Issue Definition and Agenda Formation in Public Policy

Issue Definition in Policy Agenda Formation

What happens to the definition of issues or problems in the process of forming the agenda? Why is this definition important? What role do entrepreneurs play in defining issues?

Professional Intrusion and Language Barriers

Apart from the possibility of serving their own interests, the intrusion of professionals in policy may introduce other biases in the formation of the agenda. Because of their involvement, the terms used in discussions tend toward increasingly technical and esoteric language, creating barriers against popular participación and making the process and its results less understandable to the general public. This can lead to policies contrary to the preferences of citizens.

Mobilization and the Role of Issue Entrepreneurs

The mobilization of support is an active campaign to engage the public interest, to remove these barriers, and to bring new problems and new definitions of problems onto the government agenda. Their motives may be personal conviction, ideological commitments, professional interests, or simply the need to promote themselves. In any case, these people often play a crucial role in supporting activities and in channeling ideas and demands to the government's agenda.

These people, called "issue entrepreneurs" (Eyestone, 1978), operate both outside and inside government. Their motives may be personal conviction, ideological commitments, work-related reasons, or simply the need to promote themselves.

• Primary motives:
  • Personal conviction
  • Ideological commitments
  • Professional or work interests
  • Self-promotion
• Roles they perform:
  • Mobilizing public support
  • Framing and redefining problems
  • Channeling ideas into policy discussions
  • Translating technical language for broader audiences (when possible)

Relationship Between Problems and Solutions

What is the relationship between problems and solutions? Do solutions come before or after problems? What is their relationship with feasibility, the government's treatability of the issue, ideological constraints, and available technologies?

To define a situation as a policy problem is also to accept and define possible solutions. If there is no cognitive belief in the changeability of the situation and no moral judgment, the phenomenon is not a matter of policy — it is not a problem. The characterization of a phenomenon as a problem depends on the opportunity to envision its solution. A situation that has no conceivable solution (there is no way to solve it or even to reduce it) is not a problem but simply an unfortunate fact of life — something fatal.

Problems are defined by hypothetical solutions; the formulation of the problem and the proposed solution are part of the same hypothesis. If the practical definition of a problem is not accompanied by a feasible solution, it will not attract serious attention as a public policy problem. The plausibility limits of a definition are determined by ideological constraints and resource constraints. Workable solutions are determined by the available technologies and by accepted knowledge.

Key Concepts

• Framing: How language and technical terminology shape public understanding.
• Feasibility: Whether a proposed solution is practicable given resources and technology.
• Entrepreneurship: The influence of individuals (issue entrepreneurs) in pushing problems onto the agenda.
• Constraints: Ideological, cognitive, and material limits that affect which problems gain traction.