Agendas and Instability in American Politics, Second Edition Book

List of Illustrations vii

Preface to the Second Edition xi

Preface to the First Edition xiii

Introduction xvii

Part 1 Theoretical Beginnings 1

1 Punctuated Equilibria in Politics 3

2 Policy Images and Institutional Venues 25

3 Studying Agenda Change 39

Part 2 Tracing Policy Change in America 57

4 The Construction and Collapse of a Policy Monopoly 59

5 Two Models of Issue Expansion 83

6 The Dynamics of Media Attention 103

7 Cities as a National Political Problem 126

8 Connecting Solutions to Problems: Three Valence Issues 150

Part 3 Structural and Contextual Change in Politics 173

9 Interest Groups and Agenda-Setting 175

10 Congress as a Jurisdictional Battlefield 193

11 Federalism as a System of Policy Venues 216

12 Governing through Institutional Disruption 235

Part 4 Agendas and Instability, Fifteen Years Later 253

13 Policy Subsystems, Puncuated Equilibrium, and Theories of Policy Change 255

14 Punctuated Equilibrium and Disruptive Dynamics 285

Appendix A Data Sources 291

Appendix B Regression Analysis of Agenda Dynamics 307

References 315

Index 331