Public Sector Sport Policy

Abstract

Despite the increasing involvement of governments in sport, and the high level of academic interest in sports-related public policy issues such as equity, doping, harassment and violence, there is remarkably little analysis of sport policy that utilizes the major models and frameworks for analysis widely adopted in other policy areas. Following the development of a set of criteria for assessing the adequacy of analytic frameworks, four major meso-level analytic frameworks are examined: the stages model, institutional analysis, multiple streams model, and the advocacy coalition framework. These are assessed for their internal coherence and applicability to the study of sport policy. None of the four frameworks reviewed is considered to be sufficiently persuasive and, consequently, a modified version of the advocacy coalition framework is developed and suggested as the most promising point of departure for the analysis of sport policy.