Policy advocacy, network formation and network governance

Abstract

This article examines the mechanisms underlying the formation of U.S. national clean energy policy network. Informed by the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework, this article develops and tests hypotheses regarding cooperation versus coordination hypotheses regarding the reasons underlying clean energy policy actors’ networking activities. Using a webcrawler data collection strategy and measuring policy network with hyperlink network, a data set of network relationships among the clean energy policy actors is collected. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) are applied to test the proposed hypotheses, and results show strong empirical evidence supporting cooperation hypotheses, with partial support for coordination hypotheses.