Advocacy coalitions and pharmacy policy in Denmark—Solid cores with fuzzy edges

This paper presents the results from a qualitative study in which the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) was used to analyze deregulation of the distribution of medicine in Denmark in October 2001. The study is based on qualitative methods, and it examines the policy process between 1996 and 2001. Data sources were documents and qualitative interviews. The results show that minor modifications of the ACF are needed to make it fully applicable to the case of pharmacy policy, especially when the policy process proceeds in a predominantly corporatist state.