Citation: Mohammadi, N.;
Khabbazan, M.M. The Influential
Mechanisms of Power Actor Groups
on Policy Mix Adoption: Lessons
Learned from Feed-In Tariffs in the
Renewable Energy Transition in Iran
and Germany. Sustainability 2022,14,
3973. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su14073973
Academic Editor: Adam Smoli´nski
Received: 25 January 2022
Accepted: 14 March 2022
Published: 28 March 2022
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sustainability
Article
The Influential Mechanisms of Power Actor Groups on Policy
Mix Adoption: Lessons Learned from Feed-In Tariffs in the
Renewable Energy Transition in Iran and Germany
Naimeh Mohammadi 1and Mohammad M. Khabbazan 2,3,4,*
1Department of Work, Technology, and Participation, Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin),
2Workgroup for Economic and Infrastructure Policy (WIP), Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin),
Strasse des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
3Department of Energy, Transportation, and Environment (EVU), DIW Berlin, Mohrenstrasse 58,
10117 Berlin, Germany
4The Research Unit Sustainability and Global Change (FNU), University of Hamburg, Grindelberg 5,
20144 Hamburg, Germany
Abstract:
The Energy transition is fiercely competitive. The incumbents of fossil-based energy are
in conflict with the advocate coalitions of transition in energy policy changes. Such changes do
not occur as sudden punctuation via an external shock, but rather incrementally and over time,
by incorporating power insights such as lobbies, coalitions, and campaigns. This article provides
a framework grounded in theoretical power theories and draws additional insights from policy
mix studies. It investigates how focusing events and feedback loops shape the coalition of interest
groups in policymaking through implementations of power mechanisms. Our framework is tested
through two different power stories of energy transition in Iran and Germany. Our findings reveal
that the centrally planned economy of Iran leaves society with a negligible or passive role in the
energy transition. The passive role of society in the energy transition is mainly caused by subsidizing
energy. In addition, the financial and economic crisis resulting from other macro-economic challenges,
such as sanctions, may exacerbate the minor involvement of civil society in the slow expansion
of renewables in Iran. By contrast, as a robust economy with a corporatist tradition, Germany
has made a strong advocacy coalition of energy transition that resulted in political incentives for
substantial renewable energy deployment. Regarding the theoretical question of the power dynamics
in divergent countries’ energy transitions, the proposed framework based on the interest group
coalitions and power mechanism offers an understanding of the social character of energy transitions.
Keywords:
actor groups; advocacy coalition; energy transition; feed-in tariffs; Germany; Iran; policy
mix; power mechanisms
1. Introduction
After the Paris agreement at the end of 2015, by acknowledging the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions, the energy transition has become urgent in all countries. En-
ergy transitions are defined as structural changes in energy generation, distribution, and
consumption. While transitions are inherently complex, uncertain, and difficult to govern,
there is a wide-ranging agreement that various policy instruments are needed to foster
such transitions [
1
]. A mix of social and policy responses to stimulate sustainable transition
goes beyond a single policy domain and needs comprehensive changes in innovation and
market policies [
2
]. Some critical requirements for better response to these policies are
experimental, adaptive, and multi-scale changes, for which policies play a crucial role [3].
A historically dominated top-down energy system is not appropriate in response to
these complexities. These energy systems are more on the influence of powerful energy
Sustainability 2022,14, 3973. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073973 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
Sustainability 2022,14, 3973 2 of 27
incumbent actors and changes of governments which cannot provide appropriate solutions
for emerging challenges of transition. To better deal with the concerns of the multifaceted
nature of sustainability transition, widespread support from community-based supporters
and political advocacy networks are required to challenge the expertise of the conventional
energy system [4,5].
Power actor groups of energy transition actively attempt to influence governments’
policy development and implementation. Through individual and collective actions, inter-
est groups make practical ways to build potential changes under the influence of lobbying
groups, coalitions, accessibility to authorities, and campaigns. Renewable energy ad-
vocacy prepare the ground for political conflicts and reversing or contributing reactive
consequences to transform the direction of policies that advance the cause of the nascent
communities of energy transition [4,6].
