Policy learning in policy domains with value conflicts: the Austrian Cases of Abortion and Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Life politics are according to Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) unlikely to involve policy learning, because they belong to the social world and lack a problem perception in terms of quantitative data and explanations. Nevertheless the article detects learning in two cases of life politics in Austria: The first case is concerned with the Austrian debate on regulating abortion in the early 1970s. The second case deals with the discussion about assisted reproductive technologies (ART) during the 1980s and early 1990s. In both cases policy-oriented learning was brought about by external factors. (author's abstract)