Publication | Closed Access
Agendas and instability in American politics
6.1K
Citations
0
References
1993
Year
Policy StudiesPublic PolicyPolitical ChangePublic Policy MakingGovernmental ProcessPolitical AgendaPolitical ProcessEducationPolitical PolarizationPolitical BehaviorPolitical CommunicationPolicy PerspectiveUnpredictable Policy ChangeGovernment CommunicationPolitical ScienceSocial SciencesAmerican Politics
The book offers a groundbreaking account of how policy issues rise and fall on the national agenda, arguing that short‑term, single‑issue analysis narrows public policy to cozy arrangements among politicians, interest groups, and the media. The authors aim to reinterpret policy dynamics by examining long‑term trajectories of multiple issues to show that rapid, unpredictable policy bursts punctuate stable patterns. They analyze several issues over time, including nuclear energy, urban affairs, smoking, and auto safety, to illustrate how rapid policy bursts interrupt stability. The second edition confirms the book’s landmark status, refining the argument and extending it to other democracies, and its new chapters cement its enduring influence in policy studies.
When Agendas and Instability in American Politics appeared fifteen years ago, offering a profoundly original account of how policy issues rise and fall on the national agenda, the Journal of Politics predicted that it would 'become a landmark study of public policy making and American politics'. That prediction proved true, and in this long-awaited second edition, Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones refine their influential argument and expand it to illuminate the workings of democracies beyond the United States. The authors retain all the substance of their contention that short-term, single-issue analysis cast public policy too narrowly as the result of cozy and dependable arrangements among politicians, interest groups, and the media. Baumgartner and Jones provide a different interpretation by taking the long view of several issues - including nuclear energy, urban affairs, smoking, and auto safety - to demonstrate that bursts of rapid, unpredictable policy change punctuate the patterns of stability more frequently associated with government. Featuring a new introduction and two additional chapters, this updated edition ensures that their findings will remain a touchstone of policy studies for many years to come.