Policy Agenda Module 1
Summary
TLDRThis transcript discusses the politics of agenda-setting in the United States, emphasizing how a functioning democracy should reflect public concerns through elected officials. It explores the policy agenda, distinguishing between systemic and governmental agendas, and further breaks down governmental agenda into mandatory and discretionary items. The focus is on why certain policies are prioritized over others. John Kingdon's agenda-setting model is highlighted, explaining how problems, policies, and politics converge to create a policy window for potential legislative action. The summary also touches on the role of indicators, focusing events, and feedback in problem recognition, and the influence of elections, national mood, and interest groups in shaping the political stream.
Takeaways
- 🗳️ Democracy functions optimally when the public's electoral choices directly influence the policy agenda of public officials.
- 📋 The policy agenda encompasses issues that policymakers choose to act on or at least appear to be acting on.
- 🌐 The systemic agenda includes all issues discussed by various stakeholders, while the governmental agenda focuses on what the government is actively addressing.
- 📅 Mandatory agenda items are issues that must be addressed by the government, such as budgeting and treaty negotiations.
- 🛑 Discretionary agenda items are policy matters that are not mandatory but are chosen by policymakers to focus on, often based on political priorities.
- 🔑 John Kingdon's agenda-setting model suggests that policies are most likely to pass when a problem stream, a policy stream, and a politics stream align.
- 📊 The problem stream involves indicators, focusing events, and feedback that bring issues to the government's attention.
- 🏛️ The politics stream is influenced by factors like elections, national mood, and interest groups' demands, which shape politicians' policy priorities.
- 📝 The policy stream consists of various policy proposals that are waiting for the right opportunity to be attached to a current problem.
- 🪟 Policy windows are brief periods when the alignment of the problem, policy, and politics streams creates an opportunity for policy change.
Q & A
What is the importance of agenda-setting in a democracy?
-Agenda-setting is crucial for a functioning democracy because it determines which issues are addressed by public officials. Ideally, in a democracy, the people should send signals to their officials through elections about the problems that need attention.
What does James Anderson's categorization of the policy agenda entail?
-James Anderson's categorization of the policy agenda includes the demands that policymakers choose to act on or at least appear to be acting on. These are the issues that governments are actively looking at or studying at any given time.
What is the difference between the systemic agenda and the governmental agenda?
-The systemic agenda includes all issues being discussed by various stakeholders like interest groups, politicians, and the media. The governmental agenda, however, specifically refers to what the government is actually attending to at any given time.
What are mandatory agenda items?
-Mandatory agenda items are issues that the government must address by law or regulation. For example, the federal budget must be passed by a certain date to avoid a government shutdown, and presidential appointments require Senate confirmation.
Can you explain discretionary agenda items?
-Discretionary agenda items are issues that a president or government official chooses to prioritize based on their political agenda or beliefs. These are not legally required but are important to the individual in power, such as President Obama's focus on the Affordable Care Act.
What is John Kingdon's agenda-setting model?
-John Kingdon's agenda-setting model suggests that there are three streams: the problem stream, the policy stream, and the politics stream. When these three streams come together at a policy window, there is a high likelihood that policy will be passed.
What are the elements of the problem stream in Kingdon's model?
-The problem stream includes indicators like unemployment rates, focusing events such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks, and feedback from citizens and institutions about existing policies.
How does the politics stream influence the agenda?
-The politics stream is influenced by factors such as elections, national mood, and interest groups. Politicians may choose to address certain issues based on perceived electoral advantages or changes in public opinion.
What role do interest groups play in the agenda-setting process?
-Interest groups can influence the agenda by pressing their demands. However, they are generally more effective at blocking ideas than getting new items onto the agenda.
What is a policy window according to Kingdon's model?
-A policy window is a brief period when the problem, policy, and politics streams align, creating an opportunity for policy change. If these streams do not align during this window, the chance of policy passing decreases.
What does Anthony Downs' issue attention cycle consist of?
-Anthony Downs' issue attention cycle includes stages like the pre-problem stage, alarm discovery stage, decline of intensity, and post-problem stage. This cycle explains how issues move in and out of public focus, affecting the likelihood of policy enactment.
Outlines
🗳️ Democracy and Agenda-Setting
This paragraph discusses the importance of agenda-setting in democracy, particularly in the United States. It emphasizes that in a fully functioning democracy, the public should dictate the government's agenda through elections. The concept of inputs equaling outputs in a political system is introduced as an indicator of a healthy democracy. The paragraph then delves into James Anderson's categorization of the policy agenda, which includes both what policymakers choose to act on and what they merely appear to act on. Anderson's distinction between the systemic agenda (everything being discussed in Washington) and the governmental agenda (what the government is actually attending to) is highlighted. The governmental agenda is further divided into mandatory and discretionary agenda items, with examples provided for each, such as the federal budget and presidential appointments for mandatory items, and the Affordable Care Act as a discretionary item.
