The book examines a new concern in water quality policy, namely aquatic
micropollutants. Micropollutants are chemicals detected in small
concentrations in waterbodies today, originating from pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, or detergents, among others. Since the regulation of
micropollutants is a fairly new issue, it has been largely neglected in
social sciences. However, the search for appropriate solutions is of
high political relevance at both the national and international levels,
with many open questions arising that concern the most adequate
governance structures and steering mechanisms. Solutions suitable for
classical, macro-pollutants, such as nutrients, do not necessarily apply
to micropollutants because of the diversity of compounds and sources,
and for technical, financial, and societal reasons. The book addresses
this knowledge gap by investigating the steering mechanisms at hand and
their prospect for problem solving. In this regard, the research
provides a systematic depiction and comparison of policy designs in
place for the reduction of micropollutants in the Rhine basin. Moreover,
the study yields insights into the governance structures in place, into
actors' responsibilities and constellations, and policy processes
regarding micropollutants.
The study is furthermore embedded into broader theoretical questions of
policy research. More precisely, this research is a contribution to
policy analysis that aims to achieve more optimal policy results by
providing for a better understanding of the nature of policy designs and
the social mechanisms behind the choice of them. Despite the intrinsic
aim of policy analysis at contributing to more optimal policy outcomes,
there remains a lack of research regarding analytical tools that enable
an ex-ante assessment of policy designs' problem-solving abilities. To
explore such a research path, this book proposes a novel index of policy
comprehensiveness for quantifying the prospective performance of policy
designs in alleviating an underlying policy issue, e.g. reducing
pollutants in waters.
Furthermore, the book uncovers the social mechanisms behind policymaking
and turns to the question: In which social settings is it possible to
achieve a comprehensive policy design? Compared to purely micro-level
explanations, the advantage of the network approach is that it goes
beyond the mere aggregation of policy actors' attributes by taking into
consideration actors' interdependencies. In order to take the network
approach seriously, the study systematically links the structure of a
policy network with comprehensive policy designs. Network concepts, such
as coalition structure, interconnectedness, and belief similarity, are
employed from policy change research here in order to explore the link
between structural network characteristics and comprehensive policy
design. By studying how network structures affect policy design, the
book critically examines the explanatory value of the network approach.