On the contrary, power actor groups of incumbent energy system make an effort to
reduce the policy support of transition through reversing or eliminating changes necessary
for the transition progress. Due to influential actors’ potential with conflicting interests in
the decision-making process and policy adaption, analyzing the dynamics of power impact
is a crucial feature of sustainability transition studies [3,4,7].
In environmental policy studies, scholars are beginning to highlight how decentraliz-
ing energy transitions are reshaping political power structures and policy outcomes [
4
] or
how civil society exercises power in transitions concerning other actors [
7
]. In transition
literature, power is defined as means which accelerate shifting innovations and technolo-
gies from a niche level (protected spaces for innovation) to a regime level (collections of
institutions developed around particular social and technological practices) among the
pressures from the landscape level (the cultural, geographic, and demographic variables
within which regimes operate) [4].
While it is evident that all governance structures involve uneven power dynamics,
different scholars only conceptualize and define power relations in transition studies.
They have not been integrated into explaining the power mechanisms on policy mix
adoption. In this regard, significant gaps in explaining power dynamics, analyzing the
role of power, mainly influencing the policy mix development and policy experimentation,
have remained [3,4,8]. Several questions are left open, including:
(1)
How can event factors, contextual conditions, and various resources shape different
modes of power?
(2)
What are the mechanisms of contributing power actors on policy mix changes or
adoption?
(3)
How would the positive or negative policy feedback of current policies make con-
scious efforts of power actors?
This article provides a framework grounded in power theories in the resource, nature,
and manifestation of power and draws additional insights from policy mix studies to
address the above questions. This approach is helpful in the empirical application of
political power and structuring power analysis across comparative cases. Therefore, two
different power stories of the energy transition in two different countries are analyzed: The
first country is Iran, being at its first stage of the energy transition. The second country is
Germany, a leading country in the energy transition. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the
second-largest country in the Middle East. In 2019, Iran’s population was about 82.8 million
with a GDP of 440 billion US$ and CO
2
emission of about 579.6 Mt [
9
]. The Federal Republic
of Germany is a European country with over 83.08 million inhabitants in 2019 with a GDP
of 3.861 trillion US$ and CO2emission of about 659.1 Mt [10,11].
Fundamental economic and technological differences in Iran and Germany are ap-
parent. Nevertheless, the argument for selecting these two cases is their similarities in
the energy transition policy through Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) abstraction, but their differences
in policy implementation. This research aims to study the sustainable transition from a
power perspective by implementing this framework. It examines the impact of power
as a function of how actors apply in pursuit of consequence policy outcomes in different
Sustainability 2022,14, 3973 3 of 27
energy transitions. This perspective will help illuminate the main reasons for the diverging
development paths in Iran and Germany from the political power perspective and its
complex articulations.
In addition to secondary data from scientific literature, position papers, and press
release by important actors, primary data is collected by conducting 11 expert interviews
(six in Iran and five in Germany). The interviewees included representatives from various
stakeholders from ministries, NGOs, business associations, private industries, and think
tanks. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the finalized transcripts were coded
in ATLAS.ti [
12
]. For the sake of transparency and simplicity, the interview parts in
Sections 3and 4are presented in a separate paragraph.
These interviews offered essential insights into the power struggles over the energy
transition in both countries. The interviews were supported by a set of guidelines and
aimed to identify the strategic actions of different stakeholders in their struggle over
domination in Iran’s and Germany’s energy politics. Furthermore, the interview data were
triangulated with primary and secondary sources to ensure their reliability. The focus of
this paper lies in the developments until 2020. Also, the paper only analyzes the shift to
renewable energies in the electricity sector and focuses on the renewables’ share in total
electricity consumption.
