Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas

Stone, Deborah A.

doi:10.14361/9783839437322-030

Cited by 82 publications

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“…Problems and solutions can be conceptualized in many ways. 16 For instance, those involved with population and reproductive health policy have disagreed on whether individual rights or social consequences provide the primary rationale for addressing these issues, and on the centrality of family planning provision in this agenda. 17 Global health networks often become embroiled in conflict over problem specification and solutions, hampering their ability to act collectively.…”

Section: The Four Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Shiffman

2017

Int J Health Policy Manag

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Global health networks, webs of individuals and organizations with a shared concern for a particular condition, have proliferated over the past quarter century. They differ in their effectiveness, a factor that may help explain why resource allocations vary across health conditions and do not correspond closely with disease burden. Drawing on findings from recently concluded studies of eight global health networks—addressing alcohol harm, early childhood development (ECD), maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, pneumonia, surgically-treatable conditions, tobacco use, and tuberculosis—I identify four challenges that networks face in generating attention and resources for the conditions that concern them. The first is problem definition: generating consensus on what the problem is and how it should be addressed. The second is positioning: portraying the issue in ways that inspire external audiences to act. The third is coalition-building: forging alliances with these external actors, particularly ones outside the health sector. The fourth is governance: establishing institutions to facilitate collective action. Research indicates that global health networks that effectively tackle these challenges are more likely to garner support to address the conditions that concern them. In addition to the effectiveness of networks, I also consider their legitimacy, identifying reasons both to affirm and to question their right to exert power.

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Section: The Four Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Shiffman

2017

Int J Health Policy Manag

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“…Problem definitions allow for policy action (for example, Stone, 1989) and impact upon the design of policy solutions (for example, Kingdon, 2002;Schneider and Ingram, 1997). Policy images are a foundational concept in PET's explanation of agenda setting.…”

Section: Problem Definitions and Policy Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of the agenda setting literature argues that the agenda is significantly impacted by how people make sense of, define, process, and pay attention to policy problems (for example, Stone, 1989;Kingdon, 2002;Baumgartner and Jones, 2009). Considering this sense-making and attention focus, an NPF-informed approach may increase model specification of how individuals think and communicate about policy problems, since narrative is intimately involved in how people process information (for example, Roe, 1994;Stone, 2001;Jones and McBeth, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Making sense of complexity: the narrative policy framework and agenda setting

Peterson¹,

Jones²

2016

Handbook of Public Policy Agenda Setting

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Since early writers like Walter Lippman (1922) wrote about elite influence over public attention to policy issues, researchers have attempted to better understand the challenges present in setting policy agendas. The development of this literature has been truly interdisciplinary, finding traction in many academic disciplines, including communication studies (McCombs and Shaw, 1972), political science (Cobb and Elder, 1983), public administration (Birkland, 1997), and public policy (Stone, 2001), to name but a few. Findings have also been many. Agenda setting scholars have explored the processes and mechanisms determining how policy problems are defined (Stone

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“…Why a problem becomes a problem, or in other words "the conversion of difficulties into problems" (Stone, 1989), is a complex process in which ideas and cognitive frames play a crucial role. Early studies on agenda setting have insisted on this central place of ideas in transforming difficulties into problems that are put on the agenda.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Why then do they become a problem that political actors perceive to be necessary to address? In order to explain this process, it is possible to concentrate on the characteristics of actors participating in the agenda setting process -public or private -or the nature of the difficulties themselves -whether they are serious or mild, new or recurring, shortterm or long-term (Stone, 1989). Constructivist approaches, however, argue that it is only when we concentrate on the framing of the deliberate use of language and thus the framing of information available as a way of getting an issue on the political agenda -or, on the contrary, keeping it off -that we best understand why some issues make it on the agenda while others don't.…”

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confidence: 99%

Constructivism and agenda setting

Saurugger¹

2016

Handbook of Public Policy Agenda Setting

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Agenda setting and constructivism have established a very close relationship since the first publications on the transformation of an issue into a problem at the beginning of the 20th century. Why a problem becomes a problem, or in other words "the conversion of difficulties into problems" (Stone, 1989), is a complex process in which ideas and cognitive frames play a crucial role. Early studies on agenda setting have insisted on this central place of ideas in transforming difficulties into problems that are put on the agenda. Empirical examples abound in this aspect: why do tobacco or alcohol consumptions become a problem at one point in time, although alcohol and tobacco consumption is a centuries-old practice? Other problems such as food safety, the fight against cancer, housing policies, or the fight against terrorism are regularly put on the agenda. Some of these issues are linked to immediate events, such as terrorist attacks; others, however, are constantly part of the social and political system in which we live. Why then do they become a problem that political actors perceive to be necessary to address? In order to explain this process, it is possible to concentrate on the characteristics of actors participating in the agenda setting process -public or private -or the nature of the difficulties themselves -whether they are serious or mild, new or recurring, shortterm or long-term (Stone, 1989). Constructivist approaches, however, argue that it is only when we concentrate on the framing of the deliberate use of language and thus the framing of information available as a way of getting an issue on the political agenda -or, on the contrary, keeping it off -that we best understand why some issues make it on the agenda while others don't.The chapter is structured as follows. In the next section, the chapter aims to analyse the intimate, but very often implicit, relationship between constructivism and agenda setting by presenting the major claims and developments of constructivism with regard to the agenda setting process in policy studies. The subsequent section will outline the main controversies and show how constructivism has tried to answer the limitations of other approaches in the analysis of the agenda setting process. The final section will develop a series of issues that might be addressed in possible research agendas anticipating future developments.

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Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas

Cited by 82 publications

References 0 publications

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Making sense of complexity: the narrative policy framework and agenda setting

Constructivism and agenda setting

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