🌐 Understanding the Policy Agenda
The second paragraph focuses on how the policy agenda is set, using John Kingdon's agenda-setting model. Kingdon's model suggests that there are three streams that influence policy: the problem stream, the policy stream, and the politics stream. The paragraph explains that for policy to be passed, these three streams must align and create a policy window. The problem stream involves how issues gain attention, with indicators, focusing events, and feedback highlighted as key factors. Indicators are government statistics that signal problems, while focusing events are incidents that draw significant attention to an issue. Feedback from citizens and institutions can also influence the agenda. The paragraph also touches on the politics stream, which includes the national mood, elections, and rational behavior by politicians, and how these factors can push certain issues onto the governmental agenda.
🔄 The Dynamics of Policy Formation
Paragraph three continues the discussion on Kingdon's agenda-setting model, focusing on the politics stream and the policy stream. The politics stream encompasses issues that politicians perceive as needing attention, such as new presidential mandates or changes in national mood. The paragraph gives examples, like President Trump's focus on immigration and renegotiating NAFTA, and how these issues are driven by political agendas. The policy stream, on the other hand, is about the solutions proposed for existing problems. It discusses how policy proposals are often attached to current events to gain traction. The concept of policy windows is also introduced, which are opportune moments for policy change that can close quickly. The paragraph concludes by discussing how policy windows can close due to factors like public interest waning or the emergence of opposing views, using the example of the Harry and Louise ads that influenced public opinion on health care reform.
📉 The Challenges of Policy Reform
The final paragraph summarizes the challenges in getting policies onto the agenda and the rarity of significant policy reform. It uses Anthony Downs' issue attention cycle to explain why policy windows close quickly. The cycle includes stages such as the pre-problem stage, where issues are not widely discussed, the alarm discovery stage, where public interest peaks, and the post-problem stage, where interest declines, and issues return to being managed by experts. The paragraph emphasizes the difficulty of aligning the problem, policy, and politics streams through a policy window to enact policy changes, which is why major reforms are infrequent in government.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Agenda-setting
💡Democracy
💡Policy Agenda
💡Systemic Agenda
💡Governmental Agenda
💡Mandatory Agenda Items
💡Discretionary Agenda Items
💡John Kingdon's Agenda Setting Model
💡Problem Stream
💡Politics Stream
💡Policy Stream
💡Policy Window
💡Attention Cycle
Highlights
The importance of agenda-setting in understanding democracy in the United States.
In a fully functioning democracy, the public should dictate the political agenda through elections.
Agenda-setting can be detrimental to democracy if controlled by entities other than the public.
James Anderson's categorization of the policy agenda into what policymakers choose to act on.
The necessity for policymakers to at least appear to be acting on certain issues.
The distinction between the systemic agenda and the governmental agenda in policy-making.
The systemic agenda includes all issues discussed by various entities in Washington.
The governmental agenda focuses on what the government is currently attending to.
Mandatory agenda items are those that government must address, such as budgets and treaties.
Discretionary agenda items are policy issues that a president or government chooses to prioritize.
John Kingdon's agenda-setting model with three streams: problem, policy, and politics.
A policy window opens when the three streams align, increasing the likelihood of policy passage.
Indicators, focusing events, and feedback are factors that bring problems to government attention.
Focusing events, such as 9/11, can drastically change policy agendas.
The politics stream includes factors like elections, national mood, and interest groups influencing policy agendas.
The policy stream consists of proposed solutions to problems waiting for the right time to be enacted.
Policy windows can close quickly due to the attention cycle of issues.
The Harry and Louise ads as an example of how public opinion can shift and close a policy window.
The rarity of massive policy reform due to the complexities of aligning the three streams and policy windows.
