Deep core advocacy coalitions

Abstract

As one of the most established theoretical approaches to public policy, the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has moored most of its theoretical arguments around a textbook policy conflict consisting of two or more advocacy coalitions in a mature adversarial policy subsystem within an advanced polyarchy. This article steps beyond the textbook by introducing deep core coalitions marked by compounding intersectional identities operating at the macro-system. It offers two illustrations of deep core coalitions, one bound by their collective transgender identity and the other by their collective traditionalist identity. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion of what it means for a research program to embrace a diverse research agenda, such as through better linkages with other theoretical approaches, launching more comparative research designs, or, as done here, focusing on a new type of advocacy coalition operating at the macro-system.