The rest of the article is structured as follows: a brief overview of the theoretical
framework is presented in the next section. In the Sections 3and 4, energy transition in
Germany and Iran, respectively, are explained. Section 5compares and discusses economic
and power factors in the energy transition in Germany and Iran. Section 6concludes
the paper.
2. Framework for Influential Mechanisms of Power Actor Groups on Policy Mix in the
Energy Transition
The approach presented in this section focuses on power and its relation to policy de-
velopment. An improved understanding of power in the policymaking of energy systems
can clarify power imbalances and conflicts of interest. It diagnoses asymmetry of law en-
forcement, the inconsistency of financial resources, and probable resistance to sustainability
goals. It can explain how the risk of policy implementations will redistribute to vulnerable
populations and inhibit or reinforce a government’s capacity to act under different types of
power mobilization [3].
The central focus of this framework is the analysis of manifestations of power and
the ways and mechanisms which influence the process of policy mix development in the
progress of energy transition. The framework combines relevant insights from a theoretical
perspective in power and policy mix to provide novel insights into whether and how
power mechanisms influence the decision-making process of the policy mix in the energy
system [4].
These insights provide essential guides for analysts and policymakers in the pursuit
of three objectives:
(a)
Exploring events, contextual factors, and the nature of power and resources, leading
to power manifestations.
(b)
Explaining the ways or mechanisms through which the power manifestations lead to
the policy mix.
(c)
Exploring the policy outcomes and occurring policy feedbacks.
2.1. Initiation of Policy Changes
Some reasons for changing policy mixes on sustainable transition may be generated
through feedback from existing policy exercises, contextual factors, and focusing events.
During implementing a policy, the public assesses outcomes of the policies on how they
will impact their real world. Previous policies’ positive or negative feedback can influence
the formation of coalitions supporting or opposing policies aimed at energy transition.
Sustainability 2022,14, 3973 4 of 27
These coalitions may evolve along with the policies they initially supported or may form to
oppose existing policies [13].
The initiation of policy changes is also strongly connected to contextual factors. Some
obvious contextual factors affecting changes to sustainability transition are economic
structures, national technological infrastructures, and political institutions [
14
]. Based
on the configuration of political, institutional, and economic structures, levels of support
around new coalitions of interest can mobilize to accelerate changes [
13
]. Focusing events
may be a driver for enhancing or prohibiting existing policy effects. More precisely, when
awareness of a problem in existing policies rises, the public makes a press for policy changes
by political and economic forces. In light of such awareness, mobilization will initiate
through broad coalitions of interest groups, political parties, or social movements [8].
2.2. Actor Groups and Power
The second component of this framework addresses the role of actors in policy changes.
Much of the existing literature on energy transition have ambiguity in categorizing actors.
The most common agreement on an actor’s definition in such literature is the requirement
for diverse actors that have a substantial influence on leading policy transition [15].
As an actual process of the energy transition, policy changes provide conflicts of
interest, where different actors struggle to dominate their specific goals [
5
]. While in the
literature of transition studies, researchers conceptualize the relations of actors (incumbent
and niches) and power (as a general meaning of control over resources) to influence policy
outcomes [
16
], the dynamics of influential measures done by interested actors remains
understudied [7,17,18].
This research applies the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to examine the dynam-
ics of linkages and coalitions of like-minded actors who affect policymaking processes to fill
this gap. Based on this view, various actors with shared beliefs and values aggregate and
shape an advocacy coalition [
18
,
19
]. Such advocacy coalitions—spanning interests from in-
dustry, private firms, civil societies, and public organizations—influence rulemaking when
collective actions align with shared actors’ incentives and organizational capacities [20].
In terms of power definition, there is also a lack of clarification in the energy transition
studies. In its most basic definition, studies implicitly or explicitly define power as a
capacity of social groups or actors with conflicting goals and interests to mobilize resources
to attain their targets and interests [
3
,
7
]. Power is defined as the capacity of different
actors that influence policies’ goals, processes, and outcomes. The degree of influencing
power actors largely depends on mobilizing different resources, including human, mental,
monetary, artefactual, or natural resources; for example, some actors may exercise economic
power, while others may exercise ideological or geo-political power [3,7].
