Agenda Setting and Problem Definition

Abstract

What happens after public issues attain agenda status? Exploring this question in the context of one instance of social protest in Israel, the 1990 ‘tents movement’, this paper focuses on government reaction and the way it successfully disintegrated the movement. A movement that proved strong enough to put the housing problem on the national agenda, and to keep it there for a few months, has had no influence on the subsequent treatment of this issue. Apparently, to legitimize an issue is not the same as to legitimize demands. This hypothesis is examined in a broader conceptual context, distinguishing between agenda setting and problem definition. This distinction, in turn, calls into attention the power of initial definitions of problems, and the mechanisms employed by guardians of the status quo.