Against a historical and contemporary backdrop of queer sexualities in India, this paper discusses certain approaches towards agenda setting using the Multiple Streams policy framework (Kingdon, 1984; Zahariadis, 1999) to change Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises non-normative sexual activities. The paper attempts to map the path of legal challenge to Section 377 and focus on the process of agenda setting as a crucial step in the campaign towards social policy change. It then examines some of the current trends and developments that, if used efficaciously through agenda setting, may result in a unique policy window opportunity.
AbstractIncreasingly severe wildfires have focused attention on forested watershed vulnerabilities, causing significant changes to policies and governance. We utilized the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) to understand institutional innovations of federal agency–large water provider partnerships in Colorado to protect watersheds through joint planning and funding. Ambiguous problem definition and focusing events were significant aspects of these partnerships. We interviewed individuals in the partnerships, with MSA ideas of how solutions to policy problems develop, and the role of policy entrepreneurs. We found that wildfires served as focusing events, creating space and time for learning, collaboration and new problem framing, increased political attention, and institutional innovation. In this study, windows of opportunity stayed open longer, policy entrepreneurs and agencies played larger roles in communication and coupling streams and the context of fast‐moving, unpredictable ecological crises changed responses to issues. Our findings also have implications for broader policy studies and environmental governance scholarship.
AbstractChild poverty, child maltreatment, and child health and development are major public policy issues. By the end of the Great Recession in 2009, as many as one in four children under the age of five were living in poverty and six million children were subject to child maltreatment reports in America. For decades, evidence‐based home visiting (EBHV) programs have provided effective early interventions for preventing child maltreatment and promoting child and family outcomes to pregnant women and families with children age birth to five years old. Despite this, no widespread federal policies or funding supported home visiting before 2010. Through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal government invested $1.5 billion in home visiting with the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) initiative. While many articles examine the effectiveness of home visiting and call attention to the unprecedented features of MIECHV, this article applies the multiple streams framework to illuminate the unique social and political contexts culminating in the inclusion of MIECHV in ACA. The findings in this article are significant for policy analysts, advocates, and program developers and for establishing policies requiring evidence‐based practices.
In: Shapiro , G K , Guichon , J , Prue , G , Perez , S & Rosberger , Z 2017 , ' A multiple streams analysis of the decisions to fund gender-neutral HPV vaccination in Canada ' , Preventive Medicine , vol. 100 , pp. 123-131 .
In Canada, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is licensed and recommended for females and males. Although all Canadian jurisdictions fund school-based HPV vaccine programs for girls, only six jurisdictions fund school-based HPV vaccination for boys. The research aimed to analyze the factors that underpin government decisions to fund HPV vaccine for boys using a theoretical policy model, Kingdon's Multiple Streams framework. This approach assesses policy development by examining three concurrent, but independent, streams that guide analysis: Problem Stream, Policy Stream, and Politics Stream. Analysis from the Problem Stream highlights that males are affected by HPV-related diseases and are involved in transmitting HPV infection to their sexual partners. Policy Stream analysis makes clear that while the inclusion of males in HPV vaccine programs is suitable, equitable, and acceptable; there is debate regarding cost-effectiveness. Politics Stream analysis identifies the perspectives of six different stakeholder groups and highlights the contribution of government officials at the provincial and territorial level. Kingdon's Multiple Streams framework helps clarify the opportunities and barriers for HPV vaccine policy change. This analysis identified that the interpretation of cost-effectiveness models and advocacy of stakeholders such as citizen-advocates and HPV-affected politicians have been particularly important in galvanizing policy change.
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Leisure Studies on 30 January 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2017.1285957. ; Physical activity is increasingly being defined as a major, complex, multi-sector issue. In order to understand more about how this expanded conception of physical activity is being factored into public policy, this article applies the multiple streams theory of policy change to examine the United Kingdom (UK) physical activity domain. Participant observation, policy analysis and media analysis are combined to examine the ways in which the political context, problem framing and policy solutions were brought together by a range of policy entrepreneurs. The study pays particular attention to how one lobby effort in the UK, the All Party Committee on Physical Activity (APCPA) attempted to elevate physical activity to a higher level of importance. The findings show how a hybrid form of organisation made up of traditional interest groups, corporations and government insiders, has successfully decreased ambiguity about physical activity and increased both official and public attention about the issue. The article suggests that while the multifarious benefits of physical activity and the diverse range of organisations involved have contributed to momentum towards policy change, these factors may also inhibit physical activity from remaining high on the policy agenda. Suggestions are offered for policy practices at a national level.
