Theory vs. Description

Question 1

Toward Better Theories of the Policy Process

Sabatier 1991

Answer 1

Since WWII, most political scientists have tended to focus on one institution. Scholars interested in public policy nave not been able to stay within these subfields because the policy process spans all of them. Policy scholars have highlighted phenomena often neglected by political scientists: the importance of policy communities, networks, subsystems involving numerous actors; the importance of substantive policy formation; the critical role of policy elites vis a vis the general public’ differences in political behavior across policy types.

Question 2

Sabatier 1991

Answer 2

Open systems policy approach (Hofferbert) - Policy process is the direct function of historical-geographic conditions, socioeconomic conditions, mass political behavior, governmental institutions and, most directly elite behavior. Institutional rational choice - Elinor Ostrom (governing the commons) because her work combines an actor based perspective with attention to institutional rules, intergovernmental relations, and policy decisions. Policy streams approach - Kingdon conceptualized three unrelated streams (1) problem stream, (2) policy stream, and (3) a political stream. ACF - Sabatier, (1) Interaction of competing advocacy coalitions, (2) changes external to the subsystem, and (3) the effects of stable system parameters.