There Is Always a Bigger Fish. Determinants of Power Perceptions in Swiss Biodiversity Policy

ABSTRACT The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) views power as crucial in policy processes, but the nature of coalition power, its determinants, and how to empirically measure it remain understudied. In this article, we use a mixed method approach and social network analysis to explore power relationships in the biodiversity policy subsystem in Switzerland. We find that power, measured as influence reputation, is highly fragmented, and that actors' power reflects both structural and institutional factors, as well as subjective heuristics. Adversaries and allies are consistently perceived as more influential than neutral actors, supporting the presence of devil and angel shifts. Formal authority does not uniformly translate into influence reputation, but varies by actor type. Policy expertise does not systematically predict perceived influence, as experts in agriculture tend to be viewed as more powerful than biodiversity experts. These findings highlight how entrenched coalitions and perception biases reinforce policy inertia, helping to explain the limited change in Swiss biodiversity policy despite rising ecological pressure.