Socio-technical transitions and policy change- Advocacy coalitions in Swiss energy policy

Policies and politics are an integral part of socio-technical transitions. Policy processes and the conditions for policy change, however, have not received much attention in the transitions literature so far. We address this gap with a study on key actors in Swiss energy policy making. Drawing on the advocacy coalition framework we investigate how coalitions have changed and whether there are indications for major policy change. The study is based on the analysis of consultation documents of three major energy policy processes over a period of 12 years. Our results show that advocacy coalitions have largely remained stable. However, heterogeneity of beliefs has increased and in 2013, even a majority of actors expressed their support for the energy transition – an indication that major policy change might be ahead. We make suggestions how the advocacy coalition framework can inform analysis and theory building in the field of socio-technical transitions