Advocacy Coalition Framework

Shared policy core beliefs. The ACF organises beliefs into three tiers: deep core beliefs (fundamental, near-religious values), policy core beliefs (basic normative and empirical positions about the subsystem), and secondary beliefs (specific, instrumental, more easily revised). It is the policy core beliefs that bind actors into a coalition and motivate sustained coordinated action over time. Because these beliefs are resistant to change, coalitions and the conflicts between them tend to be stable over long periods.

The framework distinguishes minor from major change. Minor change — adjustments to secondary aspects of policy — can result from policy-oriented learning, as coalitions revise instrumental beliefs in light of evidence. Major change to the policy core, however, usually requires a significant external shock such as a crisis, a change in the governing coalition, or impacts from another subsystem that redistributes resources. Later versions added internal shocks and negotiated agreements as additional routes to major change.

Both explain policy change but emphasise different mechanisms. The ACF focuses on belief-based coalitions competing within a subsystem over a decade or more, with learning and external shocks driving change. The multiple streams framework focuses on the coupling of separate problem, policy and politics streams at fleeting 'windows of opportunity', stressing ambiguity and timing rather than stable coalitions. The ACF is better for long-run, belief-driven dynamics; multiple streams is better for explaining how and when an issue rises onto the agenda.