scholarly journals Modeling reactive attention among congressional witnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greer Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Congressional Committee ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
Singular Event ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Focusing Event

Although often considered dichotomous drivers of congressional agenda activity, indicators and focusing events may exist on a continuum if indicators are capable of culminating in a singular event that focuses attention. Identifying this culmination point could help explain how anticipatory, indicator-driven threats such as COVID-19 can dominate policy agendas in a manner similar to a focusing event. This paper investigates whether the culmination point can be identified by quantifying anticipatory and reactive attention of congressional committee witnesses towards an indicator-driven threat. The findings demonstrate that peaks in congressional witness numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a transition from anticipatory to reactive attention, which was associated with rapid increases in unemployment. This demonstrates that a transition from anticipatory to reactive attention could mark the culmination point of an indicator-driven event such as COVID-19, and explain how and why some indicators are capable of focusing attention, but others are not.

Agenda Setting and the Policy Process: Focusing Events

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Birkland ◽  
Kathryn L. Schwaeble
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Policy Process ◽  
Policy Failures ◽  
Focusing Event ◽  
Policy Discussion

Agenda setting is a crucial aspect of the public policy process. Sudden, rare, and harmful events, known as focusing events, can be important influences on the policy process. Such events can reveal current and potential future harms, mobilize people and groups to address the policy failures that may be revealed by such events, and open the “window of opportunity” for intensive policy discussion and potential policy change. But focusing events operate differently at different times and in different policy domains. Although the idea of focusing events is firmly rooted in Kingdon’s “streams approach” to the policy process, focusing events are an important element of most contemporary theories of the policy process. But not every event works as a focusing event. The process by which a focusing event can yield policy change is complex and involves attention to the problems revealed by the event as well as evidence of learning from the event on the part of policymakers. Although focusing events are important, in many ways the concept remains underdeveloped, with few researchers seeking to understand the dynamics of these important events.

A Focusing Tragedy: Public Policy and the Establishment of Afrocentric Education in Toronto

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 807-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Thompson ◽  
Jennifer Wallner
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
School Board ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
Afrocentric Education ◽  
Toronto District School Board ◽  
Focusing Event

Abstract. In January 2008, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) voted to establish Afrocentric education. Earlier proposals dating back to the early 1990s, however, garnered little response from the board. Why was the TDSB suddenly more amenable to the idea? We argue that the death of Jordan Manners acted as a focusing event that triggered concern regarding school safety and the challenges facing Black youth in Toronto, altering the policy climate and opening a window of opportunity for change. This analysis furthers conceptualizations of the connections between focusing events, policy entrepreneurs, the viability of alternative proposals, and the catalysts that facilitate policy change.Résumé. En janvier 2008, le Conseil Scolaire du District de Toronto (CSDT) a voté en faveur de l'établissement d'un programme d'éducation afro-centrée. Des propositions précédentes remontant au début des années 1990 avaient suscité peu d'intérêt de la part du Conseil. Pourquoi le CSDT s'est-il soudainement montré réceptif à cette idée? Nous considérons que le décès de Jordan Manners a servi d'épisode marquant qui a suscité de fortes préoccupations quant à la sécurité à l'école et aux défis auxquels font face les jeunes noirs à Toronto. Cet évènement marquant a contribué à modifier le climat politique et à ouvrir une fenêtre d'opportunité propice au changement. Cette analyse conceptualise de plus les liens entre épisodes marquants, entrepreneurs politiques, la viabilité de différentes propositions et les catalyseurs qui facilitent le changement politique.

