Abstract:
Few attempts have been made to collect data on national-level policy-makers’ networks; this thesis aims to understand the exchange and use of research evidence in policy networks, a critical substantive gap, and uses social network analysis (SNA) to study national health policy networks and their outcomes, which will improve the generalizability, as well as overall usefulness, of SNA of policy-making. Efforts must be made to create a policymaking culture where policy actors can confidently demand research towards evidence, as part of policy making processes, and where they are willing to use political capital to request and provide it.