4—Agenda-Setting. Definition and Problematics Flashcards
What is issue articulation?
Issue articulation refers to how problems are framed within a jurisdiction. If, for example, gender inequality is the norm, a lower enrolment rate of girls in school will not be seen as a primary concern. Whilst, if it was considered a development-related issue, it would gain political attention. Likewise, different issue areas call for different subsets within the policy subsystem
What is a policy window?
A policy window is a short-lived period in which actors have the possibility of influencing the political agenda
What are the 4 types of policy windows?
routinized windows: in which regularly scheduled procedural events such as budget cycles dictate agenda openings;
discretionary windows: where individual political preferences on the part of decision-makers dictate window openings;
random windows: where unforeseen events, such as disasters or scandals, open agenda windows; and
spillover windows: where related issues are drawn into already opened windows in other sectors or issue areas
What is the difference between a problem and a condition?
A problem is the undesirable effect of a condition that is amenable to government action
What is problem tractability?
Problem tractability is a measure of how complex is to solve a specific problem
How are ill-structured/wicked problems defined?
Ill-structured/wicked problems have:
1. Boundaries subject to dispute
2. Causes that may be unknown or poorly understood
3. Potential solutions that are highly uncertain and/or subject to deep disagreement among technical experts and social and political actors
What is the issue-attention cycle?
It is a dynamic in public policy-making where issues, too costly to be solved, appear on the political agenda only when raised by public attention
What are epistemic communities?
Epistemic communities are subsets within the policy subsystem composed of groups of scientists and government officials involved in articulating and delimiting problem spaces (often setting the standards) in areas such as oceans policy and climate change
What are instrument constituencies?
Instrument constituencies define a subset of actors within the policy subsystem who advocate for particular tools or combinations of tools to address a range of problem areas
Who are the policy entrepreneurs?
Policy entrepreneurs are well-informed and well-connected insiders who provide the knowledge and tenacity to help agenda items develop and move between unofficial, or public, and official, or governmental, status.
What is the funnel of causality?
Is the structural framework in which actors operate at the level of agenda-setting. Precisely, policy-making occurs within institutions, institutions exist within prevailing sets of ideas, ideas operate within relations of power in society and the relations of power in turn arise from the social and material environment
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the funnel of causality model?
It accounts for the vertical influences that shift at higher levels may have on policy-making. However, this is also a weakness, as it does not explain the configurations of such architecture in specific circumstances
How did Cobb and Elder define agenda-setting?
Cobb and Elder define agenda-setting as problems commonly perceived by the political community as meriting public attention and as involving matters within the legitimate jurisdiction of existing governmental authority
What is the outside initiation model in Cobb and Elder’s analysis?
It is the mode of agenda-setting in liberal, pluralist societies, where issues start from non-political groups, then enter the public discourse and finally the political agenda
What is the mobilization model in Cobb and Elder’s analysis?
It is the mode of agenda-setting in totalitarian regimes, where the government sets the political agenda and then reaches the public to gain support for its policy
What is the inside initiation model in Cobb and Elder’s analysis?
It is the model of agenda-setting in corporatist regimes. Issues are put on the agenda by groups close to the institutions, often without public involvement, either for security or technical (e.g. abbreviated process) reasons.
What is the major weakness of Cobb and Elder’s analysis?
Further studies recognised that the modes of agenda-setting vary not so much by political regimes as by policy sectors
What is the multiple stream model?
Kingdon (1984) argued that agenda-setting is composed of three different streams:
1. Problem stream: the perception of problems as public issues requiring actions from the government
2. Policy stream: different solutions proposed to tackle a problem
3. Politic stream: political contingencies (e.g. national mood) that lead decision-makers to choose a solution from the one proposed in the policy stream
Who are the main actors in the multiple-stream model?
Policy entrepreneurs, who benefit from a favourable position in coupling problems with policy solutions and political opportunities
What are policy monopolies?
Baumgartner & Jones (1991) defined policy monopolies as policy subsystems capable of constructing hegemonic images of policy problems, which may allow actors within the monopoly to practise agenda-denial, i.e. preventing alternate images from entering the political agenda
How do groups act to alter policy monopolies?
Groups resort to either (1) relocating the discourse or (2) altering the arena:
1. Groups try to raise public attention to contrast hegemonic images
2. Groups try to alter the institutional arrangements in which policy monopolies operate
When policy monopolies lose, a new, competitive arena is born (i.e. policy punctuation)
How did Baumgartner and Jones explain the dynamics of policy punctuation?
It is explained according to two variables: ideas (old vs new) and subsystem type (monopolistic vs competitive):
1. old ideas and monopolistic subsystem: status quo
2. new ideas and monopolistic subsystem: partial reframing
3. old ideas and competitive subsystem: contested variations on the status quo
4. new ideas and competitive subsystem: innovative/unpredictable
