting of actors from a
variety of institutions who share a set of policy beliefs – within a policy subsystem and sees
policy change as a function of both competition within the subsystem and events outside the
subsystem.
The ACF approach has been widely applied in most developed countries particularly in the
United States, Europe and Commonwealth countries in analyzing policy change 1 . However,
very little is known about its applicability, possibilities and potentials in the policy context
of developing countries like in the Philippines. Consequently, the presence of coalition
(Legaspi, 1994) and the policy context in the Philippines made ACF an appropriate
framework of the study in analyzing the policy change. The ACF, as the theoretical setting
of this study is further described in chapter 2.
1.5 Objectives of the Study
The primary goal of this study is to dissect and analyze the process of forest policy change
in the Philippines through ACF approach. To achieve this goal are the ancillary objectives
which are:
(1) To describe the policy formulation, its actors and their views and intentions
using the advocacy coalition approach;
(2) To identify and describe the causal drivers of policy change; and
(3) To determine the impacts of changed belief systems on the forest policy in
the Philippines.
1 To see the studies conducted around the world refer to
http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Sabatier/Research.htm
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