Transcripts
so we're gonna focus in on the politics
of agenda-setting which is very
important to understanding how democracy
works in the United States and a fully
functioning democracy it should be the
people through elections that send
signals to their public officials as to
the problems that should be addressed
and if that's what actually happens kind
of in the political systems theory model
where the inputs equal the outputs then
democracy is working well if somebody
else has the ability to be able to make
and set the agenda then that is
obviously to the detriment of democracy
so we're gonna focus on why government
looks at some policies and not others so
let's just go back to James Anderson's
categorization of the policy agenda
Anderson says that the policy agenda is
the demands that policymakers choose to
or feel compelled to act on or at least
appear to be acting on and I think the
second part of that is very important
that it's at least appear to be acting
on right so these are the things that
government's actually looking at at any
given moment in time and what they are
studying what they're trying to do so
there are potentially thousands of
different things that they could be
looking at but there are only a few
items at any given point in time that
are actually on the public agenda right
essentially because there's a limited
amount of time and there are a limited
amount of resources to be able to
function now carbon elder who are
probably the two most well known
theorists of studying policy agendas
basically pointed to different things
what we can call a systemic agenda
versus what we can call the governmental
agenda so the systemic agendas are
essentially everything that's being
discussed discussed in the Washington
community interest groups politicians
the media members of Congress what are
the issues that are out there that are
being discussed now obviously there's an
infinite amount of possibilities that
are on the systemic agenda so really
that doesn't provide a very useful
context for us to understand how
government works well
really want to focus in on is the
governmental agenda what's government
actually attending to at any given point
in time now in looking at that carbon
elder breakdown two additional things
within the governmental agenda one is
the mandatory agenda items and second
are discretionary agenda items so for
example in the federal government the
federal budget year what they call the
fiscal year runs from October 1st to
September 30th
technically in any given year the budget
has to be passed by September 30th in
order for to start on October 1st and
absent a budget the federal government
cannot operate
hence over the last several years we've
had threats of government shutdowns and
actual government shutdowns without
legislation the government cannot run so
that obviously is you know as a
consequence a mandatory public policy
that has to be on the agenda you know we
have it at the state level as well but
over the last several years we have not
been able to get that done on time
either presidential appointments are
something they're kind of mandatory so
when the president say for example the
president Trump and president all of his
cabinet had to be had to be vetted by
the United States Senate and then have a
confirmation process that would be
something we considered to be mandatory
the president negotiates a treaty with
another country that's something that
has to be looked at by them we also have
what are called reauthorizations which
are every several years major public
policy topics have to be reauthorized
essentially weary up for another four or
five years and say these are our
priorities in agriculture for the next
four or five years and this is how much
money we want to spend so once money
runs dry or runs out on a certain
program that has to be reauthorized and
that's mandatory or else you can't spend
money on that program then there are
also discretionary things so for example
every president comes into office with
some issues that they got elected on and
which don't necessarily have to be dealt
with but
important to them so President Obama for
example when he became president focused
his first year year plus about year and
a quarter on passing the Affordable Care
Act that was a discretionary item he
could have decided to focus more on
economic development particularly
because of the recession but he felt as
though he would never have enough
political capital again to be able to
push healthcare through and the time was
then to do that that was a discretionary
policy Republicans in Congress
attempting to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act that is a
discretionary policy there's already you
know there already is a policy called
the Affordable Care Act and they've put
and the Republicans have put this on the
agenda as a discretionary item there's
no mandatory reason for that to be
discussed so really we want to focus in
on the governmental agenda and not the
systemic agenda now in looking at how we
set the agenda there are a couple of
different ways to focus on this John
Kingdon has an agenda setting model
that's very well known and very useful
to helping us understand when things
actually get passed and you'll see a
diagram here his agenda setting model
says that there are basically three
streams out there there's a problem
stream a policy stream a politics stream
and then there's a policy window when
all three of these streams can come
together you got a pretty good
likelihood that something's actually
going to pass if not if those streams
don't come together probably will not
pass so let's take a look at what each
one of these individual things mean the
problem stream one of the things that we
focus on is how do problems gain the
attention of members of government or
the public there are a number of things
that kingdon points to he talks about
indicators focusing events and feedback
so there are a lot of government
statistics or statistics that are
provided that are indicators to us of
when there is a problem the biggest
thing obviously is unemployment when the
unemployment rate starts to increase
generally we were
recession our economic growth is another
indicator and that indicates to us that
a priority should be placed on finding
new ways to create jobs rates of poverty
and impoverishment our indicators that
let us know what needs to be dealt with
in society the cost of government
programs other indicators looking at
budget deficits over time are indicators
of the health of the economy and the
health of the federal budget and are an
indicator that something needs to be
done right so if we see an exploding
future budget deficit that usually is an
indicator at least to Republicans that
they should try to cut some spending
sometimes you have what's called a
focusing event which really places great
emphasis on something that's occurring
and the need to be able to make policy
change on that so for example within our
lifetimes probably the biggest focusing
event was September 11th 2001 prior to
at that point in time most people had
never heard of al Qaeda most people were
not particularly concerned about
terrorism but that event then changed
the way that we looked at the world the
United States place in the world and
within a matter of two years we were in
two separate wars one effect in
Afghanistan and one in Iraq and that was
