Networks and Water Policy: Conclusions and Implications for Research

In this concluding essay, the overall findings of this comparative project are analysed. The article turns to the general questions providing the focus for each of the cases. Some of the variations across the cases are explored. However, particular attention is paid to similar patterns in most or all of the investigations, since the set of cases is consistent with a diverse case design. The similarities include similar arrays of ‘layered' water policy networks in several countries. The pure types of issue network or policy community, prominent in the network literature, are not found in the actual water policy patterns. Similar water policy network developments across most of the cases include trends toward more network openness, more emulation of business behaviour, and less domination by traditional professional groups such as engineering. Network dynamics can be explained in part by the welfare state crisis and the environmental challenge. The impact of network arrangements on policy formation and implementation is more difficult to document, but some evidence suggests linkages worthy of further exploration. The overall assessment is that network approaches can be helpful in policy research, but that understanding some of the limitations of the perspective and the requirements for better empirical theory are requisites for fulfilling this potential.