The Policy SET Model - Wind Power: Politics and Policy - page 76

he main premise of the Political SET model relects a key tenet of dis-
cursive politics—numerous stakeholders inluence the design and success
of policy. 22 As the case studies in this topic will demonstrate, the needs
and aspirations of all relevant stakeholders must be understood if one is
to design efective policy for supporting wind power development. Political
SET analysis promotes proactive eforts to better understand key players in
industry, inluential civic groups, inluential political groups, and dominant
social trends that inluence civic behavior. his focus on signiicant inlu-
encers is rooted in Heclo's concept of issue networks, groups of interested
stakeholders that coalesce around certain issues and exert signiicant inlu-
ence on the policymaking process. 23 It also airms the potential inluence
of advocacy coalitions, which are like issue networks but can also form from
outside the policy regime to challenge undesirable policies. 24
Although Political SET analysis encourages stakeholder analysis as part
of the methodology, it should not be misconstrued as neglecting preva-
lent theories of power. Analysis of political inluence is placed at the base
of the Political SET model to acknowledge that stakeholders possess vary-
ing degrees of inluence on wind power policy and of all stakeholders,
politicians, and policymakers are in the unique position of possessing the
means to manipulate the policy environment, in order to catalyze change.
his relects Harold Lasswell's contention that the study of politics is the
study of inluence and the inluential. 25 Moreover, isolation of the economic
sphere (the “E” in the SET analysis) in the Political SET model incapsulates a
tenet from iron triangle theory that certain special interest groups can cap-
ture the policy process through economic might. 26 As Bardach has observed,
policy is an extension of power. 27
Deeper analysis of how the variables within the Political SET model inter-
act to inluence policy also sheds light on the linkage between the concept of
bounded rationality and stakeholder theory. Bounded rationality is a notion
put forth by Herbert Simon that argues that decisions are never fully ratio-
nal; people make decisions that are bounded by cognitive and environmen-
tal constraints. 28 Consequently, the rational decision-making capacity of
any individual is bounded by that individual's breadth and depth of knowl-
edge. It follows that the process of including a greater diversity of stake-
holders in the policymaking process elicits outcomes that are not only more
socially acceptable, but are potentially more rational in that they are based
on a broader pool of knowledge.
his line of reasoning also conlates the concept of path dependency
with stakeholder theory. As the case studies produced in this topic dem-
onstrate, there is empirical evidence to support the intuitive observation
that wind power development policy in any given nation tends to mirror