The World

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-151
Author(s):  
Thomas K. Rudel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
World War ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
The World ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Focusing Event ◽  
Over Time

Comparable environmental reforms have never occurred at the global scale of governance. Segments of the dynamic described in the four case studies have taken place at the global scale. A focusing event, World War II, spurred the creation of a global governance institution, the United Nations, which later became the organizational sponsor for the ongoing international effort to counter climate change. Different kinds of focusing events, extreme weather in the form of droughts or storms, have over time contributed to an increase in the number of nations advocating for radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These changes suggest that, over time, an international “climate club” could emerge. These trends, while fragmentary and so far unsuccessful in producing mandatory global-scale reforms, are consistent with the theoretical dynamic that has driven the national-scale reforms analyzed in the case studies.

Unseen Laws- A Quantitative Approach to Developments in North Korea’s Legal System

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-62
Author(s):  
Martin Weiser
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
The North ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Policy Fields ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Broad Policy ◽  
Sophisticated Analysis ◽  
Detailed Picture ◽  
Law Making

The position of law in North Korean politics and society has been a long concern of scholars as well as politicians and activists. Some argue it would be more important to understand the extra-legal rules that run North Korea like the Ten Principles on the leadership cult as they supersede any formal laws or the constitution.1 But the actual legal developments in North Korea, which eventually also mediate those leading principles and might even limit their reach, has so far been insufficiently explored. It is easy to point to North Korean secrecy as a main reason for this lacuna. But the numerous available materials and references on North Korean legislation available today have, however, not been fully explored yet, which has severely impeded progress in the field. Even publications officially released by North Korea to foreigners offer surprisingly detailed information on legal changes and the evolution of the law-making institutions. This larger picture of legal developments already draws a more detailed picture of the institutional developments in North Korean law and the broad policy fields that had been regulated from early on in contrast to the often-assumed absence of legislation in important fields like copyright, civil law or investment. It also shows that different to a monolithic system, various law-making institutions exist and fulfil discernably different legal responsibilities. Next to this limitation in content, scholars in the field currently also have not used all approaches legal developments in the North Korea could be analysed and interpreted with. Going beyond the reading of legal texts or speculating about known titles of still unavailable legislation, quantitative approaches can be applied ranging from the simple counting of laws to more sophisticated analysis of legislative numbering often provided with legislation. Understanding the various institutions as flexible in their roles and hence adoptable to shifts in leadership and policy agendas can also provide a more realistic picture of legal practices in North Korea.

The Future of Global Great Power Competition after the Coronavirus

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Burhanettin Duran
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International System ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
World War ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
The Future ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The U.S

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic and foreign policy agendas of all countries have been turned upside down. The pandemic has brought new problems and competition areas to states and to the international system. While the pandemic politically calls to mind the post-World War II era, it can also be compared with the 2008 crisis due to its economic effects such as unemployment and the disruption of global supply chains. A debate immediately began for a new international system; however, it seems that the current international system will be affected, but will not experience a radical change. That is, a new international order is not expected, while disorder is most likely in the post-pandemic period. In an atmosphere of global instability where debates on the U.S.-led international system have been worn for a while, in the post-pandemic period states will invest in self-sufficiency and redefine their strategic areas, especially in health security. The decline of U.S. leadership, the challenging policies of China, the effects of Chinese policies on the U.S.-China relations and the EU’s deepening crisis are going to be the main discussion topics that will determine the future of the international system.

The Great Game in West Asia

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Ethnic Heterogeneity ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
Regional Influence ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
Great Game

The Great Game in West Asia examines the strategic competition between Iran and Turkey for power and influence in the South Caucasus. These neighboring Middle East powers have vied for supremacy throughout the region, while contending with ethnic heterogeneity within their own territories and across their borders. Turkey has long conceived of itself as not just a bridge between Asia and Europe but as a central player in regional and global affairs. Iran’s parallel ambitions for strategic centrality have only been masked by its own inarticulate foreign policy agendas and the repeated missteps of its revolutionary leaders. But both have sought to deepen their regional influence and power, and in the South Caucasus each has achieved a modicum of success. As much of the world’s attention has been diverted to conflicts near and far, a new ‘great game’ has been unravelling between Iran and Turkey in the South Caucasus.

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