Policy Entrepreneurship within the Advocacy Coalition Framework: The Introduction of Self-Sufficiency Organisations in South Korean Public Assistance

How can a non-powerful minority in the policymaking process realise its preferred policy? To answer this question, this research applies the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), which emphasises contestation among groups with different belief systems (advocacy coalitions: ACs). By examining the case of self-sufficiency organisations under the public assistance scheme in South Korea (hereafter, Korea), this research argues that, even though it is a minority third-party, an AC (in this research, advocates of the social economy (SE)) can promote its favoured policy as a policy solution to a conflict between two mutually-contending major ACs (in this research, productivists and advocates of social citizenship). This research contributes practically to studies of the SE by showing how contemporary social economy organisations (SEOs) can be promoted on alien soil. The research also contributes theoretically to the ACF by adding to it a third-party minority AC s possible role as a policy entrepreneur.