Kingdon in non-democracies: a multiple streams analysis of Myitsone dam suspension in Myanmar

Information from the abstract

The multiple streams framework (MSF) is widely used to explain agenda-setting. Yet, two gaps persist: the coupling process has received limited attention, and applications of the framework remain concentrated in Western democracies. Little is known about how coupling works in non-democratic and hybrid political contexts. This study addresses that gap by examining the 2011 suspension of the Myitsone Dam project in Myanmar, asking how civil society, acting as a collective policy entrepreneur, brought the issue onto the governmental agenda under severe political constraints. The study is a qualitative single-case study, and documentary materials produced during the dam debate were analysed thematically through an interpretive lens. The findings show that civil society discursively prepared the linkages between the three streams well before a political window opened: it defined the problem through technocratic and emotional frames, legitimized the alternative of suspension within the policy community, and connected both to the reformist political narrative of Myanmar’s 2011 transition, alongside distinct activities of coalition building and mobilization. The study extends the empirical reach of the MSF beyond Western democracies and refines the boundary conditions of framing-based coupling.

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Related topics: Policy Transfer and Learning · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Public Policy and Administration Research