Policy Agenda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Policy Agenda - Essay Example Agenda setting can be a compound phenomenon. Indeed, the dominant metaphor in modern agenda-setting studies has been the "garbage can model of choice," in which streams of troubles, policies, and politics flow autonomously until the right combination of them guided to a "policy window" in which decisions can be made (Kingdon 1997, Baumgartner and Jones 1993, 2002). as these concepts were developed in studies of agenda setting in the United States, one should be cautious in pertaining them to other polities, particularly since parliamentary democracies typically feature more specific party policy commitments, better executive-legislative dexterity, and greater stress on less overtly visible interest group-executive contacts, amongst other things. In short, most other liberal democratic polities perhaps lean more toward the organization end of what has been called "organized anarchy" than does the United States. This is not to refute that there exists a "policy primeval soup" (Kingdon 1997) in each. though they use overlapping terms, there is not complete agreement amongst analysts about the major concepts, extent, and processes of agenda setting. generally, the agenda-setting literature can be separated into two major theoretical approaches, which resemble the pluralist and elitist schools of thought (Petracca 1990). The pluralist loom emphasizes the role of the public, interest groups, and the media in emergent the political agenda (Downs 1972). In contrast, the elitist approach to agenda setting sees the main initiatives coming from government officials as well as policy communities; other elements mainly act as veto groups (Kingdon 1997). Perhaps as the research stems from a U.S. base, neither orientation rates political parties extremely in the agenda-setting process. Cobb, Keith-Ross, and Ross ( 1976) give a bridge across these two approaches by positing three models of agenda setting outside inventiveness, mobilization, and inside initiative. The first is mass to elite, t he subsequent elite to mass, and the third elite to elite only. Major element of agenda setting is the procedure of problem identification/problem structuring of the policy issue. How a policy issue is prepared and identified in this initial stage will settle on the direction and content of the public discourse and the proposed solutions as it moves through the residual