ABSTRACT
The proliferation of network usages rests on diverse theoretical foundations, which risk the term meaning so much to so many that it has little specific meaning to anyone. For example, “network” derives impetus from pluralism in political science, resource-dependence theory in sociology, and transaction costs in economics. Different scholars have treated networks differently, using such similar terms as issue network, policy network, policy subsystem, and policy community. All these variants reject a simple process of formulating and implementing public policy and suggest new forms of governance that are not formal hierarchy, perfect market, oligopoly, or monopoly.
