International pressure on Swiss climate policy

This paper analyses the impact of international climate policy on a national decision making process combining Social Network Analysis (SNA) with Multicriteria Analysis (MCA). Using the Swiss CO2 law as a case study, I will explain the possible influence of international pressure on a policy output. In its analysis of the interplay between network structures and policy instrument preferences, the paper goes beyond traditional studies of policy changes and places the analysis in a policy network context.
Following Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework, policy changes can be the result of learning processes within and among actors’ coalitions. I assume that external factors, such as the Kyoto process, induce these learning processes and provoke changes in coalitions’ structure and preferences.