by Oliver Meza & Ana Cecilia de Alba

Local government, policy agency and policymaking are often associated with mayors, senior officials or policy entrepreneurs. Yet elected councillors also play a vital role in shaping public policy, even when they operate with limited formal authority. In their article, “Power, Politics and Policy Agency: Towards a Functional Theory of Agency,” Oliver Meza and Ana Cecilia de Alba explore how municipal councillors influence the policy process and argue that their contribution has been overlooked in policy process research.  

Policy process scholarship has traditionally focused on institutions, coalitions and systemic dynamics, paying comparatively less attention to the individuals who navigate these environments. Drawing on the recently developed Functional Theory of Agency, the authors instead examine what policy actors actually do. They identify four key policy agency functions—steering, innovation, intermediation and intelligence—and investigate how these are performed by municipal councillors in Mexico.  

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