The Use of Advocacy Coalitions for the Protection of Business Interests: The Case of Crab Catch Quota Allocations in Russia

In October 2019, the redistribution of the highly profitable crab market was redistributed in Russia, that became possible due to the transition from the “catching record" principle of distributing shares crab quotas for more than 15 years to the allocation of 50% of crab quotas through an auction. The work within the framework of the concept of “advocacy coalition framework”, developed by American political scientist Paul A. Sabatier, analyzes strategies for promoting industry players their beliefs (interests) in the course of changing the“catching record" principle of the distribution of crab quotas, fixed earlier in this political subsystem for many years. Security of coalitions at certain stages of the development of the regulatory issue (transition to the auction) was analysed, as well as the use of these resources to achieve the goals set during the communication campaign to change / maintain the beliefs embodied in the political subsystem. The results of the analysis carried out in the work remain valid, despite the partial redistribution of the Russian crab market, as domestic fishermen have at their disposal quotas for other highly profitable species of aquatic biological resources (salmon, invertebrates), and the “rules of the game” and the composition of industry stakeholders almost identical.