Policy Change and the Public Policy Agenda

Policy Change is the result of changes of problems and solutions discussed on the political agenda, as well as of actor constellations, networks and coalitions that jointly prefer and push one or the other solution. Two policy process theories emphasize these elements, although to different degrees. On the one hand, the Multiple Streams Framework underlines the importance of independent streams of problems and solutions, with which different elements appear on the political agenda. These elements – combinations of problems and solutions – however also need favorable actor constellations in the politics stream in order to favor policy change. The Advocacy Coalition Framework puts a main focus on actor coalitions, that is, on whom agrees with and coordinates with whom, in order to form dominant coalitions that can bring about policy change. In this chapter, we focus on both – problems and solutions as emphasized by the MSF, and actor coalitions as emphasized by the ACF – and trace them over time. We do that for 20 years of AMR policy in Germany and Switzerland, and based on data from qualitative content coding of 4 newspapers. We assess what combinations of problem and solution dynamics, jointly with what constellations of actors, change the public agenda on AMR over time, and what constellations thus are more or less likely to foster policy change. We link these constellations to instances of policy change and no policy change.