ABSTRACT
The nonagreement point in the negotiation figure corresponds to the game-theoretic outcome obtained at the intersection of the maximin strategies of all players—that is, it represents the outcome that each player can at least obtain by unilateral action. In a sense such opportunity structures can also be interpreted as a kind of power structure, since some actors will have more connections through which they are able to reach other actors with whom they might negotiate mutually advantageous trades of influence opportunities. Policy networks describe semipermanent relations of resource exchange and mutual support within the wider set of organizational actors that are trying to influence the primary policy actors or the "collective decider" within a given policy domain. Network theorists, however, insist that the existence—or the nonexistence—of network linkages among specific actors creates highly selective opportunity structures within which political exchange must take place.
