Lesson 4 Flashcards
Agenda setting and advocacy groups
Definition of agenda
The term “agenda” refers to a general set of political controversies that will be viewed as failing within the range of legitimate concerns meriting the attention of the polity. It may also be used to denote a set of concrete items scheduled for active and serious consideration by a particular institutional decision-making body.
What is an agenda?
An agenda is a collection of problems: understandings of causes, symbols, solutions, and other elements of public problems that come to the attention of members of the public and their governmental officials.
Another definition of Agenda?
An agenda can be something as concrete as a list of bills that are before a legislature or a series of beliefs about the existence and magnitude of problems and how they should be addressed by government, by the private sector, by nonprofit organizations, or through joint action by some or all of these institutions.
What are the three types of agendas that dictate how any society addresses social problems?
- Public agenda
- Media Agenda.
- Policy Agenda
What is public agenda?
This comprises the general public’s perceptions of what is important and is typically reflected in polls by organizations.
What is media agenda?
It is what the newspapers are writing about, the television networks covering, and the talk shows emphasizing.
What is policy agenda?
It is heavily influenced by political perspectives; views of political leaders; positions taken by political parties; and input from consultants, lobbyists, think tanks, and government bureaucrats.
Third definition of agenda
- An agenda is a collection of problems, understanding of causes, symbols, solutions, and other elements of public problems that come to the attention of members of the public and their governmental officials.
- Agendas exist at all levels of government. Every community and every body of government has a collection of issues that are available for discussion and disposition.
What is agenda setting (Birkland, 2004)
- Agenda setting is the process by which problems and alternative solutions gain or lose public and elite attention.
Definition of agenda setting
- Agenda setting refers to the process by which some problems come to public attention at given times and places.
What is agenda universe
- All ideas that could possibly be brought up and discussed in a society or a political system.
- The agenda universe consists of every thought that has ever existed. This is not a probable because decision makers have limited time and information, and its not possible to examine everything
What are the two types of agendas?
- The public agenda
- The formal agenda
Whta is a public agenda
A public agenda consists of issues which have achieved a high level of public interest and visibility.
What is a formal agenda?
The formal agenda is the list of items which decision makers have formally accepted for serious consideration.
What are the criteria for something to be considered part of the public (systemic) agenda?
- Are the subject of widespread attention or at least awareness
- Require action, in the view of a sizeable proportion of the public; and
- Are the appropriate concern of some governmental unit, in the perception of community members.
What are the criteria for something to be considered part of the formal or Institutional agenda?
The formal or institutional agenda, on the other hand, consists of only a limited number of issues or problems to which attention is devoted by policy elites. The list of items explicitly up for the active and serious consideration of authoritative decision-makers.
How do issues get on the agenda?
- Policy Makers
- Political parties
- Media
- Focusing events
What are the three different model of agenda building?
- Outside initiative model.
- The mobilization model
- The inside initiative model
What is an outside initiative model?
The process through which issues arise in nongovernmental groups and are then expanded sufficiently to reach, first, the public agenda, finally, the formal agenda.
What is the mobilization model?
It considers issues which are initiated inside government and consequently achieve formal agenda status almost automatically.
What is the inside initiative model?
Describes issues which arise within the governmental sphere and whose supporters do not try to expand them to the mass public.
What is Anthony Down’s attention Issue?
Anthony Downs’ “Issue Attention Cycle” refers to a theory he developed to explain how public attention to political issues rises and falls over time. In his model, he outlines a cyclical process that demonstrates how issues move through the public agenda—gaining attention, peaking, and then losing interest over time.
What is Anthony Down’s attention issue cycle?
- The Pre-problem stage,
- Alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm,
- A period marked by a growing realization of the cost of significant progress,
- Gradual decline of public interest, and
- The post-problem stage.
According to pluralists, what power do interest groups hold in the policymaking process?
Pluralists believe that different public and private interests and groups of people can have access to policymakers and influence policy outcomes through interest groups.
What role do interest group play in agenda-setting?
Focusing on the role of interest groups in the agenda-setting process provides an opportunity to examine the influence of organized interests in the policy process and test the claims proposed by the pluralists.
What factors determine the success of interest groups in shaping the political agenda?
Whether and to what extent these organized interests can reflect the voices and concerns of different societal stakeholders and influence policy agenda is key to democratic societies and their fundamental values.
What do interest groups do in the agenda-setting process?
In the agenda-setting process, interest groups, including businesses, trade unions, think tanks, citizen groups, and the media, promote and advocate their agendas and try to get push their issues on to policy agendas.
How do interest group get their issues on to policy agendas?
It involves multiple actions and strategies including mobilization of interest, the expansion of conflicts on the policy issue, reframing the policy problem, gaining access to a policy arena, forming a strong policy coalition with others, and fending off challenges by other competitors on the same policy issues.
What is the goal of interest groups to participate in the agenda-setting process?
For interest groups, the goal of participating in the agenda-setting process is to promote and protect their interest, either by getting their agenda onto policy agendas to eventually attain a favorable policy outcome or by limiting the choices of policy options to minimize the harm.
What else do interest groups do in the policy agenda other than advocating for new policies?
For interest groups, the exercise of agenda-setting power is not only about the active pursuit of new and favorable policy outcomes but also about limiting the choices of available policy options that do not harm their interest and status quo.
What are the different types of lobbying?
- Insider lobbying
- Outsider lobbying
- Issue framing
- Citizen mobilization
- Advocacy and policy dialogue
What is the definition of insider lobbying?
Interest groups may lobby with and gain access to “insiders” such as lawmakers and civil servants in political institutions that have power
What is the definition of outsider lobbying?
Alternatively, they may employ “outsider” lobbying strategy to influence people’s opinion and/or media news coverage and mobilize them to urge policymakers
What is the definition of issue framing?
- The way a problem is stated, or an issue is framed influences the types of solutions that are proposed.
- To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.
What are the two primary stages in the framing process?
- Frame-building
- Frame-setting
What is the definition of frame-building?
Refers to the development of frames and their inclusion in stories, especially in news stories.
What is the definition of issue framing?
Describes audience consumption of news with frames and audience members’ consequent adoption of frames as ways to understand issues and problems.
What is the definition of citizen mobilization?
- The process of bringing people together to raise collective consciousness and help spur citizens’ transformation into agents of individual, familial, and societal change.
- Policymakers tend to favor interest groups that can garner widespread and diverse support in the agenda-setting process.
What is the definition of advocacy and policy dialogue?
- Policy dialogue may be understood as a knowledge exchange and translation platform, a mode of governance or a negotiating instrument.
- Policy dialogues describe a particular brand of bringing evidence to practice: highly focused, targeting senior policymakers and their top advisers, and marshalling support for key decision points.
Why are policy dialogue used by advocacy groups?
Policy dialogue are used by advocacy groups to convince policymakers to address a problem, debate various solutions, and decide on specific policy actions
What does policy dialogue aim to offer?
They aim to offer policymakers in a country or a group of countries a neutral platform to discuss a particular key policy issue on the basis of comparative evidence and sharing experience
What does policy dialogue provide?
Policy dialogue provides a framework for improving mutual understanding, identifying priorities, enhancing ownership and participation, finding common ground, building constituencies and resolve for change, and influencing policy
