Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Thai, Khi V.

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Sapat, Alka K.

Abstract

This study is about advocacy coalitions' efforts at influencing the debate surrounding the formulation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Policy change as utilized in the dissertation views the adoption of CERP as a change in government policy on Everglades restoration that was achieved through competing stakeholders and coalitions. As one of the largest environmental restoration projects ever undertaken in the U.S. and possibly the most complex in terms of reconciling stakeholder views and understanding the science of restoration, the federal government and the state of Florida were keen on providing a formal participatory process for stakeholder input. The formulation process leading up to the adoption of CERP forms a unique study in our understanding of coalition behavior, their efforts at influencing governmental policy and the way the deliberative and participatory process worked. The major purpose of the dissertation is to examine the perceived effectiveness of stakeholders and coalitions, specifically the environmental and agribusiness coalitions, to influence policy change in Everglades restoration. The study looks at how policy change was achieved within the formal institutions established and other infonnal channels developed through cooperation and consensus. Utilizing the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), interest group and coalition building literature, I hypothesize that the influence of coalitions in bringing about policy change is affected by five factors: internal factors such as (I) heterogeneity of stakeholders' beliefs, (2) membership size and external factors including (3) the presence of policy brokers, (4) change in the systemic governing coalition, and (5) presence of multiple coalitions. These factors are assumed to have contributed to altering or changing the dynamics and the direction of discourse in the policy process. Data was drawn from interviewing stakeholders who are members of the environmental and agribusiness coalitions and from secondary sources. The study shows that both the environmental and agribusiness coalitions perceive their efforts to be effective and instrumental in impacting the events and issues in the restoration process and particularly in influencing policy change. The study also reveals that the deliberative and participatory process, although sometimes contentious, has been a successful mechanism in allowing stakeholders to influence the formulation of CERP.

Extent

252 p.

Comments

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.

Identifier

FA00000615

Format

pdf

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