Agenda-Setting and Policy Change

Abstract

The link between agenda change and policy change has been a central theme in the literature on agenda-setting. Kingdon identifies the (rapid) rise of an issue on the agenda as a crucial determinant of radical policy change, through the creation of a ‘window of opportunity’. For Baumgartner and Jones, punctuated policy change results from shifts in attention between issues, as issues rise on the macropolitical agenda. These and other theoretical accounts of policy change have led Howlett and Cashore to speak of a ‘new orthodoxy’ in policy studies, which assumes that policy change occurs in radical shifts and these radical shifts are caused by outside disturbances of the political agenda. Against these assumptions, they place an alternative account, which emphasises policy change through cumulative incremental changes and does not rely on agenda mobilisation. This panel aims to bring this theoretical debate forward by collecting a set of papers that look at the interplay between agenda processes and policy change. Central questions in this regard are (1) under what conditions and in what ways agenda mobilisation triggers policy change and (2) to what extent agenda mobilisation is a necessary condition for (major) policy change. The panel seeks to stimulate comparative and cross-theoretical debate, by bringing together papers from different theoretical and empirical angles. Although the interplay between agendas and policy change should be the central focus, papers may use any relevant theoretical approach. In terms of empirical focus, the panel is not restricted to any geographical area or scope, so papers may range from the local to the global level of government and focus on any part of the world.

Title	Details
The Political Economy of the Policy Agenda: Understanding Volatility in Government Priorities	View Paper Details
Policy Frames and Soft Drugs Policy in the Netherlands	View Paper Details
Paradigm Formation and Paradigm Change in the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact	View Paper Details
Agenda Mobilisation and Radical Policy Change: What About the Role of Institutional Friction? Some Insights from the Regulation of Same-Sex Partnerships in Germany and Spain	View Paper Details
The Role of Policy Attributes and Governments’ Interests in Agenda-Setting and Policy Change: The Case of the Development of Integrated Social Security Provision in Western Europe	View Paper Details