How belonging to social groups affects the processes of policy-making

What is it about?

One of the most important theories of social psychology is the Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Self Categorization Theory (SCT), which together form the Social Identity Approach (SIA). The idea of this perspective is that the identification with social groups is important to individuals in that it guides their preferences and behavior. This article transfers this perspective to the study of policy processes and argues that to explain policy-making, it is important to look at the membership of policy actors in social groups. Depending on the group with which they identify, and which is salient in a given moment, preferences and behavior can be explained.

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Why is it important?

This article is the first to systematically integrate social identities in the policy process. It is important because it adds a complementary perspective to actors' thinking and actions in the policy process.