Nevertheless, power in transition studies goes beyond solely competencies and ca-
pacities of agents and includes processes by which different actors trigger institutional
transformation [
21
]. Consequently, three main features emerge from studies that focus on
power in transition. First, the typology of power exercise is the central feature of existing
power studies in the transition. This strand of studies aimed to define different types
of power integrated with different levels of association (agents, structures, and systems),
considered a vertical typology of power. However, besides the vertical approach of power,
a horizontal understanding of power is required to analyze who exercises relational power
and how embedded power in a particular group of actors is configured across different
actors [
22
]. Different power relations make different modes of power capacity, including
“power over”, “power within”, and “power with” [
23
]. Moreover, each type of power
relation can have various manifestations, ranging from mutual dependence, one-sided
dependence, and independence to cooperation, competition, and coexistence [7].
The second strand of power studies focuses on the nature of power and proposes a
distinction between reinforcive, innovative, and transformative ones. Reinforcive power is
defined as the ability of actors to reproduce existing structures, while innovative power
Sustainability 2022,14, 3973 5 of 27
captures the capacity of actors to create new resources. Transformative power develops
new structures and institutions [24].
The third strand points to how power can operate in policy processes. Firstly, power
dimensions in such mechanisms are instrumental, highlighting who wins in policy contests.
Secondly, they are structural, considering the specific political and economic characteristics
that establish power in a given context. Moreover, thirdly, they are discursive, which is
concerned with the logic of dominant values, norms, and ideals in a given context and how
they align with decision-makers and other influential actors [25].
However, a power concept must go beyond analyzing its nature, empowering agents,
and typologies in the energy transition context. Power analysis in the energy transition
should importantly explain the mechanisms that lead to the transformation of policy mixes
or adoption through many interest groups associated with initial resources and capacities.
In this regard, the framework in this paper employs three dimensions based on the work by
Brisbois (2019) [
4
] to organize the mechanisms by which power can operate (see Table 1). See
Brisbois (2019) [
4
] for more details, including sample indicators of power dimension. The
three power dimensions have inherent overlap, and they can make meaningful categories
that break the power down for a better analysis.
Table 1. Three power dimension mechanisms on policy change.
Power Dimension Influential Mechanisms
Instrumental power • Actors influence outcomes by coercion, manipulation,
lobbies, and resource imbalances.
Structural power
• Actors position based on inclusion, exclusion, and coalition, or
• Structural justification of market structure, political and electoral system, or
• Actors influence on relevant information, knowledge rule,
and agenda-setting/problem-framing.
Discursive power • Actors influence on the policy process through competing
political discourses and discursive tools.
2.3. Policy Mix in the Energy Transition
Policy mix in an energy system combines several instruments and processes by which
the instruments emerge and interact. Interaction is the central focus of the policy mix
definition and reflects the policy mix’s dynamic nature, which evolves and incrementally
develops over the years [
26
]. However, this definition solely goes beyond its own interactive
and dynamic nature and typically is impacted by the struggles of different interest groups.
Their degree of unity, the resources they can capture, and the appropriateness of their
strategies can enhance the power of coalitions. Then they lead to changes in government
rules, industry policies, and social norms and beliefs [
27
]. Thereby, such changes are
reflected in how policymakers design policy mixes in the playing field of advocates or
opponents [5].
This paper discusses how actors receive support from the government and influence
political decision-making. Such mechanisms build on lobby within the association, con-
tacting influential decision-makers, public campaigns, organizing political events, offering
technical solutions, and winning over dual or uncommitted actors [
6
,
27
]. Figure 1organizes
the above explanations of influential mechanisms of actor groups on a policy mix in the
energy transition.
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