Administrative coordination and integrative policy capacities: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract The literature has gone to great lengths to describe the administrative coordination mechanisms that support climate policy implementation. Yet few studies have adopted an actor-oriented perspective to understand which capacities actors perceive as necessary or sufficient to effectively engage in administrative coordination for climate policy implementation. This paper addresses this gap by examining five integrative policy capacities and their role in enabling administrative coordination. Analyzing a dataset comprising thirty-one bureaucrats implementing climate plans in four cities (Bologna, Lausanne, Padua, Zurich) and across various policy sectors, this Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) confirms findings in the literature that identify integrated policy design as a necessary condition for effective administrative coordination. Furthermore, the paper found that bureaucratic autonomy, as well as the availability of human and financial resources, are also important enabling conditions, insofar as they reduce coordination transaction costs and enhance actors’ agency in pursuing policy integration. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the integrative policy capacities needed to foster the ecological transition at the local level.