38 Chapter 4 – Problem Identification and Agenda Setting
Chapter 4 – Problem Identification and Agenda Setting
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES:
- Summarize the processes leading to public policy.
- Evaluate public problems and construct causal stories.
- Explain agenda setting and recognize why it is an important step in the policy process.
- Describe how ideas get on the agenda.
- Explain the various stages of the agenda setting process.
- Identify government actors and their role in the agenda setting process.
In chapter 3, we discussed whether and when governments should act and, if they act, what actions governments should take to solve public problems. In this chapter, we will explore the importance of identifying problems and explain the public agenda in great detail. What is the public agenda, and how does it affect which problems the government addresses? How do policymakers and citizens move problems onto the public agenda?
For most students, learning about the policy making process calls up images of the classic Schoolhouse Rock video that tracks a lonely bill from its development to passage through Congress. As with the video, the study of how policy is made generally follows a series of steps or activities meant to simplify the legislative process. What the video does not show is what happens before the bill makes it to committee, before the policymaker has even decided which issues they plan to address. In reality, many of the steps mentioned in the video—committee hearings or the veto process—occur simultaneously or sometimes not at all. The process of identifying public problems receives limited attention, and the video entirely omits the topic of agenda setting. In this chapter, we’ll fill in the gaps by studying how politicians, lobbyists, think tanks, and journalists engage in the agenda setting process, all of which results in an imperfect and, at times, complicated system.
