Water Policy Entrepreneurs
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Water Policy Entrepreneurs

A Research Companion to Water Transitions around the Globe

9781848443310 Edward Elgar Publishing
Edited by Dave Huitema, Professor of Environmental Policy, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam and the Faculty of Management, Science and Technology, The Open University of the Netherlands and Sander Meijerink, Assistant Professor of Water Governance, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Publication Date: 2009 ISBN: 978 1 84844 331 0 Extent: 432 pp
This major volume focuses on the role of policy entrepreneurs in revolutionizing water management worldwide. Adopting an international comparative perspective, the authors explore the changes taking place in water policy across fifteen countries, at both the global level and within the European Union. Their analysis highlights the importance of groups and individuals in stimulating progress and reveals the crucial part played by policy entrepreneurs.

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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
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This major volume focuses on the role of policy entrepreneurs in revolutionizing water management worldwide. Adopting an international comparative perspective, the authors explore the changes taking place in water policy across fifteen countries, at both the global level and within the European Union. Their analysis highlights the importance of groups and individuals in stimulating progress and reveals the crucial part played by policy entrepreneurs.

Successful entrepreneurs use various strategies to initiate and implement change, including the framing and reframing of issues, the assembly of coalitions, venue shopping and the exploitation of windows of opportunity. In showcasing the role of entrepreneurs in achieving transitions and explaining their approach, this groundbreaking book presents an optimistic message for those who desire improvements in the way water is managed.

This book will not only make a unique contribution to the current literature on transition management, but will also prove an invaluable tool for those keen to influence water policy management at the regional, national and international level. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resources and environmental management and governance, as well as practitioners in the fields of water and climate policy.
Critical Acclaim
‘What readers can expect to find in this book is an analysis that highlights the importance of environmentally sustainable water policy. The book does an excellent job of bringing “policy science” applications and water management together. We found the illustrative maps, pictures and diagrams beneficial as they helped to provide some context and added an additional layer of clarity. This book would be of interest to students and practitioners interested in water resources, environmental resource management and public policy. It makes contributions to the study of policy dynamics through a comparative analysis of policy change and is successful insofar as it provides a broad overview of international water policy challenges.’
– Mohammed H.I. Dore and Geoff Black, Science and Public Policy

‘Unsurpassed in the scope of its coverage, this book explores like no other the roles of policy entrepreneurs and the causes of policy change across diverse political systems ranging from the developing world to the largest western democracies. The studies show how entrepreneurs work with outside donors, take advantage of windows of political opportunity, create those windows, and push the policy process in the direction they hope. They also show the limits to these strategies, and strategies that tend to fail. The book dramatically advances our understanding not only of change and stability in water policy, but of the policy process more generally.’
– Frank R. Baumgartner, University of North Carolina, US

‘This book is a theoretically and empirically grounded analysis of one of the world’s most pressing problems: the management of water resources. The editors have assembled a remarkable collection of authors with a truly global outlook and an excellent grasp of contemporary water issues as well as modern theories of public policy and decision-making. The volume also demonstrates excellent applications of policy theory to current and pressing matters. It is a must-read for students and practitioners in water resources and will be influential to water policy and in environmental resource management and policy for years to come.’
– Thomas A. Birkland, North Carolina State University, US

‘This volume is a major achievement. It advances our knowledge of stability and change in water policy through case studies from around the world. Its focus on “transitions” – instances of really major shifts in policy – is particularly welcome at a time when challenges such as climate change force water policy makers to reconsider the very foundations of their regulatory frameworks and infrastructural policies. The volume goes beyond water policy, however. It makes a major contribution to the study of policy dynamics in general by offering an empirically grounded comparative analysis of policy entrepreneurs as change agents in policy networks. There has been much loose talk about policy entrepreneurs in the fields of public administration and public policy, but a dearth of empirical work underpinning the various claims made. This volume goes a long way towards filling that gap. Highly recommended – for water experts and policy scientists alike.’
– Paul ’t Hart, Australian National University, Australia and Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Contributors
Contributors: S. Alp, A. Baskan, G. Becker, A. Bhat, D. te Boekhorst, Z. Chen, Z. Flachner, N. Font, V. Galaz, P. Garden, J. Goldin, J. Gupta, S. Hughes, D. Huitema, H. Ingram, A. Kibaroglu, D. Kibassa, L. Lebel, G. Lei, R. Lejano, L. Li, P. Matczak, J. McKay, S. Meijerink, P.P. Mollinga, S. Na Nan, V. Narain, P. Olsson, L. Partzsch, T. Smits, J. Subirats, N. Subsin, A.R. Turton, S.E. Werners, M. Wilder, X. Yu
Contents
Contents:

Preface

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Transitions in Water Management: Positioning this Book
Dave Huitema and Sander Meijerink

2. Understanding and Managing Water Policy Transitions: A Policy Science Perspective
Sander Meijerink and Dave Huitema

3. Driving Forces in Global Freshwater Governance
Joyeeta Gupta

PART II: THE AMERICAS
4. Transitions: Transcending Multiple Ways of Knowing Water Resources in the United States
Helen Ingram and Raul Lejano

5. Political and Economic Apertures and the Shifting State–Citizen Relationship: Reforming Mexico’s National Water Policy
Margaret Wilder

PART III: AUSTRALASIA
6. Implementing Integrated River Basin Management in China
Dorri te Boekhorst, Toine Smits, Yu Xiubo, Li Lifeng, Lei Gang and Zhang Chen

7. Where Does Policy Change Come From? And Where Does it End Up? Establishing Water User Associations in Large-Scale Canal Irrigation Systems in India
Vishal Narain

8. Averted Crises, Contested Transitions: Water Management in the Upper Ping River Basin, Northern Thailand
Louis Lebel, Po Garden, Nutthawat Subsin and Sakkarin Na Nan

9. Transitions in Indonesian Water Policy: Policy Windows through Crisis, Response through Implementation
Anjali Bhat and Peter P. Mollinga

10. The Contribution of Actors to Achieving Sustainability in Australia through Water Policy Transitions
Sara Hughes and Jennifer McKay

PART IV: AFRICA
11. South African Water and Mining Policy: A Study of Strategies for Transition Management
Anthony Richard Turton

12. Past, Present and Future Landscapes of Water Policy in Tanzania
Jaqui Goldin and Deusdedit Kibassa

PART V: EUROPE
13. European Union Water Policy: To Transition or Not to Transition? Coalitions as Key
Lena Partzsch

14. The Introduction of Floodplain Rehabilitation and Rural Development into the Water Policy for the Tisza River in Hungary
Saskia E. Werners, Zsuzsanna Flachner and Piotr Matczak

15. Spanish Water Management in Transition: Transition Management Watered Down?
Nuria Font and Joan Subirats

16. Neoliberal Transitions in Hydropower and Irrigation Water Management in Turkey: Main Actors and Opposition Groups
Aysegül Kibaroglu, Argun Baskan and Sezin Alp

17. Transitions to Adaptive Approaches to Water Management and Governance in Sweden
Per Olsson and Victor Galaz

18. Germany: Transitions in Flood Management in the Rhine Basin
Gert Becker

19. Policy Dynamics in Dutch Water Management: Analysing the Contribution of Policy Entrepreneurs to Policy Change
Dave Huitema and Sander Meijerink

PART VI: CONCLUSIONS
20. Water Transitions, Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons Learned
Sander Meijerink and Dave Huitema

Index
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