Policy arenas are fluid networks rather than tight iron triangles.
Heclo's 1978 correction to the iron triangle: policy communities are larger, more fluid and more expert-driven than the three-cornered model allows, which makes them harder to capture and harder to hold.
In practice
- A ministry's policy is shaped by four charities, two trade bodies, a select committee, three academics and a broadcaster, and no three of them agree.
- A hospital's procurement is influenced by clinicians, a royal college, two suppliers and a patient group, none of which controls it.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works