Using Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams framework, this article analyzes the processes of problem definition, policy proposal, and political decision-making in the passage of civil union legislation in Illinois in 2009–2011. Prominent problem definitions emphasized family vulnerability in the health care system, eclipsing the concerns of religious organizations that the existence of civil unions violated their religious liberty. Political factors which permitted both civil unions and same-sex adoption protection included disorganized and detached opponents; a state attorney general who served as a policy entrepreneur for family rights; and postelection, strategic bipartisan negotiation which opened a narrow window for policy change. Implications for family policy issues are discussed.
AbstractAs the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) moves towards full rollout, it is timely to describe the nature of the policy framework and environment driving outcomes in order to better respond to commentary and learnings. To do this, this paper assesses Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach as an explanatory model which will allow us to untangle the spaghetti of competing interests, issues and drivers of policy. Notwithstanding observed limitations, the paper finds that the potential for a policy window provides a powerful guide for actors to organise, as well as a mechanism for compromise. Further, the model suggests that key political drivers dominated the emergence and development of the NDIS and have thus shaped its current state.
Abstract The international trade system has been facing a relative decrease in the relevance of tariffs in favour of non-tariff, regulatory requirements (technical, sanitary and phytosanitary standards). The proliferation of these measures, which essentially consist of rules on product labelling and on production processes and methods, may be explained by the growing influence of private agents, such as corporations and business associations. Although these players are willing to develop and enforce a competing regulatory framework such as this on a broader range of topics, this may also generate more fragmented trade rules at both geographic and substantive levels, thus leading to a significant resistance among governments to integrate private standards into the multilateral trade system. Therefore, a mounting debate emerges on the ways in which private standards have been stonewalled in the current negotiation processes of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By relying on Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), we address this question with a particular focus on the current efforts and struggles within the WTO to incorporate private regulations into the international trade agenda.
AbstractThe Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), nicknamed "America's most successful conservation program," was permanently reauthorized during the polarized Trump administration period in 2019. This victory for conservation came during an unlikely moment. How did bipartisan conservation policy pass despite the polarization of Congress during the Trump years? In this article, I use the Multiple Streams Framework to provide insights into the LWCF's reauthorization. Focusing on the problem stream, this research identifies messaging that transcends the partisan divide and appeals to broad American values. Analysis of the messages of policy entrepreneurs found that, regardless of political party, shared messages focus on the enduring legacy of the LWCF, its economic impacts, its symbolic weight, and its use of private dollars. The wider significance of this research is better understanding decision‐making contexts with surprising common messaging in the problem stream between otherwise opposing sides of the partisan divide.Related ArticlesAngervil, Gilvert. 2021. "A Comprehensive Application of Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework: An Analysis of the Obama Administration's No Child Left Behind Waiver Policy." Politics & Policy 49(5): 980–1020. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12432Gershtenson, Joseph, Brian W. Smith, and William R. Mangun. 2006. "Friends of the Earth? Partisanship, Party Control of Congress, and Environmental Legislation in Congress." Politics & Policy 34(1): 66–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2006.00004.xRawat, Pragati, and John Charles Morris. 2016. "Kingdon's 'Streams' Model at Thirty: Still Relevant in the 21st Century?" Politics & Policy 44(4): 608–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12168
This paper suggests a new conceptual gaze at theorizing the policy process. Alternating between practical, empirical, and theoretical perspectives, we describe how the hybridization of Multiple Streams, Policy Network, and Frame theories leads to a juggling metaphor to describe the process. From the initiation of this research program, we found that the information our research yielded was vastly more complex and dynamic than what is generally reported in similar research. In particular we discovered that dynamic interactions between actors in the different (policy, problem, and politics) streams, when appraised through a policy network lens, produce different network configurations in each stream. We also found that Kingdon's "Policy entrepreneurs" are likely to engage more in shaping the problem stream network configuration (through the process Kingdon labels "alternative specification"—which requires great perspicacity with words) than in the other streams. We therefore postulate that hybridization of policy network theory with Multiple Streams theory would create a more powerful conceptual toolbox. This toolbox can be enhanced further by insights from network management conceptualisations and frame theory. Finally, we have embraced the criticism that has been voiced of the stages heuristic and proposes that a more useful metaphor for policy processes is juggling: those processes may appear chaotic, but keen discipline, coordination, and acuity are required for policy students and operators to keep all balls in the air.