On the Applicability of the Advocacy Coalition Framework for Analyzing EU Policy Processes

ABSTRACT Initially developed for the US context, the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is increasingly used to analyze policy processes in the EU. But policymaking in EU differs from the US context, why the applicability of ACF in the EU context should be scrutinized. This paper discusses limitations of ACF for analyzing supranational EU policy processes. Policymaking in EU is mainly about collaboration and competition of organizations. Thus, the central concept of ACF—individual beliefs —is difficult to apply. Organizations have cultures, not beliefs. The formal path to policy change in EU is negotiations to reach consensus. These take place in different modes, affecting policy learning. If systems boundaries are adapted to EU governance, organizations are given more attention, and ACF theories are developed to better explain negotiations and policy learning, ACF can complement macro‐level studies of European integration with meso‐level perspectives to better explain policy change in EU.