a focusing event that changed the
trajectory of American foreign policy a
couple of other things
McCain Katrina was a focusing event on
our you know global warming and our
ability to be able to deal with
disasters and certainly FEMA became a
household name after that and we've
suffered through a number of hurricanes
recently and really our ability to be
able to limit the loss of lives probably
was a consequence of Katrina being a
focusing event that changed the way that
we deal with disasters there were all
kinds of things in relationship to this
that we can talk about focusing events
and then finally feedback one thing is
that citizens and state governments and
local governments and institutions and
businesses provide feedback to govern
when programs don't work and that
creates a need to be able to alter or
change these puppies policies and that
brings it to the attention of government
right so indicators being some kind of
statistics that that you know alert us
to a problem a focusing event something
that gains widespread notoriety and then
put something on the agenda and then
finally kind of decide to give feedback
on how policies work the second stream
that we talked about with with with
Kingdon is the politics stream and these
are things that politicians perceive
should actually be addressed and if this
changes over time and there are a number
of reasons why one is that one political
party the other believes that there
might be an electoral advantage to
dealing with this problem so just use
the example of the Republicans
attempting to to to get rid of the
Affordable Care Act replacing it and and
replace that repeal and replace because
they think that that is a policy that's
got them elected over the last election
cycles and that's something that they
should be focusing on right so that's
the politics stream often times when we
get a new president they come in with
what they consider to be a mandate to
change policy and a small amount of
items that they ran on so for example
you know for for Donald Trump
immigration is a major issue that is on
his agenda in addition to that
renegotiating NAFTA serve all these kind
of things that happen when you have a
new president or a new congressional
majority that takes over
it can also be times in which there's a
change in the national mood that we
believe that certain things should be
dealt with so there's a lot of
discussion in American culture today
about income inequality and people are
more willing than they probably have
been in several decades to regulate
businesses and become more kind of
intrusive in the business environment
and that's because people's ideas about
what's fair and what's not fair in the
topic of inequality is grown
to gain attention finally interest
groups can also press their demands and
get things on the agenda but as it says
down here at the bottom interest groups
are generally much better at blocking
ideas than they are actually getting
things on to the agenda so really
the national mood and elections and
rational behavior by politicians are the
most important things in the policy
stream I mean in that politics stream
and then finally we have the policy
stream and that is what should be done
about a problem so the interesting thing
about the policy streams are that there
are all types of ideas that are floating
around out there about policy issues
what you try to do if you have a
solution to a problem is attach it to a
problem that's existing at the current
time right so every issue that's out
there that you're supporting has a
proposal that you've developed about how
to deal with it and you're always trying
to find somebody that will pass that
policy so for example you can use
different focusing events for different
purposes right so say for example you
know the Hurricanes that just came
through Florida and and Texas they can
be used for the purposes of trying to
deal with things like global climate
change or they can be used as a method
to be able to focus in on how to deal
more effectively with disaster relief
now all the proposals for dealing with
climate change or disaster relief are
already out there what I'm trying to do
is take my proposal for that and attach
it to some event that's occurring so
you're successful if you match policies
to events
then finally we have these policy
windows there are times in which you
have to strike while the iron is hot and
I mentioned that President Obama in 2009
2010 felt that the only time that he
could pass health care reform would be
in his first year or so of office and
after that you'd run into the midterm
elections and then they'd be up for the
next presidential election in 2012 so
there was a small policy window to be
able to pass health care legislation and
they didn't want to miss that window so
basically that's driven by the problem
stream and the political stream so you
know things gain people's attentions and
then at that point in time our
politicians say oh we should deal with
this problem but the window for passing
policy change can can close relatively
quickly so you have to you have a very
limited time period now the question is
why does that policy window closed so
quickly and Anthony towns who's an
economist or a political economists
basically is said that there's an issue
attention cycle and there are certain
stages that we go through that open a
window for policy enactment and then
close it very quickly so there's the pre
problem stage when nobody except for the
people that are really affected by a
policy are interested in it that's not
out of the public view
there isn't much being discussed by the
public then there's what we can call the
alarm discovery stage all of a sudden a
problem pops up there and people get all
excited about this issue and we should
be addressing this right and then
interest groups politicians people that
oppose that policy start to say hey wait
a second yeah it would be real nice if
we had that policy but there are a lot
of costs associated with that and you
can't see it right here but I will make
these slides available to you you can
click on the Harry and Louise video here
back in 1992 when President Clinton
actually 93 when President Clinton was
trying to pass health care reform it was
on the public docket and people were
generally receptive to health care
reform but then a series of ads and it's
very rare that kind of ads really
changed things but a series of ads
called the Harry and Louisa ads fran and
basically said hey i was for all this
but look at all this government
regulation look at the fact that my
health care is going to change and
people started to realize well yeah we
want to insure the uninsured but we
don't want care to change and you know
we realized that there's going to be a
cost with a project and with a policy
and gradually this leads to a decline of
our intensity of interest and next thing
you know you get to the post problem
stage where once again something is out
of you and nobody deals with it except
for the experts so that's kind of an
overview of john Kingman's idea of how
things get onto the agenda so these
streams that move around there when you
can get the streams together and fit
them through a policy window you've got
a good chance of passing policy but as
you can see from this so real reason why
there is very rarely any massive reform
that goes on in government
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