Agenda Setting
PA 306
Farley
Fall 2005
What is an agenda?
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“Collection of problems, understanding of
causes, symbols, solutions, and other elements
of public problems to come to the attention of
members of the public and their governmental
officials”
Can be as concrete as bills, but also includes
beliefs about what is a problem, how serious a
problem is, who should address problem and
how.
Agenda Setting
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“Why do some problems come to occupy the
attention of governmental officials more than
other problems?” Kingdon p.105
“Agenda setting is the process by which
problems and alternative solutions gain or lose
public and elite attention.” Birkland P.106
What is off the agenda can be as important as
what is on.
Social Construction of Reality
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“The process of defining problems and of selling
a broad population on this definition is called
social construction. Social construction refers to
the ways in which we as a society and the
various contending interests within it structure
and tell the stories about how problems come to
be the way they are.” Birkland P.122
Very important in determining what is on or off
the agenda.
Levels of Agenda


Agenda Universe
Systemic agenda
 Flexible
boundaries
 What is impact of disasters, e.g. Katrina?

Institutional agenda
 List

of items explicitly up for serious consideration
Decision agenda
 In
the federal register
Agenda Setting as Conflict
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“The group that successfully describes a problem will
also be the one that defines the solution to it, thereby
prevailing in policy debate. At the same time, groups
fight to keep issues off the agenda.” Birkland P.106
Schattschneider: “All forms of political organization have
a bias in favor of the exploitation of some kinds of
conflict and the suppression of others because
organization is the mobilization of bias. Some issues are
organized into politics while others are organized out.”
Birkland P.111
‘Coercive power’ , ‘blocking power’, quiescence
Agenda Setting as Collaboration

“Consensus is built in the political stream
by bargaining more than by persuasion.”
Kingdon P.107
How do problems get on the higher
agendas?
 Indicators
Magnitude
(numbers):
and change
Deciding to count something is itself a
policy decision
 Focusing
events: “A disaster, crisis, personal
experience, or powerful symbol—draws attention to
some conditions more than to others. But such an event
has only transient effects unless accompanied by a
firmer indication of a problem, by a preexisting
perception, or by a combination with other similar
events.
Katrina
 Past
catastrophes
 What problem(s) does Katrina bring into
focus?

Feedback
“Officials learn about conditions through
feedback about the operation of existing
programs, either formal (e.g. routine
monitoring of costs or program evaluation
studies) or informal (e.g. streams of
complaints flowing into congressional
offices).” Kingdon P.106
Shifting from “Conditions” to
“Problems”…
“Conditions come to be defined as
problems, and have a better chance of
rising on the agenda, when we come to
believe that we should do something to
change them.” Kingdon P.106
 A problem is only a problem if a more
desirable outcome exists

Conditions are defined as
problems in several ways:
Conditions that violate important values
 Conditions that are compared to other
countries or units
 How we define a condition determines
what the problem is.

 E.g.
Katrina
Couplings
Three streams:
 Problem:
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Policy: Often developed by invisible actors
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Politics:
Partial Couplings:
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Solutions to problems, but without a
receptive political climate
Politics to proposals, but without a
sense that a compelling problem is
being solved
Politics and problems both calling for
action, but without an available
alternative to advocate. Kingdon P.110
Policy Windows:

Some are predictable—upcoming
legislative session for instance…

Some are not predictable—the case of
a focusing events for example …
Kingdon p.111
Policy window: case study of 9/11

Project for the New American Century
 Problem:
Threats to American Supremacy
 Policies

REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES: Strategy, Forces
and Resources for a New Century– Sept., 2000


Depose Hussein, control over resources, etc.
Process will be long and slow “absent some catastrophic and
catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”
 Politics:
Election of Bush
 Focusing event: 9/11
Some Actors:
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Visible actors
Special Interests
Invisible actors
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“Interest groups are often able to block consideration of
proposals they do not prefer, or adapt to an item already high on
a governmental agenda by adding elements a bit more to their
liking. They less often initiate considerations or set agendas on
their own. And when organized interests come into conflict with
the combination of national mood and elected politicians, the
latter combination is likely to prevail, at least as far as setting an
agenda is concerned.” Kingdon P.107
What about think tanks?
National media? Local media, e.g. Free Press and Wind Power
A Key Actor: Policy Entrepreneurs
Motivated by combinations of:
 Straightforward concern about certain problems
 Pursuit of self serving benefits as protecting or
expanding their bureaucracy’s budget or
claiming credit for accomplishment
 Promotion of policy values
 Simple pleasure of participating Kingdon p.112
Ideology and the “National Mood”
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What’s an ideology?
Aside: ideology vs. science
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“The terms of the debate can be grounded wholly in how the
world ought to be, not in how it is.” Murray
What factors shift ideology?
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Material forces? e.g. Tax burden, profitability, compensation
Crime?
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Crime trends and crime reporting
Media bias?
What factors dictate the “national mood?”
Politics and Ideologies
In small groups discuss:
 How do you talk about politics?
 When do you feel comfortable talking
about politics?
 How can we construct a space in this
class to talk about our political views?
Political Partisanship
What are the assumptions of “liberals” or
“the left?”
 What are the assumptions of
“conservatives” or “the right?”
 Whose assumptions are we more familiar
with?
Why?
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