The underdog empowered: a case study of autistic policy influence in England (upd 05/22

This thesis is predicated on the simple argument that there is a democratic deficit in social policy, and we ought to do something about it. Or, more specifically, we ought to seek to help those most excluded from the policy process - marginalised groups, which I prefer to term 'underdogs' - to empower themselves to increase their policy influence. Empowerment requires the empowered party to have an understanding and awareness of the situation in which they seek to exert influence. This thesis aims to provide that information through an understanding of policy influence and lobbying from the rarely-investigated viewpoint of the underdog. Armed with this information, I hope that the underdog may choose to use that information to develop an improved lobbying strategy.

A theoretical operationalisation of influence and how underdogs can use their expertise, skills and individual strengths to help engineer conditions which are favourable to underdog influence is explored through a case study of autism policy influence in England. Autism policy has emerged as a subset of disability policy to be a policy area in its own right over the past twenty years. It is a stated policy priority for the WHO, UN and EU. Autistic activists have long espoused a strengths-based approach to autism though the neurodiversity movement, and have typical areas of strength which appear well-suited to lobbying and advocacy, such as persistence, single-mindedness and a detail-orientated memory.

As an article-based thesis, the overarching research question of to what extent, under what conditions and to what effect underdogs exert policy influence is spread across three articles. The first article uses fuzzy set ideal type analysis (FSITA) to analyse policy documents across thirteen Western European countries and assess the political opportunity structure for autistic people. The second and third articles constitute the case study of autism policy influence in England. The second article focuses on the influence of autistic self-advocates relative to that of other stakeholders, and uses template analysis to assess influence and process tracing to assess the conditions in which influence is exerted. In both cases, document analysis is combined with stakeholder interviews. The third article focuses on how far autistic self-advocates substantively represent autistic people, what the actual influence of ordinary autistic people is and its effect. It uses template analysis and content analysis of documents and focus groups.

This thesis will make a methodological contribution to the measurement of influence and a theoretical contribution to the understanding of underdog influence. It will also make an empirical contribution to the nascent autism policy scholarship. However, most importantly, I hope that it will encourage and contribute to the empowerment of the underdog and enable informed and effective lobbying strategies to be developed, such that the democratic deficit can, bit by bit, be chipped away.