3. (Re)constructing Policy-Making Processes: The Actors’ Perspective

Actors do not participate on equal grounds in policy-making, they access the policy process at different times, with diverse backgrounds and are also equipped with different power. Ahrens examines these factors in the context of institutional stability and change by detailing that actors are predominantly aware of their own (working) environment and lack knowledge about rules, resources and routines of others. Ahrens reconstructs actors’ narratives to explore how actors continuously interpret policy content and processes and load them with meaning. The meaning attributed continuously feeds back into the process and the interpretation of the policy content. Ahrens follows the timeline of the Roadmap process and traces shifting power in three consecutive periods: the initial period, the drafting process and the period after the Commission adoption.