Ideas, Beliefs, and Discourses: the Dispute Between Political Entrepreneurs and Defense Coalitions in Brazilian Agrotoxins Policy

Abstract

This research analyzed how advocacy coalitions competed for greater influence over Brazil's agrotoxins policy from 1999 to 2018. The premise was that changes in public policy are effected through changes in institutions, or the rules of the game. A theoretical approach was proposed that articulates the Advocacy Coalition Framework, New Discursive Institutionalism, and the Gradual and Transformative Institutional Change Model. A literature search and document analysis were conducted, emphasizing the usefulness of shorthand notes from meetings and public hearings in parliamentary committees, as well as interventions by parliamentarians in the National Congress. The collected data were then subjected to a content analysis based on a priori defined categories. Four hundred and sixteen individual and organizational agents were mapped, forming three advocacy coalitions defined by shared ideas: agroproductivists, agroecologists, and technocrats. The work of political and institutional entrepreneurs and policy brokers linked to the advocacy coalitions during this period was also characterized. Finally, the discursive strategies, behaviors, and types of gradual and transformative institutional change adopted by each advocacy coalition were described by analyzing key events in a timeline. The findings suggest that the entrepreneurs, as representatives of the coalitions, were interested in promoting changes to the scope of agrotoxins policy and the institutions that influence it. The main contribution of this research was outlining the coalitions' strategies and understanding the role of entrepreneurs as representatives of the coalitions.