Using appellate court rulings to uphold laws or overturn unconstitutional laws.
Non-governmental bodies creating rules or procedures.
Policy Domains
POLICY DOMAIN: The part of the political system that focuses on a particular troubling condition.
Includes legislators, officials, and professionals outside of the government that are concerned with a particular issue.
Legislators have a priority list (agenda) of what they want to accomplish, and many people compete for room on their agenda.
Kingdon’s Policy Stream Model
The model (1984) contains three streams:
The Problem Recognition Stream
The Policy Proposal Stream
The Political Stream
Problem Recognition Stream
The set of claims that policymakers hear about a troubling condition.
This stream refers to the claimsmaking efforts described in previous chapters.
Policy Proposal Stream
A set of policy proposals that policymakers hear for addressing a troubling condition.
Proposals can be very broad or specific.
This stream features many inside claimsmakers.
The timing of policy proposals is important.
Political Stream
The current political situation recognized by policymakers in which a troubling condition might be addressed.
This stream is constantly evolving and consists of those who are elected.
The Policy Stream Model: Convergence of the Streams
The competition for attention and influence over the policy process means that most efforts will fail since there is a limited legislative carrying capacity.
Legislators often become familiar with a few policy domains/issues by getting assigned to committees and sub-committees. There is no way to be an expert on all issues.
Legislators use tactics to advance causes they support:
Public
Private
Legislators can use tactics to shape hearings at committee or subcommittee meetings.
How drastic is policy change?
Most change is incremental.
Substantial changes only tend to occur when all three streams converge.
Pressures on Policymakers
Policymakers are pressured to solve contentious issues that are likely to upset a lot of people.
A lot of policymaking is invisible since there are many issues that the public and the media do not care about (minimal public pressure).
Since policymaking can occur in multiple arenas, changes at the state or federal level can create pressure for change in other arenas.
Private policymakers are less accountable to people outside of their organization.
Symbolic Politics and the Rhetoric of Policymaking
CAUSAL STORY: A story that classifies a troubling condition in a familiar category according to the nature of its cause.
Types of causal stories:
Accidental causes
Intentional causes
Inadvertent causes
TARGET POPULATION: The group of people intended to be affected by a social policy.
Causal stories can create different depictions of the same target population:
People are vulnerable, but morally worthy; deserving of help (victims)
People are the problem and need to change their behavior (villains)
Policymaker constructions of these groups change based on whether these groups tend to be strong or weak.
Policymakers often focus on instrumental purposes (effectiveness), while analysts may highlight symbolic purposes.
Policymakers are also expected to stand up for values, thus reinforcing the symbolic purpose of policies
Policymaking is a form of rhetoric where policymakers want to convince people to support them by making them believe they have, “done the right things for the right reasons” (Best, 221)
In order to get good publicity, policymakers usually create buzz for their new policies
Strong rhetoric and publicity does create high expectations; this creates headaches for policymakers
Policies that are symbolically based are very susceptible to criticism if they cannot produce effective results.