11. Policy streams and policy windows

Kingdon argues that in order to understand and influence policy, one must understand the agenda-setting process. He sees the agenda-setting process as the result of four factors:

• The problem stream, i.e. which issues are recognised as significant problems
• The policy stream, i.e. which advice is regarded as ‘good advice’ at a given time
• The political stream, which refers to the wider political environment of elections, government changes, public opinion, etc
• Policy windows, i.e. an opening for new views to enter either the problem stream or the policy stream.
  

Policy windows can be triggered through provoking interest in a new problem, or through influencing a change in what is seen as ‘good advice’. Kingdon concludes, however, that policy windows often occur by chance or due to an external crisis, and therefore researchers may have more luck in engaging actively with policy windows once they have occurred (rather than attempting to trigger them).

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