Unraveling coalition dynamics : explaining the formation and strategies of coalition types in EU environmental policymaking
(2026)
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- (en) The battle between coalitions lies at the heart of EU environmental policymaking. Within environmental policy processes, coalitions, understood of policy actors that share preferences and coordinate with one another, emerge in all different shapes and sizes and carry out a variety of strategies to inflict policy change or stability. Despite this variation, understanding what drives the formation and strategies of coalitions remains a central puzzle. This dissertation examines 1) the presence of different coalition types, 2) why each coalition type emerges, and 3) what strategies each coalition type conducts and why. The dissertation combines primary insights from the Advocacy Coalition Framework and interest group literature. Analyzing coalition dynamics across five environmental policy processes within the context of the European Green Deal, it adopts a mixed-methods approach in three sequential stages. The research triangulates various data sources including semi-structured interviews, policy documents, and specialized press. First, the findings paint a vibrant and fluid landscape of coalitions, characterized into six coalition types: the peripheral coalition, the moderate authoritative coalition, the fragmented coalition, the colossal coalition, the policy generalist coalition, and the commanding coalition. Second, the findings show that each coalition type emerges from distinct pathways. To this end, more structurally complex coalition types, namely the fragmented, policy generalist, and commanding coalitions, emerge from the strategic agency of exceptional policy actors particularly under challenging contexts. Conversely, less structurally complex coalitions, such as the peripheral and authoritative coalitions, emerge without the inclusion of an exceptional policy actor and when processes offer low participation costs or when external pressures force actors to coordinate. Third, it is revealed that coalitions employ differing strategies informed by specific activity repertoires, which are primarily shaped by their structural dimensions and slightly adapted to the context of each policy process. Overall, the dissertation advances important empirical, conceptual, and methodological contributions to the study of coalitions and EU environmental policymaking, as well as offers insights to practitioners engaging in coalitional politics at the EU level.
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Crellin, C. (2026). Unraveling coalition dynamics : explaining the formation and strategies of coalition types in EU environmental policymaking. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/279793