Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies

Kingdon argues that it is necessary to take into account the agenda-setting process that surrounds and determines the policy-making process itself. Kingdon builds his framework around the 'garbage can' model of decision-making (developed by Cohen, March & Olsen in the early 1970s), which views organisations as choices looking for problems, and solutions looking for issues, rather than vice versa. Kingdon identifies four factors that influence the movement of choices and solutions within the agenda-setting process:

1. The problem stream denotes which issues are recognised as significant social problems. Citizens, groups and journalists work actively within this stream to trigger interest in problems.
   
2. The policy stream refers to which advice is regarded as 'good advice'. This changes in tandem with the problem stream and with external events.
   
3. The political stream: both the problem stream and the policy stream operate within a political environment characterised by elections, changes in government, changes in political champion causes, and changes in public opinion.
   
4. Policy windows occur when there is an opening for new views. This is usually triggered by a major event such as a crisis, a new international agreement, budget negotiations, or a priority-setting exercise. Policy windows provide the opportunity to have alternative issues and solutions considered seriously.

In short, critical factors in this model of agenda-setting are timing, chance and external influence. Problems and solutions may disappear or float to the top of the streams in a somewhat random manner, which means that important decisions can be taken in various places and with varying interest in relevant research. However, the role of external influences also indicates that research that is circulated within policy networks may have a significant impact when it chances to address an emerging issue at the right time and place.