Conspiracy and The Policy Process: A Case Study of the New Zealand Experiment

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper advances the concept of a policy conspiracy – perpetrators strive together to steer the policy process in a direction which they believe to be worthwhile and possible. A policy conspiracy is conceived as an exclusive social network of policy participants who commit themselves to the advancement of a policy quest which embodies their shared hopes and who promote one another to positions of influence on the basis of the mutual trust they develop through regular interaction. The degree to which the network of technocrats, technopols and change agents who played a pivotal role in the implementation and consolidation of the ‘New Zealand experiment’ between 1984 and 1993 exhibit these characteristics is considered. By examining the way this policy conspiracy took advantage of a significant window of opportunity for reform, this paper seeks to make a contribution to the literature concerned with the conditions for radical policy reform.